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Have you ever felt like a computer just refuses to work? Like a machine has a mind of it's own? In 1970 a hard drive at the National Farmers Union Corp. office decided to do just that. That year it started crashing for apparently no reason. It would take 2 years and 56 crashes to sort out the problem. The ultimate solution would leave more questions than answers. Was the hard drive haunted? Or was something else at play?
Selected Sources:
https://archive.org/details/computercrime0000mckn/page/98/mode/2up - Computer Crime
https://archive.org/details/sim_computerworld_1972-08-02_6_31/mode/1up?view=theater - Computer World article
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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This time we are diving back into the Jargon File to take a look at some hacker folklore. Back in the day hackers at MIT spent their time spying on one another's terminals. That is, until some intrepid programmer found a way to fight back.
Selected Sources:
http://www.catb.org/esr/jargon/html/os-and-jedgar.html - OS and JEDGAR
https://github.com/PDP-10/its - ITS restoration project
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In 1962 Food Center Wholesale Grocers Inc installed a new IBM 305 RAMAC. That's when things started to go wrong. The faulty machine seemed to have a mind of it's own, and would spread chaos to grocery stores all around Boston.
Selected Sources:
https://archive.org/details/computerinsecuri0000norm - Computer Insecurity
https://bitsavers.computerhistory.org/magazines/Computers_And_Automation/196805.pdf - Computers and Automation article
https://archive.org/embed/sim_computerworld_january-01-08-1969_3_1 - Computerworld
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Programming, as a practice and study, has been steadily evolving for the past 70 or so years. Over the languages have become more sophisticated and user friendly. New tools have been developed that make programming easier and better. But what was that first step? When exactly did programmers start trying to improve their lot in life? It probably all started with assembly language. Well, probably…
Selected Sources:
https://albert.ias.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/d47626a1-c739-4445-b0d7-cc3ef692d381/content - Coding for ARC
https://sci-hub.se/10.1088/0950-7671/26/12/301 - The EDSAC
http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf//ibm/periodicals/Applied_Sci_Tech_Newsletter/Appl_Sci_Tech_Newsletter_10_Oct55.pdf - IBM Applied Sci Tech Newsletter -
The early history of computer games is messy, weird, and surprising. This episode we are looking at HUTSPIEL, perhaps one of the oldest games ever played on a computer. It's a wargame developed to simulate nuclear conflict... and it's 100% analog. Join us as we find out just what tax dollars were being used for in 1955.
Selected Sources:
https://archive.org/details/hutspiel-a-theater-war-game - The HUTSPIEL paper
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I'm finally back to my usual programming! This time we are taking one of my patent pending rambles through a topics. Today's victim: the humble type-in program. Along the way we will see how traditions formed around early type-in software, and how the practice shifted over time. Was this just a handy way to distribute code? Was this just an educational trick? The answers are more complex than you may first imagine.
Selected Sources:
https://s3data.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/DEC.pdp_1.1964.102650371.pdf - LISP for the PDP-1
https://archive.org/details/DigiBarnPeoplesComputerCompanyVol1No1Oct1972 - PCC Issue #1
https://archive.org/details/Whattodoafteryouhitreturn - What To Do After You Hit Return
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LIVE from VCF West 2024, my talk on edge notched cards!
Since this is a live recording from an auditorium the audio is a little boomy, so be warned. Actually, I'm pretty sure this is the same space that CHM uses for some of their oral histories.
What I have today is just the audio component. VCF will be posting a full video eventually, which I'll be sure to pass around.
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I've gotten busy preparing for VCF West, so this time you get a short one!
In this byte-sized episode we are looking at a short and strange story: that time a plane struck a software company, and the company turned around and used the crash in their own ads.
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Have you ever formed a bad first impression? Way back when I formed a hasty impression of this language called TRAC. It's been called a proto-esoteric language, and for good reason. It's outlandish, complex, and confounding. But, after the urging of some listeners, I've decided to give TRAC a second look. What I've found is, perhaps, more confusing than I ever imagined. This episode we are looking at the wild history of TRAC, how it actually pioneered some good ideas, and why it feels so alien.
Selected Sources:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/800197.806048 - 1965 TRAC paper
https://github.com/gmilmei/trac64 - TRAC64 processor in "modern" C
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/365230.365270 - 1966 TRAC paper, with more code!
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In 1984 SCO released PC XENIX, a port of UNIX that ran on an IBM PC. To understand why that's such a technical feat, and how we even got here, we have to go back to the late 1970s. In this episode we are taking a look at how Microsoft got into the UNIX game, and how they repeatedly struggled to make micro-UNIX work for them. Along the way we run into vaporware, conspiracy, and the expected missing sources!
