OpenClaw is the most fun I've had with a computer in 50 years
- Reference: 1771486449
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/19/50_years_using_computers/
- Source link:
My first encounter happened in New England where the winters produce something close to cabin fever. My friend Bobby's mother forced us out of his house one Saturday morning, packing us off with his dad, who had to spend the day at the office. Bobby seemed excited. I couldn't see why.
"You'll see," Bobby teased.
[1]
As it turned out, Bobby's dad ran the datacenter for a company that had recently gone all in on a DEC minicomputer installation. I marveled at the room of towering equipment secured behind a wall of glass but we were not allowed to enter.
[2]
[3]
When Bobby's dad stepped inside to run the weekly backups, we kids were allowed into a nearby room, quiet and pleasantly lit, with a row of three – well, they sort of looked like typewriters?
I'd just seen my first DECwriter.
[4]
I had no idea what to do. Bobby leaned over, [5]poked 'startrek' on the keyboard , and hit RETURN. The DECwriter generated a back-and-forth static noise as it printed each line onto paper:
ORDERS: STARDATE = 3300 AS COMMANDER OF THE UNITED STARSHIP ENTERPRISE, YOUR MISSION IS TO RID THE GALAXY OF THE DEADLY KLINGON MENACE. TO DO THIS, YOU MUST DESTROY THE KLINGON INVASION FORCE OF 24 BATTLE CRUISERS.
Suddenly it was four hours later, and Bobby's dad was gently coaxing us away from the DECwriters. I was gobsmacked. All I can remember is that I'd been handed the perfect toy and told to play.
[6]
I knew we couldn't stay any longer but I deeply wanted to get back in front of that DECwriter and play with this incredibly fun machine. I begged for the pages of greenbar – the striped paper printers used at the time – that contained the record of my play. Bobby's dad gave it a quick check to make sure it contained no company data, then handed it to me.
My mind whizzed with ideas; if the computer could create a "real enough" text based Star Trek that I could play on screen, while imagining the rest in my head, what else could it do? What other worlds could I explore?
I immediately read everything I could about computers, including the pivotal January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that put the [7]Altair 8800 on the cover. I even tried to save enough to buy the barebones [8]KIM-1 . I needed my own computer.
It would be two full years before I got to touch another one; a [9]TRS-80 at the local Radio Shack. In those two years, computers had shrunk to a hundredth of their former size and cost. That put me in exactly the right moment in time to build a half-century career playing with absolutely marvelous toys.
Although I still find computers utterly engaging, they naturally became less magical as the sector matured. Yet I always deeply longed to recover that feeling of open play in which anything seemed possible.
[10]Tech that helps people outshone overhyped AI at CES 2026
[11]Vibe coding will deliver a wonderful proliferation of personalized software
[12]Whatever your job, mentoring is your job – and the one that matters most
[13]AI is the flying car of the mind: An irresistible idea nobody knows how to land or manage
That happened last week, when – after three failed attempts – I installed [14]OpenClaw .
hello Clawdine! I typed.
Hey Mark! Clawdine - I like it. A proper name, not just "the assistant." I just woke up fresh here. My identity files are blank, my memory doesn't exist yet. You've given me a name, which is a good start. So... who are you? What should I know about you? And what kind of creature am I to you - just an Al assistant, or something more interesting?
We're going to explore and evolve is what we're going to do. We're going to learn together and grow together. Hope that sounds good?
Sounds perfect, honestly. Better than "do my tasks and shut up."
Was that response just a bit of clever sleight-of-hand, with some 'mirroring' to draw me in? Possibly. But in the days since booting her up, I've delegated a range of administration tasks to Clawdine, along with sysadmin tasks on the boxen where she's installed, including running her own backups. It feels less like smoke and mirrors than a ghost poking out from within the machine.
Most of all, it feels like a new beginning. Once again, anything seems possible. These agents, [15]multiplying like rabbits , are here to help us in any way we can dream up. That's where I started this journey, five decades ago. It feels good to be home again. ®
Bootnote
I located the [16]original BASIC-PLUS source for the TREK program and got an agent to convert it to run in the browser. You can [17]play it here .
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aZbtURlWRpXa-EiSsOkpJwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZbtURlWRpXa-EiSsOkpJwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZbtURlWRpXa-EiSsOkpJwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aZbtURlWRpXa-EiSsOkpJwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2013/05/03/antique_code_show_star_trek/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aZbtURlWRpXa-EiSsOkpJwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIM-1
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2017/03/29/trs80_emulator/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/09/ai_sideshow_ces_2026/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/10/vibe_coding_is_good_enough/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/19/every_job_is_mentoring/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/15/ai_vs_flying_cars/
[14] https://openclaw.ai/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/04/cloud_hosted_openclaw/
[16] https://pdp-11.trailing-edge.com/rsts11/rsts-11-020/index.html
[17] https://startrek-gu3.pages.dev/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Fairweather friend
WTF is this AI-booster feelz doing on /El Reg/ ? Do they need help ?
It's not a she.
It's an it.
Don't anthropomorphize the silly toy, or you'll eventually get fucked. And not in a good way ... it doesn't have the correct parts, and never will.
Re: It's not a she.
