Old-Tech Corner (and Why That Big Trak Matters)
I took a photo of what I jokingly call the “old-tech corner” of my office and fed it to ChatGPT, asking it to recreate the scene using the actual items. It did a pretty good job overall, but I did have to correct one detail: the vehicle at the bottom.
It had to be that specific Big Trak, not a generic substitute. That Big Trak used a Texas Instruments TMS1000-series microcontroller, and that chip mattered to me. It represents the same era and class of “brain” as the computer sitting in the middle, a Tandy PC perched on top of the Apple.
That truck and that computer share the same spirit of early computing—when a single chip handled everything and felt like magic. Back then, the TMS1000 was effectively the CPU of the machine, or the closest equivalent a young kid like me could get his hands on.