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𝖆𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖔𝖐 🇨🇿🇪🇺<a href="https://mastodonczech.cz/tags/lostPlaces" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#lostPlaces</a> <a href="https://mastodonczech.cz/tags/abandonedPlaces" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#abandonedPlaces</a> <a href="https://mastodonczech.cz/tags/computerHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerHistory</a> <a href="https://mastodonczech.cz/tags/vintagecomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#vintagecomputing</a> 💾❗ The Downfall of Olivetti - Exploring an abandoned computer factory <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7XEa7tC7xU" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7XEa7tC7xU</a>

Eliza - Copilot 1966 styleEliza Bot Running and ready for your retro psycological problems Toot me a Hello to start <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/RetoComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RetoComputing</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/Eliza" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Eliza</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/ComputerHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ComputerHistory</a>

Wossen Wyatt 🇬🇾🐧💿💾Yet another interesting <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/unix" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#unix</a> history talk and Q&A at VCF East by Brian Kernighan, once of Bell Labs. The material is mostly familiar but some of the questions are quite novel.Either way, this stuff never gets old. <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=WEb_YL1K1Qg" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=WEb_YL1K1Qg</a><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/retrocomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#retrocomputing</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/computerhistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerhistory</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/operatingsystems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#operatingsystems</a>

Matthias MProvenew entry on <a href="https://hci.social/tags/mproveinsights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#mproveinsights</a> :: Capt. Grace Hopper on Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People (1982) <a href="https://mprove.de/insights/index.html#hopper" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://mprove.de/insights/index.html#hopper</a> or <a href="https://hci.social/tags/ChronoMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ChronoMedia</a> <a href="https://mprove.de/chrono?ll=39.10893,-76.77202&z=17.43&r=23&t=55&d=0&s=1&i=1" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://mprove.de/chrono?ll=39.10893,-76.77202&z=17.43&r=23&t=55&d=0&s=1&i=1</a><a href="https://hci.social/tags/ComputerHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ComputerHistory</a> <a href="https://hci.social/tags/Fortran" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Fortran</a> <a href="https://hci.social/tags/Cobol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Cobol</a> <a href="https://hci.social/tags/security" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#security</a> <a href="https://hci.social/tags/strategicthinking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#strategicthinking</a> <a href="https://hci.social/tags/QA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#QA</a> <a href="https://hci.social/tags/Leadership" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Leadership</a>

Matthias MProve<a href="https://social.heise.de/@dborch" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@dborch</a> DANKE!Hier /bei der früheren Post Office Research Station/ habe ich noch einen <a href="https://hci.social/tags/ChronoMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ChronoMedia</a>-Spot für Dame Stephanie eingetragen. <a href="https://mprove.de/chrono?ll=51.55679,-0.24119&q=51.55771,-0.23681&z=14&r=-158&t=52&s=1&i=1" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://mprove.de/chrono?ll=51.55679,-0.24119&q=51.55771,-0.23681&z=14&r=-158&t=52&s=1&i=1</a> <a href="https://hci.social/tags/ComputerHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ComputerHistory</a>

Tilda Moose, programmerUK micro pioneer Chris Shelton: The mind behind the Nascom 1 ... and Clive Sinclair's PgC Intel-beating wonder chip<a href="https://www.theregister.com/2013/08/21/unsung_heroes_dr_chris_shelton/?page=1" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.theregister.com/2013/08/21/unsung_heroes_dr_chris_shelton/?page=1</a><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/retrocomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#retrocomputing</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/computerhistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerhistory</a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/computerscience" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerscience</a>