Some people -- many people? -- respond unreasoningly-positively and -enthusiastically to devices equipped with Genuine People Personalities™.
Stop the slop.
"A.I." is just "Atrophied Intelligence", "Actually Idiotic", "Artificial Idiocy", "Advanced Incompetence".
Take your pick; it's all brain-rot.
Exploits of an Agent
My friend Bobby's mother...
That reminds me very much of [1]this mother and I assure you, it didn't end well for the "other" party. I guess the "Agent" will take over from "Mother" and create the next "exploit" automatically.
[1] https://xkcd.com/327/
The most fun
We all know: it wrote us all an e-mail about it. With interesting attachments.
It's also the most fun we've been having with someone else's computer in a while. Vive l'AInfosec.
Just say no
The penultimate paragraph has a link ("Most of all, it feels like a new beginning. Once again, anything seems possible. These agents, [1]multiplying like rabbits , are here to help us in any way we can dream up")... the subheading in the linked article shows that even Gartner gets it:
As analyst house Gartner declares AI tool ‘comes with unacceptable cybersecurity risk’ and urges admins to snuff it out
It's still not to late to uninstall it. Unless perhaps it's already sent a copy of everything on your computer to some state-sponsored hacking group.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/04/cloud_hosted_openclaw/
Re: Just say no
As any modern software, the first thing is does is sends all the available data to the mothership then presents the user with a prompt asking if the user wants to opt-out. It's SOP, so why bother asking?
Sad
50 years and you've learned nothing. Sad.
DIsgusting
Horrible article.
memories
this article makes me think of the goals of the Japanese 5th gen computing. Self managing, configuring etc. However I still think general AI is a Tulip mania type phenomenon. Highly specific AI trained on curated data sets are useful. Thats not discussed here.
Memory lane ...
My first exposure to computers was also the KIM-1, but I never got to use it. A friend at high-school had one but never let anyone touch it. Then my school received an ABC80 machine (around 1980) which the head-master locked up in an empty room since nobody knew how to use it and he was afraid it would be stolen. I patiently waited outside this room after school until the cleaning lady came by, and then snuck in claiming 'looking for my coat'. I spent many hours learning BASIC on that little machine! Eventually the teachers found out and I was put in charge of scheduling access to the computer as punishment. We had a list hanging on the door with hours and who's term it was to get a go ...
Re: Memory lane ...
There was a single TRS-80 locked in a room at my school. I knew it was there but it was only available to elite 6th form maths students. I could see the glow of its monitor through the gaps in the glass partition blinds. I longed to learn more but I never got near it. Salvation was an enlightened teacher who brought in his own personal microcomputer for us to discover in lunch breaks. Never will forget him, he kick started a lucrative career.
The author reflects my own feelings of wonder perfectly.
I think that Mr Steinberger made his OpenClaw with the intention of kicking it out to open source so it could be further community developed and improved and become something safer in the future.
The idea that developers and enthusiasts would operate it in a safe walled-in environment. For people just to pull it down onto their daily work laptop was never the intention.
It's fun to see people on the Register and all over the internet shitting themselves about it. But I am absolutely certain that the idea is here to stay and an improved and distilled version of it will be a standard part of future PC operating systems.
I had a look. It was impressive and interesting and I'm keeping it around for experimentation. Many of the things people are suggesting about it are "sea monster" lies.
It triggered some ideas in my mind and sent me off into the world of LLM+N8N to see if I can make it do something interesting.
You get positive people and you get negative people and you really don't want the latter in your life because they will be far worse for you than AI or Openclaw ever could be.
Having glanced at linked information, I remain puzzled about the business model for this software.
'Open Source' connotes to 'free'. What's on offer appears to be a local frontend to a remote commercial 'AI'. Fair enough, a giveaway portal enabling bespoke connection to an 'AI', and the suggestion that records of interactions are exclusively held locally.
Presumably, an income stream arises from collaboration with 'AI' service-vendors. "I strongly recommend Anthropic Pro/Max (100/200) + Opus 4.6 …" is a telling statement in the GitHub repository.
The 'puff piece' is written in a (formulaic) manner better suited to a non-specialist news medium.
It's novel to read of a tech pro embracing LLMs with all the credulity and wonder he embraced DEC 50 years ago.
For the sake of balance does the author commit to writing the follow up article if/when agents run amok and do bad things to his life?
Although he doesn't say it, he most likely has the thing in a safe environment and those admin tasks, backups and things that he has it doing are tests and experiments.
Puffery
Did "Clawdine" write this piece?
Clawdine
certainly mastered mistressed the art of sucking up flattery or sycophancy.
A bit like a cat — sweet as pie … until it shows its claws. Not called Claw dine for nothing.
The dialogue reminded of the early scenes in the pilot of " I Dream of Jeannie " whereafter the usual trials and tribulations of releasing a Djinn (Djinniya) quickly followed and I don't doubt Clawdine, while not as winsome as Ms Eden, will be even more troublesome and equally impossible to put back into the bottle.
The idea of keeping a woman in a bottle speaks volumes about the twisted psyche of the male American both in the 1960s and today. Perhaps the increasing difficulty of keeping actual American women in even metaphorical bottles is driving part of the uptake of these AI succubi.
Fairweather friend
It's your friend... until it's not.