Bukowski's 1980s Poem on Incompatible PCs Reads Like Today's Tech Woes
16-bit Intel 8088 chip by Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski's poem '16-bit Intel 8088 chip' catalogs the infuriating incompatibilities of early personal computers—Apple Macintosh, Radio Shack, Commodore 64, IBM PC, Kaypro, Osborne, Tandy 2000—each unable to read the others' disks or run their programs. Then, with a sharp turn, he contrasts this proprietary chaos with the timeless, unchanging natural world: the wind over Savannah and a turkey buzzard's spring mating strut. The poem's critique of walled gardens feels strikingly contemporary.
but the wind still blows over Savannah and in the Spring the turkey buzzard struts and flounces before his hens.
- PaulHoule
Everyone should own at least one book of Bukowski poetry: in addition to computers he wrote about cats, going to the track, drinking and other things his life. I remember riding the train from Dresden to Prague and the person next to us was reading his novel Post Office which is a wonderful story of irresponsibility.
- Luc
"nor can a Commodore 64 drive read a file you have created on an IBM Personal Computer."
Well I guess, the 1571 drive was released that summer, with the hardware capable of reading IBM PC floppies, but I think it took some years for the software to be developed (Big Blue Reader).
- badc0ffee
I never knew about this poem. It's a factual observation of that era of computing.
To this day, people getting into retro computing are disappointed by the Tandy 2000 and other non-PC compatible MS-DOS machines. (I get it, having passed up on an AT&T 6300. But if you wanted to give me a DEC Rainbow or Zenith Z-100 I wouldn't say no).