almy.us

What It Is

almy.us is Tom Almy’s personal homepage, serving as a personal archive of technical materials and resources. The site centers on the author’s books, course materials from his pre-retirement teaching at Oregon Institute of Technology, embedded and digital circuit projects, retro software, and personal essays. It is not a commercial education platform, but more like a long-maintained personal technical archive.

Core Features

The site offers several types of content: information about the author’s books, including the PDP-8 FPGA project, an in-depth Arduino book, and 68HCS12 textbooks and simulators; software downloads such as SimHC12, XLISP-PLUS, Lazyman Sudoku, TECO, and Dungeon/Zork freeware/shareware; course materials including microcontroller engineering, HDL digital systems, FPGA project labs, and assignments; plus Mac-related opinions, old software reviews, autobiographical writing, and links to family materials.

Pricing

Browsing the site itself is free, and many materials and software packages can be accessed or downloaded directly. Paid items are mainly the author’s books and textbooks, such as Kindle and print editions on Amazon. The page mentions the PDP-8 project book at USD 2.99 for the Kindle edition and USD 6.99 for the print edition. The 68HCS12 textbook, simulator CD, and printed versions also have purchase links. Overall, this is not a subscription-based site.

Pros and Cons

The main strength is that the content is rare and highly specialized, especially for people researching 68HCS12, PDP-8, FPGA teaching projects, old programming languages, and retro software. The author has a long teaching background, so the course assignments and project materials can be useful references. The downside is that the site feels very old-school, with weak navigation and search, scattered resources, and some dated content that readers need to evaluate for relevance. It also lacks the videos, discussion forums, certificates, or structured learning paths common on modern course platforms.

Who It’s For

It is best suited to learners in embedded systems and digital circuits, retro computing enthusiasts, people looking for ported versions of older software, and users interested in Tom Almy’s books or historical Oregon Tech course materials. It is not ideal for users who want a complete online course, real-time Q&A, or commercial-grade technical support.

Access from China

Judging by the domain and content, this is a standard static personal website, with no obvious reliance on mandatory logins or complex cloud services, so it should generally be directly accessible. However, purchasing books on Amazon, opening some external links, and download speeds may be affected by the network environment.