this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
1317 points (98.7% liked)

Programmer Humor

26827 readers
2366 users here now

Welcome to Programmer Humor!

This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!

For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.

Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 134 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (18 children)

I raise

edit, actually, it might have been on the back...it's been forever since I touched one

[–] TheRealShadeSlimmy@lemmy.world 40 points 2 months ago (7 children)

I’ll see your raise, and up it:

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 65 points 2 months ago (10 children)
[–] threeonefour@piefed.ca 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I always see those videos where people give kids a walkman or a rotary phone and ask them to figure out what it is or how it works. I'm imagining some medieval merchant handing me an abacus and laughing because I can't figure it out.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 months ago (6 children)

It's little endian, so the beads on the far right are used to outnumber the big endian beads at the top on the woke left. After several computations, the middle section is just gone

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

My age in fond memories:

Commodore PET/CBM 4032

Acorn Atom

I don't have long for this world...

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)
[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 127 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Big keyboard jack, serial for mouse, parallel for printer

[–] josefo@leminal.space 31 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Don't forget the serial input for gamepads and joysticks in the dedicated sound board for some reason

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 36 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Except that wasn't a serial port, it was midi, and the reason it was on the sound card was because the input was analog.

Your joystick was just two fancy potentiometers, and your soundcard decoded the voltage on the middle legs into a position.

Soundcards handled joysticks because they had the fastest ADCs.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

They didn't even use an ADC. They used 555 timers to produce a pulse. They measured the length of the pulse to determine the potentiometer position. Since there are 4 analog inputs, they typically used the 558 timer which is the quad version of the 555.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (11 replies)
[–] aliceblossom@lemmy.world 87 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] LordTE7R1S@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I got that reference. Fuck, I'm old.

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Please explain? I get that the chubby bird is speaking assembly, but I'm sure there's more to it than that?

[–] cheet@infosec.pub 45 points 2 months ago (7 children)

PS2 keyboards use interrupts rather than polling in USB, meaning every time a key is pressed the CPU stops what its doing to process it.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] aurelian@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 months ago

Keyboard slows down the CPU because it gets priority over whatever the CPU is working on so the keyboard could cause your system to lag.

Back then all we had was single core CPUs.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] mercano@lemmy.world 63 points 2 months ago (2 children)

In my day, the RJ-11 jack was for connecting the keyboard, not the phone line.

The original Macintosh keyboard port

[–] iglou@programming.dev 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Okay that's something I had no idea about hahaha

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 55 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The time of the classic "Keyboard missing. Press F1 to continue."

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 25 points 2 months ago (6 children)

You know that thing that you don't have? You should press buttons on it.

Fuck you computer....

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 24 points 2 months ago

Way back, there were some rare keyboard / motherboard combinations where the motherboard couldn't detect there was a keyboard attached unless a key was pressed on it. That message was for those people with those combinations.

You pressed F1 and the computer would be like "my bad, there is a keyboard there, thanks for your help", or rather it would just shut up and boot.

The message could have been different but it had to fit in a small amount of BIOS ROM, so we got stuck with the one that covered all the bases the best, and unfortunately, most people who saw it didn't actually have a keyboard plugged in, thus, irony.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 54 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Bitch

please.

(Kidding, you’re not a bitch and this isn’t a contest. But if it was…)

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 45 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Fairly certain my first computer used something like this for the keyboard. I did not have a mouse.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Draegur@lemmy.zip 42 points 1 month ago (5 children)

"do you know what ps/2 ports are?"

"holy cow, PlayStation 2? you must be AT LEAST 25!"

[dying inside intensifies]

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 39 points 2 months ago (6 children)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 33 points 2 months ago (4 children)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 33 points 1 month ago (7 children)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 29 points 1 month ago (6 children)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] HocEnimVeni@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Back in my day they weren't color coded.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 43 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's because color hadn't been invented yet and therefore people could only see in black and white. That's why old shows don't have color.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] halyihev@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 2 months ago (2 children)

PS/2

No, not the PlayStation.....

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Look at you with your fancy ps/2 keyboard port. Where's my AT port and 9 pin serial mouse.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] lime@feddit.nu 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] YetAnotherMe@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago (4 children)

if I remember correctly my first PC had the bigger DIN connector for the keyboard and a DSUB9 for the mouse. Guess I'm old ;)

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] locuester@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 month ago

lol PS/2 ports are the newer ones. There were larger AT ports and ADB ports in addition to the 25-pin(!) LPT port (printer mostly) and COM ports (random peripherals including early mice, pre ps/2)

[–] darkreader2636@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 month ago

You guys had keyboards?

[–] Carvex@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah well my first computer typed in cuneiform so get off my lawn you kids

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Codpiece@feddit.uk 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But the keyboard is the computer, mice haven’t been invented yet and where do I plug the tape deck in?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] 1stQ@feddit.org 14 points 2 months ago
[–] Spaniard@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

An elegant port for a more civilized time

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Nothing civilized about no hot plugging. Had to restart the whole damn computer, if the cable was loose or out at startup.

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh I first learned to type by typing "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogs" over and over on a wireless keyboard.

Called a typewriter.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›