Mamdani's 'millionaire home tax' reveals New York's big 'Ghost cars' problem
New York City's proposed millionaire home tax highlights vehicle registration fraud issues. Homeowners may need to prove primary residency, revealing out-of-state vehicle registrations. This practice, known as garage fraud, helps evade insurance and taxes. Investigators found many out-of-state vehicles owe significant unpaid fines. Similar registration schemes are also occurring in Italy and…
Software engineer Josh Dersch, a vintage computer enthusiast from Seattle, owns over 200 antique machines in his home. He is drawn to the challenge of debugging and repairing these decades-old devices, which he says allow him to understand their systems thoroughly. Dersch is part of a growing community of vintage computer collectors who strive to preserve these historical artifacts.
While Silicon Valley has shifted focus towards artificial intelligence, these collectors remain dedicated to safeguarding the ancestors of today's laptops, wearables, and smartphones.
The enthusiasm for vintage computer history is on the rise, as evidenced by the increasing attendance at annual festivals, such as the two-day event held in early August to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apple. This year, over 3,500 people attended the festival, featuring a panel discussion with co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne reminiscing about the company's early days. Over a dozen such festivals have since sprouted in cities across North America, South America, and Europe.
The growing interest in vintage computers is reflected in the rising demand for these machines in online marketplaces. Rare, iconic computers like the Apple-1, the company's first product, can now fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the festival, collectors showcased their painstakingly restored systems, allowing attendees to interact with computers from a time before the internet, social media, and AI transformed the world.
One such restoration is the Xerox Alto, hailed as "the grandfather of the modern computer." Developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s, the Alto was among the earliest computers to incorporate a mouse and graphical user interface, which later became industry standards. Josh Dersch, a Seattle software engineer, drove down to exhibit his restored Xerox Alto, complete with its boxy vertical monitor, keyboard, mouse, and spinning disks, which store data by modern standards.
Written by urgent.news from Times of India's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