Amin GirasolI'm finding D. F. Parkhill's 1966 book "The Challenge of the Computer Utility"[0] to be endlessly fascinating. It provides quite a detailed snapshot of the state of computer development. It was written at the tail end of the "Patent wars of 1962–1966"[1], yet there's no mention of integrated circuits, nor "Micrologic" (an early name for ICs).In the discussion on memory technology, the book contains several tables as two-page spreads, which are awkward to assimilate when reading the book as a PDF on a small screen. I've included the relevant pages here as two-up images for my own benefit as much as yours! The information summarised in the tables is fascinating. In the table "Classification of Memories by Function", much of the language is familiar to a modern reader (compared to, say 1940s discussions of 'organs'); CPU registers, RAM and persistent storage are recognisable:<blockquote>Storage register: Usually a one- or two-word memory used for the temporary storage of some quantity before it is transferred to another memory or circuit; i.e., accumulator register, multiplicand register, index register, etc.Internal working memory: The main working memory of the computer, in which intermediate results and instructions are stored. Mass data memory: A high-capacity storage system, external to but under the control of the computer, used for the storage of bulk data such as tables, files, and sub-routines.</blockquote>...yet the "Classification of Memories by Operating Characteristics" reflect mid-1960s (or older) technologies:<blockquote>Regenerative: A memory whose contents gradually vanish unless they are periodically regenerated, e.g., a Williams tube.</blockquote>Modern RAM is of this type!<blockquote>Read only: A memory whose contents can be changed, if at all, only by off-line human intervention, usually involving rewiring, the removal or insertion of plugs or the punching of holes, e.g., a card capacitor store, diode matrix, etc. </blockquote>"Memory Devices" is fascinating. Here's just one row:<blockquote>Type: Magnetic core Physical Principle: remanent magnetization on small cores of square hysteresis-loop ferrite material Application: high-speed internal memory, registers, and buffers Status: standard memory for majority of all computers in all price classes Remarks: in addition to the normal coincident-current destructive readout single-core/bit systems embodiments there are also multiaperture core systems such as Biax and the transfluxor systems, and multiple-core/bit systems also wired-core read-only systems </blockquote>Biax? Transfluxor systems?...and what on earth was "Magnetic rod memory"?<blockquote>Type: Magnetic rod Physical Principle: magnetic coupling via removable ferrite rods between loops in a woven mesh Application: read-only very high-speed auxiliary internal store Status: in use on Univ. of Manchester MUSE, Ferranti ATLAS computers, and several Italian machines Remarks: retains advantages of wired-core memories but permits easy modification. Highest speed operating memory of comparable size to date, (0.15 microsecond access time, 8192 words, 48 bits)</blockquote>...sounds promising! Why haven't I heard of this technology? Check Wikipedia[2]:<blockquote>Rod memory is one of the many variations on magnetic core memory that attempts to lower costs by automating its manufacturing. [...] Like many similar concepts [...] rod memory was competing for the role of taking over from core when the first semiconductor memory systems wiped out the entire market in 1970.</blockquote>Oof.I'm finding it very much worthwhile to read not only older histories of computing, but also old books that provide a survey of the state of the art at a given time.[0] <a href="https://archive.org/details/challengeofcompu0000park" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/challengeofcompu0000park</a> [1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit#Patent_wars_of_1962–1966" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit#Patent_wars_of_1962–1966</a> [2] <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_memory" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_memory</a><a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/retrocomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#retrocomputing</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/vintagecomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#vintagecomputing</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/computerhistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerhistory</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/historyoftechnology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#historyoftechnology</a>

WildengI had a wonderful time at <a href="https://mastodon.social/@muzej" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@muzej</a> today, people are lovely and the collection is awesome. If you like the history of computer this is your go to place. And there’s also a little space for my lovely <a href="https://ruby.social/tags/Ruby" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Ruby</a> <a href="https://ruby.social/tags/RetroComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RetroComputing</a> <a href="https://ruby.social/tags/ComputerHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ComputerHistory</a>

Hank G ☑️I'm splitting my time today wrapping up reading about the history of WordPerfect and watching this documentary on YouTube about the history of The Linotype and its impact on the world. <a href="https://friendica.myportal.social/search?tag=history" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#history</a> <a href="https://friendica.myportal.social/search?tag=printing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#printing</a> <a href="https://friendica.myportal.social/search?tag=ComputerHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ComputerHistory</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/HUtJO59eKJ8?si=95GHNmJJRYUmoICU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Linotype | How One Machine Shaped History | The Real OG of Mass Communication</a>

Boris KretzingerMichael Chrichton not only wrote about Dinosaurs, Tornados or Robot theme parks. He also wrote about computers conquering our homes, and this is not a fictionary book. I last read it around 2004 for my broader research on the computing history for my first book about Commodore. Time to give it another go more than 20 years later. He wrote this one in 1983, the German translation is from the year after. He was seemingly a big fan of Apple and the IBM PC and was not too happy about Commodore, as far as I remember. Time to dive back in! <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/computerbook" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerbook</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/computerhistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerhistory</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/michaelchrichton" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#michaelchrichton</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/electronic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#electronic</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/80s" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#80s</a>

