Voja Antonić
Voja Antonić | |
---|---|
Born | Vojislav Antonić 12 July 1952[1] |
Nationality | Serbian |
Other names | Voja |
Known for | Design of Galaksija home computer |
Website | www |
Vojislav "Voja" Antonić (Serbian Cyrillic: Воја Антонић, pronounced [ˈʋɔja ˈantɔnitɕ]ʾ, 12 July 1952) is a Serbian inventor, journalist, and writer. He is known for creating a build-it-yourself home computer Galaksija and originating a related "Build your own computer Galaksija" initiative with Dejan Ristanović. This initiative encouraged and enlightened thousands of computer enthusiasts during the 1980s in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Antonić has donated many of his personal creations to the public domain. He was also a magazine editor and contributed to a number of radio shows.
Biography
While in school, Voja Antonić found a passion for
His first creation with a microprocessor was Conway's Game of Life machine which shows its state using 16x16 matrix of red LEDs. Without a computer, Voja Antonić wrote the code on paper and operated the input in the system byte by byte using rotary switches. LEDs being expensive back then, it took him months to buy and install the last LEDs. A replica of his machine reportedly worked flawlessly almost continuously for 40 years.[2]
When personal computers arrived on the market, they were not accessible in Yugoslavia. Voja Antonić asked a friend in the USA to disassemble a
While studying at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in the late 1970s, he started to build computer systems capable of rendering animations.[2]
Prior to the Winter of 1981/1982, the Skiing Federation of
While on holiday in
In 1983, his friend Zoran Modli launched a new section on his national radio show focused on microcomputers. Since data coding was performed in audio range (to fit the format of compact cassettes), Voja Antonić and his radio host friend started using the radio waves to transfer computer-generated data, their own online wireless technology of the predigital age.[2]
In 1991, when war broke out in Yugoslavia, Voja Antonić was taken to a remote quarter to be checked by the military. Confessing he was a computer engineer, he was asked to repair an old Apple II, which he did in a day. This earned him the favors of the military forces. During this period, he joined several anti-war and anti-Milošević campaigns, writing articles against terror.[2]
In 1995, while going through a difficult time in his life, he threw away almost all of his projects, including the documentation and five prototypes of the Galaksija microcomputer, as interest in Galaksija waned.[4]
In 1999, Voja Antonić created a
In 2006, Microchip restored the Application Note 689 and delivered a In-Circuit Debuggers to Voja Antonić.[2]
He donated a copy of the Galaksija to the Muzej Nauke i Tehnike (Museum of Science and Technology) in Belgrade.[4]
Antonić currently resides in
Publications
- Print books
- Do Nonexistent Things Exist: A Guide to Critical Thinking ("Da li postoje stvari koje ne postoje – vodič za kritičko razmišljanje") ISBN 86-902159-1-3
- Non-Prophecy from Kremna: A Study of Deception ("Kremansko neproročanstvo: studija jedne obmane") ISBN 86-902159-2-1
- Madman's house ("Ludakova Kuća") ISBN 978-86-6024-082-0
- Online books
- Patents that Won't Change the World ("Patenti koji neće izmeniti svet", only available in Serbian, free online [6])
- Short stories
Voja Antonić wrote a number of
References
- ^ a b "Voja Antonić Biografija". biografija.org.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Voja Antonić (3 August 2015). "Hacking the digital and social system". Hackaday.com. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-44715-493-8.
- ^ a b c d e f g Eby, Michael (8 February 2020). "The Lost History of Socialism's DIY Computer". jacobinmag.com. Jacobin Magazine.
- ^ "Voja Antonić: Otišao je iz zemlje u 65. godini, a ovo je njegova poruka Srbiji". osetisrbiju.rs. Oseti Srbiju. 11 January 2019.
- ^ Patenti koji neće izmeniti svet, archived from the original on 8 September 2009