04 // Notes
Journal
A workbench notebook on language, code, hardware, and the long road to native Arabic computing.
I write here because ideas become clearer when written down, and because what we learn in the lab deserves to be published rather than kept in a private notebook.
RSS feed3 min read
Why Arabtronics
Forty years of writing software in English, and a language slipping away from the machine. Why I started Arabtronics.
2 min read
Arabic 2.0: Reimagining Our Cultural Identity in the Age of AI
A talk for the Arab and Muslim Students Society at the University of Oregon on Arabic and technology, with a recorded presentation and downloads.
10 min read
Computers in Developing Nations: A Cautionary Tale (1977)
A 1977 cautionary tale about computing in developing nations, and why programmers resisted Arabic compilers in the 1970s.
26 min read
Personal Computing in Japan (1978)
An interview with Professor Haruisha Ishida on computers entering Japanese industry in the 1970s, and what the Arab market can learn from it.
1 min read
Is this the oldest personal computer that properly supported Arabic letters?
A 1977 ROM magazine clipping showing a personal computer displaying colored Arabic letters — possibly the oldest of its kind.
3 min read
Retro Arab Web
A tour of the Arab web in the 1990s, and a project to bring those sites back through the Internet Archive.
1 min read
Al-Computer and Electronics Magazine
A visual archive of covers from Lebanon’s Al-Computer and Electronics magazine, one of the Arab world’s first computing publications.
7 min read
A Brief History of the Arabic Computer
An overview of fifty years of Arabic-supporting computers, from the IBM 1401 to the smartphone.
2 min read
About the Arabic Computer Site
About the Arabic Computer site: its research goals, its Arabic-first vision, and its content license.