The Algorithm: Idiom of Modern Science - an allegory told with iPods as Universal Machines.
posted by loquacious on Jan 19, 2008 - 42 comments

Photographer Mark Richard's very cool pictures of computing equipment: A visual survey of vintage computers. [via]
posted by ClanvidHorse on Jan 13, 2008 - 17 comments

LCD computer keyboard
posted by Pretty_Generic on Jul 14, 2005 - 57 comments

EDSAC - home of the first videogame, OXO.
posted by Pretty_Generic on Jun 19, 2005 - 5 comments

Think you're in full control of your computer? Think again. Intel has just quietly added one of the necessary components of Microsoft's (and the TCG/TCPA's) DRM technology, Palladium, to the PC platform. Some say this is a move against rampant Chinese software piracy, others think it's a power grab by the content producers. Left unchecked, content and software producers will have the final say in how you use your computer, fair use be damned.
posted by id on May 28, 2005 - 55 comments

California Dreaming: A True Story of Computers, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll (Reg. req'd) Engineers can be so cute. In the early 1960's, Myron Stolaroff, an employee of the tape recorder manufacturer Ampex, decided to prove the value of consuming LSD. So he set up the International Foundation for Advanced Study and went about his project in classic methodical fashion.

But John Markoff, a senior writer for The New York Times who covers technology, makes a convincing case that for the swarming ubergeeks assembling in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960's, approaching drugs as they might any other potentially helpful tool or device - from a soldering iron to a computer chip - was only natural. The goals were broad in the 60's: the world would be remade, the natural order of things reconfigured, human potential amplified to infinity. Anything that could help was to be cherished, studied and improved.

Judging by the record presented in What the Dormouse Said, it is indisputable that many of the engineers and programmers who contributed to the birth of personal computing were fans of LSD, draft resisters, commune sympathizers and, to put it bluntly, long-haired hippie freaks.
posted by gleenyc on May 7, 2005 - 32 comments

Typing...on a screen! Text (and cover image) of a 1973 issue of Radio-Electronics mag, showing a new fangled way of typing with a TV screen. I like how the mag is billed as "for MEN with ideas in electronics." Heh...
posted by braun_richard on Feb 28, 2005 - 8 comments

Apple: Innovator & Oppressor of Independent Software: As they once did with Karelia's Watson software and, to a certain extent, Panic's Audion, Apple has "borrowed" a concept from an independent, third-party developer without credit or compensation. It would seem that Steve Jobs is not as far removed from Bill Gates as he would like the Mac faithful to believe . . .
posted by aladfar on Oct 27, 2003 - 31 comments

Dr. Anita Borg is the Founder of the Institute for Women and Technology (www.iwt.org). Her work to change the world for women has received international recognition. Throughout her career, Dr. Borg has worked to encourage women to pursue careers in computing. Also, she's a heck of a nice lady. She was diagnosed with brain cancer in April 2000, and recently her condition has worsened. {more inside}
posted by dejah420 on Mar 5, 2003 - 9 comments

Redefining the keyboard. CPUs have gotten smaller, monitors have gotten wider, chairs have gotten ergonomic. Technology has resized our machines to fit our lifestyles, business needs, and personal comfort. But for the past 128 years, the mechanics by which we input text into machines has been dictated not by technology, but by the limitations of our hands. Soon, this era may be over if retired engineer John McKown gets his way. McKown has invented a palm-size one-handed wearable keyboard. Should we embrace this giant leap into mobile computing? Or are we not able to part with a century of QWERTY? (Via NYTimes. Similar ideas have also been discussed here previously.)
posted by PrinceValium on Aug 12, 2002 - 19 comments

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 on Feb 15, 2002 - 8 comments

Modern computing born... film at 11.
"On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. The public presentation was a session in the of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface."
posted by pascal on Jul 11, 2001 - 5 comments

Future of computing - Light or Molecules?
posted by tiaka on Jun 23, 2001 - 5 comments

Unisys Confesses UNIVAC Sins - The company that invented the first commercial computer apologized on the eve of its 50th anniversary for any "unintended consequences" of its use. - Among other things, they apologized for bad joke emails, the dot com bubble, and destroying the concept of normal working hours. It's a pretty funny article.
posted by chrisege on Jun 13, 2001 - 15 comments

The last computer you'll ever own. With the entertainment industry pushing electronics manufacturers towards closed, proprietary hardware, how soon will we be limited to strictly "renting" media, serives, etc.?
posted by harmful on Mar 7, 2001 - 10 comments

NVidia just bought all the intellectual properties of 3DFX. [more]
posted by Steven Den Beste on Dec 15, 2000 - 8 comments

Multics, Requiescat in Pace. Wow. What does one say.
posted by baylink on Nov 12, 2000 - 3 comments

When did Claudia Schiffer become an expert in computers? And why would I care what she thinks should be installed on one? (Light and casual: jokes. That's the way, now.)
posted by Steven Den Beste on Aug 1, 2000 - 3 comments

What's old is new again. This sounds suspiciously like "core", which is what computers used when I was in college.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Apr 9, 2000 - 2 comments