Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Time to clean and oil (and this time not have to repair) a National Cash Register 11-EN electro-mechanical adding machine from the early 1950s.

Facebook's rebrand to Meta finally answers the long-standing question of whether Zuckerberg uses VI or Emacs.

I just sent and received calls between my SIP account and landline phone using my #Librem5 and the native Calls application, and it was pretty exciting.

The heavy rain revealed a leaky exhaust pipe for my tankless hot water heater right before my morning shower. A few rainy trips on the roof, a trip to the hardware store, and some soaked-through clothes later, and I finally got my hot shower.

While it's hard to beat the aesthetic appeal of the Burroughs Class 1 and 3, they are big, heavy, and slow. If you don't need a paper record you'd be better served by its 1919 competitors the Comptometer Model F or Monroe Model G I featured here earlier.

Division is possible by repeated subtraction. Like with the Comptometer you have to watch the register before it underflows. To print a subtotal pull the lever once, hold the subtotal key and pull it again--a 2 handed operation. Total works the same but also clears the register.

You multiply by repeated addition in the ones column, then shift left and repeat for each digit in the multiplicand. Normally the keys reset when you pull the lever, but by pressing the repeat key they stay down until you press the Total key. Here is 12 x 12.

This is an adding machine--it only adds. To subtract, you have to use the complements method. For instance, to subtract 42 from 31342, I convert 42 to its complement (99999958) and add it. The carries shift off the left of the register and the difference remains.

To add, enter the first number in the keyboard and then pull the lever to add it to the register and print it on the tape. The enter the second number and pull the lever again. The lever provides the force necessary to print. Here's 31337 + 5.

The Class 3 is a rather different design from the Class 1. Like tech companies today, Burroughs expanded by buying competitors. This machine was originally made by the Pike company in 1909 which Burroughs bought in 1911 and it became a core part of a larger product line.

This is a Burroughs Class 3 adding machine from 1919. Where the Class 1 I featured here earlier has fancy beveled glass and a full carriage on the back to accept ledgers, this later Class 3 has a simple paper spool and was used for general accounting.

"It is manufactured by our "special process" which leaves the *individual molecules unscathed*, retaining the "rubber-ball" springiness of the oil."

Whenever Apple says it's doing something for privacy or security, it's actually about control. It uses its control of hardware and software to beat its competition. https://www.ft.com/content/074b881f-a931-4986-888e-2ac53e286b9d?sharetype=blocked

How do you fund free software sustainably? In this post I talk about some of the main approaches, the problems with some funding models, and specifically how (and why) Purism takes the approach we do. https://puri.sm/posts/how-purism-funds-free-software/

"the hackers did not appear to have reached a Sinclair system called "the master control," allowing Sinclair to replace local feeds with a national one." The proof is that there were no surprise broadcasts of The Outer Limits this weekend. #hacktheplanet https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/18/sinclair-broadcasting-ransomware-attack/

While they aren't as pretty as Burroughs adding machines, Comptometers are *fast* and functional (you can calculate square roots on them!) and are my favorite from this era. There's a reason they stuck around with only minor tweaks until the age of electronic calculators.