#storytime ...so during pandemic (late 2020), I found a local Gumtree ad for somebody giving away some SPARC hardware and some software that came with it (boxed bundle of Solaris 2.5.1 server with extra stuff I recall). The guy who was giving it way had more stuff but I don't drive so I lugged what I could from Wolli Creek all the way home. It wasn't a typical SparcStation 10 so I had to look it up and after going down an interesting rabbit hole I believe it to be a locally sold clone/variant known as a 'PizzaPAC'.

Now, this rabbit hole involved looking up the vendor, Graphics Computer Systems, who are no longer around and ending up at the pages of a fellow named Dr Carlo Kopp of Monash University. He has a trove of stuff about the history of Australian involvement in the SPARC ecosystem that I had no idea about! The system I have is dated mid-1995 so they must have been around for a few years, are there any Aussies out there who might have any knowledge or additional insight about them? Were there many of these systems sold? Heck, does anyone outside of Australia know about them? I've not done much with it, apart from checking for signs of life, I was told one drive was broken and probably needs its NVRAM battery replaced.

Here's some photos that I took not long after bringing it home (please don't mind the mess and... the Linux ;))

Here's the page if anyone's interested: https://users.monash.edu/~ckopp/hardware.html

#sparc #australia #ancienthistory

#storytime ...so during pandemic (late 2020), I found a local Gumtree ad for somebody giving away some SPARC hardware and some software that came with it (boxed bundle of Solaris 2.5.1 server with extra stuff I recall). The guy who was giving it way had more stuff but I don't drive so I lugged what I could from Wolli Creek all the way home. It wasn't a typical SparcStation 10 so I had to look it up and after going down an interesting rabbit hole I believe it to be a locally sold clone/variant known as a 'PizzaPAC'.

Now, this rabbit hole involved looking up the vendor, Graphics Computer Systems, who are no longer around and ending up at the pages of a fellow named Dr Carlo Kopp of Monash University. He has a trove of stuff about the history of Australian involvement in the SPARC ecosystem that I had no idea about! The system I have is dated mid-1995 so they must have been around for a few years, are there any Aussies out there who might have any knowledge or additional insight about them? Were there many of these systems sold? Heck, does anyone outside of Australia know about them? I've not done much with it, apart from checking for signs of life, I was told one drive was broken and probably needs its NVRAM battery replaced.

Here's some photos that I took not long after bringing it home (please don't mind the mess and... the Linux ;))

Here's the page if anyone's interested: https://users.monash.edu/~ckopp/hardware.html

#sparc #australia #ancienthistory

Tiens, je l'ai raconté sur Bluesky, je propose un petit #StoryTime: ma presque rencontre avec mon idole Sir Terry Pratchett.
Asseyez-vous en rond, prenez un bon breuvage de votre choix et je vous raconte ça.
Nous sommes au début des années 2000 et, sachant que je suis turbo-fan de Terry Pratchett, un des organisateurs du festival "Les Utopiales" de Nantes m'a invité à dédicacer là-bas avec mon ami Reno. Alors je suis bien sûr surexcité, mais le salon se passe et je ne le vois jamais passer…