February 15, 2002

4:43 AM

www.computerhistory.org is the virtual incarnation of computer historian and collector Michael Williams' phat-ass computer museum. My favourite, BTW, is the timeline, searchable by year or topic. What technological milestones occured in the year of your birth?
posted by stuporJIX (8 comments total)

I'm quite proud of my year. As well as Lotus 1-2-3, the Cray XMP, and Tron, Time magazine updated "Man of the Year" to "Machine of the Year": "Several human candidate might have represented 1982, but none symbolized the past year more richly, or will be viewed by history as more significant, than a machine: the computer ... Computers were once regarded as distant, ominous abstractions, like Big Brother. In 1982, they truly became personalized, brought down to scale, so that people could hold, prod and play with them."
posted by stuporJIX at 4:50 AM on February 15, 2002

Very Proud of my year (how much of a nerd am I!) - Steve Wozniak designed the Apple I, very cool!
posted by twistedonion at 4:58 AM on February 15, 2002

Steve Wozniak designed the Apple I, a single-board computer.

Class of '76, unite!
posted by adampsyche at 5:06 AM on February 15, 2002

This timeline explores the history of computing from 1945 to 1990.

1945 was a very good year--I was born--and computing began, too.
posted by Carol Anne at 5:24 AM on February 15, 2002

Next to picture showing room full of hulking 1953 vintage equipment:

IBM shipped its first electronic computer, the 701. During three years of production, IBM sold 19 machines to research laboratories, aircraft companies, and the federal government.

I'd like to think some of those machines are still churning away, deep in the bowels of the IRS or some other federal bureaucracy.
posted by groundhog at 7:09 AM on February 15, 2002

So would I, groundhog, but some of them would be maintenance nightmares.
posted by alumshubby at 9:16 AM on February 15, 2002

I was surprised at some of the events they didn't have in the timeline, like the first BBS.
posted by dhartung at 5:10 PM on February 15, 2002

I was born in the year "GOTO Considered Harmful" was published. Thank God my name isn't GOTO.
posted by kindall at 5:44 PM on February 15, 2002