Kay Savetz

This is a ViMart series 1000 video display system. For a short time in the 1980s, these were in stores that sell software. Its job was to tell you about the software that was for sale in the store. You would look up the software in the index & enter its number on the keypad and watch a little video.

The disc begins with three repeated transmissions using Manchester encoding at approximately 2,000 bits per second. This provided information about the software to the menu system, program information would be chosen using a keypad. (ChatGPT is able to decode the data, that’s fun)

This is a ViMart series 1000 video display system. For a short time in the 1980s, these were in stores that sell software. Its job was to tell you about the software that was for sale in the store. You would look up the software in the index & enter its number on the keypad and watch a little video.

I interviewed John Victor, founder and president of Program Design Inc., one of the earliest publishers of educational software. PDI created dozens of educational software titles and games for Atari 8-bit, Commodore PET and 64, TRS-80, Apple II, and TI computers. Video version: youtu.be/t8vYoJTd1vg

I created something I've wanted for a long time: a searchable archive of Newsbytes News Network articles: technology reporting from 1983 to 2002. www.savetz.com/newsbytes/ 73,000+ articles, and a fun image gallery.

Today's distraction: building FujiGrid, a screenful of simultaneous Atari computer emulators. Pressing the S key enables sound for all of them at once, which is quite a cacophony 

A box of 8-inch CP/M disks sent to me in 2023 is finally preserved at @archive.org: source code for the MSC 8004 Z80 Monitor-Debugger, KA6M packet-radio and HDLC dev software, BDS C tools, Pascal/Z, Z80 FORTH, Workman utilities, Digital Research system disks.

I interviewed another Atari Program Exchange programmer, and it's a goodie. Bob Fraser worked at Atari for four years: on the early CX70 light pen, on specs for an unreleased database manager, and on 3-D graphics. He wrote a chapter of De Re Atari and programmed two APX titles. youtu.be/bTeflSqYjsk

I'm back on my bs, trying to find and interview every Atari Program Exchange programmer. Here's my interview with James W. Burley, the programmer of Data Base/Report System. He says Atari gave him a plaque but no money at all for his "award winning" software. ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interv...

At the INIT HELLO Apple II conference last weekend, there was a "make a Print Shop graphic" contest. Rather than ... you know, draw something ... I decided to see if I could make a QR code into a Print Shop graphic image. It worked! This sign is certainly the first QR code in the 1984 software

The QR code graphic didn't win the contest — something about artistic merit, OK, fair. But someone asked "does the QR code work?" and someone else said "well, try it!" and everyone got out their phones and that's how I rickrolled everyone at the conference.

At the INIT HELLO Apple II conference last weekend, there was a "make a Print Shop graphic" contest. Rather than ... you know, draw something ... I decided to see if I could make a QR code into a Print Shop graphic image. It worked! This sign is certainly the first QR code in the 1984 software

New Jumpman level editor! It 10 years since @playermissile.com and I began reverse engineering Jumpman. Life's gotten in the way but the project has never been forgotten. I've built a new Jumpman level editor (for the Atari 8-bit version) that works in your web browser. www.savetz.com/jumpman/

You can design a level (from scratch or starting from any of Randy Glover's level layouts), and use custom colors, graphics, sounds, and assembly code. Then download an ATR file to play it in your emulator or on a real Atari. Watch me create a simple level at youtu.be/M_dkTRfgCRs

That time MacAddict magazine called me a slut in print

FaxZero, my internet fax service, delivered 1.11 million faxes in 2025! The top elected officials reached via my free Fax Your Reps service were: Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Ron Wyden, Dick Durbin, and Tammy Duckworth, all Democrats. faxzero.com/fax_congress...