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This episode I'm opening up my research vault to present some interesting pre-digital technology. Back before computers us humans used to write everything down on paper. Over time that lead to some organizational issues. By 1890 punch cards show up to solve one aspect of this problem, but that technology had it's limitations. We will be looking at other paper-based approaches to data management, as I slowly try and explain a realization I've come to about the early history of hypertext.
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I'm currently out traveling. Due to my poor planning I managed to score back to back trips, for both business and leisure. While I'm not able to get an episode out on time, I do have a replacement!
In 2023 I was invited to speak at the Intelligent Speech conference. So, today, I present the audio of that talk. The topic is, of course, the wild path of the Intel 8086's creation and rise to power!
If you prefer to watch, here's the video of the same talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ud8LK3-eAM
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In 1959 the world bore witness to a new type of computer: the PDP-1. It was the first interactive computer to really make a dent in the market. Some say it was the first minicomputer: a totally new class of machine. But where did this computer come from, and what made it so different from the rest of the digital pack?
Selected sources:
https://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/olsen.html - Smithsonian interview with Ken Olsen
https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2019/03/102785079-05-01-acc.pdf - Computing in the Middle Ages
https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_decBooksBeng_37322315 - Computer Egnineerling, Bell et al.
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I've been feeling like rambling, so it's time for a classic ramble. This time we are looking at the origins of books about computers. More specifically, computer books targeted at a general audience. Along the way we stumble into the first public disclosure of digital computers, the first intentionally unimportant machine, and wild speculation about the future of mechanical brains.
No sources listed this time, because I want the journey to be a surprise!
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This is a hefty one. I usually try to keep things as accessible as possible, but this time we have to get a little more technical than usual. We are picking up in 1964, with the first proposals for a new version of ALGOL. From there we sail through the fraught waters of ALGOL X, Y, W, and finally 68. Along the way we see how a language evolves over time, and how people and politics mesh with technical issues.
Selected Sources:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/1061112.1061118 - Successes and Failures of the ALGOL Effort
https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/MAHC.2010.8 - Cold War Origins of IFIP
https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/algol/algol_bulletin/ - The ALGOL Bulletin
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ALGOL is one of those topics that's haunted the show for a while. It comes up any time we talk about programming languages, and with good reason. Many of the features and ideas found in modern languages have their roots in ALGOL. Despite that influence, ALGOL itself remains somewhat obscure. It never reached the highs of a C or LISP.
In this series we are going to look at ALGOL from 1958 all up to 1968, keeping a careful eye on how the language evolved, how it's problems were addressed, and how new problems were introduced.
Selected Sources:
https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/paper/Backus-Syntax_and_Semantics_of_Proposed_IAL.pdf - Backus, 1958 IAL report
https://algol60.org/reports/algol60_rr.pdf - ALGOL 1960 Report
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/1060960.1060966 - Cleaning Up Algol
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Originally presented at VCF SoCal in February of 2024.
The cryotron, a superconductive switch, almost revolutionized computing. It's one of those fascinating near misses. In this episode we are talking about the history of the cryotron, how the NSA and supercomputing factors into the mix, and the current state of research into the topic. Did the NSA actually construct a supercomputer that ran in a vat of liquid helium? The answer is... maybe?
Video of this talk:
https://youtu.be/FqzSGTZ3TMU
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This is going to be a wild rambling ride. In 1939 a computer called Nimatron was made. It was one of the earliest digital electronic computers in the world. It did one thing: play a game called Nim. Over a decade later, in 1951, another Nim machine hit the scene. This computer called Nimrod, was designed to demonstrate how computers worked... by playing a game of Nim. These machines, humble as they may sound, end up deeply complicating the history of computing. Join me as I, once again, muddy the long arc of progress. Selected Sources: https://archive.org/details/faster-than-thought-b.-v.-bowden - Faster Than Thought https://www.goodeveca.net/nimrod/NIMROD_Guide.html - Faster Than Thought
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This episode wraps up the System/360 trilogy by taking things back to where they started for me. We will be looking at System/360 clones, how they could exist, why they existed, and why IBM didn't crush them. We close with a discussion of how these earlier clones impact our understanding of the IBM PC story. The truth is, by 1981 IBM was no stranger to clones. This is the culmination of a wild story, so prepare! Selected Sources: https://archive.org/details/iclbusinesstechn0000camp/mode/1up - ICL: A Business and Technical History https://archive.org/details/impactreportamdaunse/page/1/mode/1up - Impact Report by INPUT https://www.stayforever.de/ibm-pc-a-conversation-with-dr-david-bradley/
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