Topic
computers
- Calculating Empires A Genealogy Of Technology And Power
- Exapting Technologies
New forms of technology tend not to materialize from thin air. The nature of innovation takes existing known technologies and remixes, extends, and co-opts them to create novelty. Gordon Brander refers to it in this pā¦
- Intellectual Value
Investor Esther Dyson published this piece in her Release 1.0 newsletter in 1994. It's a look forward at what the market for content and digital goods with the rise of the internet. These were the days of CompuServe aā¦
- Hardy Boys and Microkids
Physicians hang diplomas in their waiting rooms. Some fishermen mount their biggest catch. Downstairs in Westborough, it was pictures of computers. Over the course of a few decades dating beginning in the mid-40s, comā¦
- On Building Systems That Will Fail
This is a presentation from Fernando CorbatĆ³ from the 1990 ACM Turing Award lectures. CorbatĆ³ was one of the creators of both the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) at MIT and Multics, the operating system that infā¦
- Why Alto?
In 1972 at Xerox PARC "Xerox PARC"), Butler Lampson wrote this memo to the Xerox leadership making the case to produce the Alto computer from Chuck Thacker's original design. Amazing to think how significant this piecā¦
- The UNIX System
Today on the nerdy computer history feed, we've got a 1982 video from Bell Labs: The UNIX System: Making Computers More Productive. Most of the video has Brian Kernighan explaining the structure of UNIX and why it's dā¦
- The Rise and Fall of Minicomputers
Continuing my dive into the history of computers, I ran across this extended, detailed article covering the development and boom of the minicomputer industry.
- Weekend Reading: Figma's Typography, Xerox Alto, and a Timeline of CoVID
āØļø I Pressed āB, You Wouldn't Believe What Happened Next An entertaining talk about the complexity of typography, from Marcin Wichary at Figma's recent Config conference. š„ Restoring Y Combinator's Xerox Alto An techā¦
- The Deal of the Century
A fun story from Jimmy Maher about the 1991 partnership with IBM that moved Apple from the Motorola 88000 chips to PowerPC. It was a savvy deal that kept the Macintosh (and Apple) alive and kicking long enough to bridā¦
- The Mother of All Demos
One of the great things about YouTube is being able to find gems of history like Doug Engelbartās āMother of All Demosā presentation from 1968. How amazing it mustāve been to see something like this live, 50 years agoā¦