QOS

I pointed Claude Code at a video of the IBM PCjr booting and asked for that feel. QOS opens on a pixelated, striped QOS logo over the CGA rainbow, flashes to blue, prints its BIOS lines, then prints the start page row by row from the bottom of the screen.

The first take swept down the screen. I said it was a terminal scroll, and then that the start page has to be printed, not faked. That set our rule for every motion request after it: describe the exact behavior in words, get a yes, then build.

The system font is IBM CGA, the same 8x8 ROM font the PCjr uses for its text modes.

One switch changes the whole look. 1986 is the CGA look, with scanlines, a CRT warp and pixel Mac cursors. 1996 is the default, a modern retro look with hand-drawn Aqua and Aero style cursors. 2026 is glass: an infinite canvas I picked from six layouts, with a 3D Q you can grab and throw.

The eras play into nostalgia on purpose. Each one is a computer someone remembers: the CGA screen of the eighties, the Aqua and Aero years, today's glass. Pick the one you grew up with and the portfolio feels familiar before you read a word.

The default look was called 2026 until I renamed the eras 1986, 1996 and 2026. Typing "retro" or "glass mode" into the prompt switches eras too.

QOS treats my portfolio as a desktop. Windows drag and fill the screen. There is a taskbar, a dock and a rail menu, and the whole CMS lives inside it: case studies, writing, videos and about.

The prompt is search. Typing returns every match as windows and never opens a case study on its own; opening is the visitor's click. QBOT, a 3D bust of me rendered as ASCII with a real jaw, mouth and blink, answers about me in the third person.

We gave case studies, writing and projects each their own look and feel. Each section has its own background color. Writing has its own styles and so does Labs. Case studies open in a reader that wears each brand's colors, and Sons of Gods got its own drawings grid.

The scanlines sit on a 6px grid, and the motion snaps to it. Pictures arrive through a Game Boy camera effect: dithered first, then an ENHANCE pass brings them in, with its own dials on the C key.

High contrast is the counterweight. It's my number one concern, so an AAA mode turns the CRT and the motion off and keeps every line readable.

Everything has a key or a word.

• The 1986, 1996 and 2026 switch, or type the era.
• SETUP and TUNE dials on the backtick key, and the camera panel on C.
• A fill-screen arrow on every window, or double-click its title bar.
• TIDY UP on T, SCATTER on G, and a LIST view.
• VOICE on or off, and M to mute.
• Y or n when QOS asks before it loads more.

When a search finds nothing, QOS offers a game instead. Say yes and Q.T.R.S. opens in a window, a Tetris that also greets you on the desktop when QOS starts.