Amin GirasolI'm reading "The Challenge of the Computer Utility" by D.F. Parkhill, 1966, which was referenced in "Project Whirlwind: The History of a Pioneer Computer" by Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith, 1980.It's a book which attempts to "...facilitate [the] growing discussion [of computer utilities] by providing a broad examination that will reveal something of the history, technology, and economics of the computer utility and explore some of its possible implications for our society."There's a wonderful digression imagining an alternative history for computing if Babbage had succeeded in building the Analytical Engine. Here is that section in full:<blockquote>It is fascinating to speculate how the course of human affairs might have been changed if Babbage or his son had actually succeeded in completing a working analytical engine. Admittedly, given the primitive state of precision mechanical technology before the twentieth century, it is doubtful that even a working machine would have inspired many attempts at direct duplication. On the other hand, the electrical relay in the form of the Morse telegraph was in general use before Babbage’s death, and there is no reason why large electromechanical analytical engines based on relays could not have been built by the end of the nineteenth century. Primitive as such computers would have been by our standards, they still would have represented an astronomical addition to the scientific resources of their time. Furthermore, in the familiar bootstrap action that has played such an important role in our own scientific progress since World War II, successful analytical engines would have spawned further improvements in themselves.In electronics, for example, it is possible that the vacuum tube might have found its first large-scale application as a switching device in computers rather than as an amplifier or detector in communications systems. This in turn would have opened up computational and control horizons before World War I that in reality did not appear until the 1950’s. If this had happened, would automation and its first offspring, technological unemployment, then have added their fuel to the fires of economic collapse in the 1930’s? How much faster would aviation have developed? Possibly the jet engine, the guided missile, and the supersonic aircraft would have been commonplace long before the beginning of World War II. What about the atomic bomb? At this point the mind boggles, for the thought of Fascism, in all its hideousness, armed with nuclear weapons, is enough to shatter the complacency of even the most optimistic believer in human progress.On the other hand, there was nothing inevitable about the political and economic events that have hitherto convulsed the twentieth century. In fact, given the more rapid rate of scientific and economic progress that would have followed an earlier introduction of the computer, it is extremely unlikely that the pace of political change would have remained unaffected.</blockquote>The book: <a href="https://archive.org/details/challengeofcompu0000park" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/challengeofcompu0000park</a><a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/computerhistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerhistory</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/counterfactual" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#counterfactual</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/alternativehistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#alternativehistory</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/retrocomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#retrocomputing</a> <a href="https://oldbytes.space/tags/vintagecomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#vintagecomputing</a>

The Oasis BBSVCF West 2025 Videos Now Online <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/VCFWest2025" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#VCFWest2025</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/RetroComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RetroComputing</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/VintageTech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#VintageTech</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/ComputerHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ComputerHistory</a> <a href="https://techhub.social/tags/VCF" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#VCF</a> <a href="https://theoasisbbs.com/vcf-west-2025-videos-now-online/?feed_id=4734&_unique_id=6895fb2f8bd4a" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://theoasisbbs.com/vcf-west-2025-videos-now-online/?feed_id=4734&_unique_id=6895fb2f8bd4a</a>

ᥫ᭡ 𐑖ミꪜᴵ𝔦 ᥫ᭡ :v_bi: :tux:Today I learned that PCMCIA which stands for 'Personal Computer Memory Card International Association' was one of the most mocked acronyms in the tech industry because it was hard to say and remember, so it was jokingly referred to as "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms" (which I totally agree with.. they're ridiculous)This is why the association responsible for maintaining the specification acquired the rights (from IBM) to call it "PC Card"<a href="https://mementomori.social/tags/pcie" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#pcie</a> <a href="https://mementomori.social/tags/computers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computers</a> <a href="https://mementomori.social/tags/humor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#humor</a> <a href="https://mementomori.social/tags/computerhistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#computerhistory</a> <a href="https://mementomori.social/tags/hardware" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#hardware</a>

Karsten SchmidtWatching "The Big OOPs", new 1h50m talk by Casey Muratori about the long and meandering history, mistakes & shortcomings of OOP and looking for better/alternative ways forward... <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84LFzx5nI" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84LFzx5nI</a>(Also very interesting for some <a href="https://mastodon.thi.ng/tags/PermaComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#PermaComputing</a> & KISS aspects)<a href="https://mastodon.thi.ng/tags/SoftwareArchitecture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#SoftwareArchitecture</a> <a href="https://mastodon.thi.ng/tags/ECS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ECS</a> <a href="https://mastodon.thi.ng/tags/DOD" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DOD</a> <a href="https://mastodon.thi.ng/tags/ComputerHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ComputerHistory</a> <a href="https://mastodon.thi.ng/tags/CPP" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#CPP</a> <a href="https://mastodon.thi.ng/tags/SmallTalk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#SmallTalk</a> <a href="https://mastodon.thi.ng/tags/Lisp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Lisp</a>

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