AI Weekly Malaysia

Mark Pesce gave an AI agent SSH access to a 15-year-old device running ancient Arch Linux with a browser too old for modern encryption. Over three hours the agent failed to compile modern cURL, then found a fast math library that solved the CPU's lack of floating-point support, and got the device chatting via Telegram. He then used agents to revive a 12-year-old iMac Pro on Ubuntu, a 10-year-old VR PC, and an underpowered Surface Go, arguing that agents have made the cost of testing ideas nearly zero.

Why: If you have old hardware or niche environments you've abandoned because the config grind isn't worth your time, an agent with SSH access can plausibly handle the research-and-compile loop for you. The practical lesson is to let agents do the tedious cross-referencing of Reddit posts, GitHub repos, and firmware notes, then step in only when they hit a wall — as Pesce did by asking the agent whether someone else had already solved the math-library problem.

Dr. Tim King, who developed the Tripos operating system at Cambridge and brought it to MetaComCo in 1984 where it became AmigaDOS, has died at the end of July 2026. He later founded Perihelion (1986) and the ISP UK Online.

Why: This is a historical computing obituary with no actionable impact for current builders; it is worth a brief mention only as a community remembrance of someone whose OS work shaped early home computing.