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How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

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Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#51

Post by npace12 »

malkia wrote: post #33
IgorPartola wrote: post #3

My first computer was a home computer from Bulgaria called Pravetz 8D. It’s amazing that it never occurred to me until now to look it up on the web and sure enough there is a Wikipedia page about them. If not for that thing, I wouldn’t be a software engineer today.

Bulgarian here. My best friend had this one, it was an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oric based computer clone, and fun to use :) - all you need is a TV. My father bought me Pravetz 8C (An Apple ][ /e, or was it /c) clone with 128KB RAM! (pr#8 hi-res mode) + floppy. It was more expensive than buying a good russian car back then, and I'm thankful for what he did for me! We had few magazines, books to learn from, and w…

I lived in the town (Stara Zagora) where that hard drive maker (DZU) was and knew a lot of people who worked there. In the 90s, They had an entire shift basically dedicated to piracy. Every single CD that was released in the world was immediately copied in crazy quantities and distributed. My room was full of CDs and my mom was so mad :)

Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#52

Post by m0zg »

The first 286 I've worked on (in the USSR) was Bulgarian. It was pretty crappy, but still, 286 DOS software ran on it just fine. CGA display. Arkanoid, Prince of Persia, good times. At the time the USSR did not produce its own PC-compatible computers.

Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#53

Post by pdimitar »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #37
atmin wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just some member, but the leader. He did know how to behave in this role (including allowing such stories become widespread), he was the leader for 45 years.

This is interesting. Are you implying a leader’s job was to act silly and maintain an image of a not-so-smart but relatable guy while the party was doing its shady deeds? A comic relief mask of sorts?

Many dissidents in Bulgaria believed exactly that. "Give the people bread and entertainment", as the Romans said.

Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#54

Post by gentleman11 »

keiferski wrote: post #10

The author of the Cyberpunk Manifesto (1997), Christian As. Kirtchev, is also Bulgarian. He has a collection of Eastern European cyberpunk stories on Amazon (no idea how good they are) and is apparently active on Twitter too. - http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_manifesto.html - https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Illusions-Anthology-Cyberpun... - https://twitter.com/cyberkristiyan

I read neuromancer recently and it was interesting how commonplace the hugely creative ideas within it are today. The books ideas felt commonplace, except that it’s only because it/the genre influenced sci-fi so successfully. I wish I could have read it when it first came out

Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#55

Post by walrus01 »

severak_cz wrote: post #2

I wonder if Bulgaria really became leader in tech. In Czechoslovakia we also had some sort of computer industry. We also had state security agents buying western tech in disguise and importing it home for cloning. I even know one guy who worked at computer reverse engineering institute back then. Also I have found memoirs of some random guy who worked as IT specialist for Stb (Czech equivalent of Stasi). However, thi…

If I recall my history right, a lot of the locally built small computers in the soviet union were 6502 based Apple II clones.

Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#56

Post by big_chungus »

cambalache wrote: post #50
amylene wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t find this exchange implausible. Black women who represented the US would likely want to project pride in their country, especially an American with Soviets. That is to say, what she said may not have even sounded truthful to herself, but it is plausible that it would be said in that context.

Of course, you dont. You are white, right? I will only tell you something, I am willing to bet my life that no black/brown writer would write a character like her, in that circumstances, ever.

Who made you the spokesman for every non-white in America? You're no more qualified to speak on their behalf than amylene. You certainly have no justification for writing off his arguments with "You are white, right?" That's called racism.

Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#57

Post by oska »

cambalache wrote: post #43
andrepd wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate, and explain why the author's skin tone is relevant? Unless I'm very mistaken, Russian people are mostly very fair-skinned... I'm not saying the rest of the criticism is right or wrong, but that last bit was uncalled for.

I have learned these kind of discussions are worthless in this site, but since if you seem to have good faith here we go. The episode I remember the most was one when an American delegation went to Moscow (IIRC this was in the sixties, remember, the book is fiction), anyway, in the book the American delegation is comprised by you know, normal people, students and so on. The Soviet delegation is comprised by political…

I'm highly dubious about talking about people in terms of skin colour. However, putting that aside, this comment is far better than your original, short comment which is, rightfully in my opinion, being down-voted for being low quality. In this comment you give real detail about your problems with the narrative.

Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#58

Post by cambalache »

big_chungus wrote: post #56
cambalache wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, you dont. You are white, right? I will only tell you something, I am willing to bet my life that no black/brown writer would write a character like her, in that circumstances, ever.

Who made you the spokesman for every non-white in America? You're no more qualified to speak on their behalf than amylene. You certainly have no justification for writing off his arguments with "You are white, right?" That's called racism.

It's still true, and regretfully for you this is a free space. Racism is falling over oneself to justify discrimination. Tschuss Knabe.

Re: How communist Bulgaria became a leader in technology, robotics and sci-fi (2018)

#59

Post by andrekandre »

macspoofing wrote: post #26
naveen99 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why the Russians or even the Chinese or Indians haven’t publicly attempted to clone Microsoft Windows (a desktop os). There is a Russian Linux distro. But I would think it would be more productive to have an international software arms race than a military / space arms race.

Because it's hard and especially hard for monolithic systems (i.e. governments) to go up against private enterprises in certain spaces. Governments are really good at funding cutting edge research that does not have an immediate or obvious market (e.g. early internet, space exploration, fundamental physics research, etc.). Governments are not good at actually competing in a space where there is a market and private c…

just to add to your overall point:

> Governments are not good at actually competing in a space where there is a market and private competition.

they are also good at serving markets that are too unprofitable for private companies to serve (such as public transportation or housing for extremely poor people, cheap postal services, fuel subsidies etc)

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