Top 25 Days in Computing History
I love lists, and history. Especially lists of tech history. Maybe you do too:
The path to modern-day computing is longer than many suspect, and strewn with interesting nuggets of information. These include:
- the inventor of e-mail can't remember when he got it working
- Pac-Man was modelled on a pizza and called Puck-Man until vandals forced a name change
- the first hard drive had a 5MB capacity and could only be moved by a fork-lift truck
- in 1980, The Times reported with wonder that a word processor could be bought for £3,500
- Deep Blue's chess victory over Garry Kasparov was described as a 'psychological triumph'.For full details of these milestones, and other gems from the Times Archive, read on...
http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2008/11/top-25-days-in.html
And they didn't even mention my discovery of chainable virtual quantum-computing gates in finite dimensional cellular arrays!
I am going to file a strong protest at the next IEEE meeting!
November 18, 2008 11:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, that article made be take a trip down memory lane. (In high school Apple IIe's were the rage) OMG I am so old now..sigh...(LOL)
November 19, 2008 12:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
I must be even older! In my high school nerd-clique, ILIACs were all the rage!
November 19, 2008 8:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I remember our first personal computer was the Compucolor II (made by Intercolor). Our second computer was the Apple IIe. It was blazing fast compared to the Compucolor II. :)
I also remember the modem my dad built, out of wood (the case, that is—I'm fairly sure the electronics weren't made out of wood). It was 300 baud, with the receiver where you put the old-style phone into. Bah! Get off my lawn!
November 19, 2008 9:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
My dad worked for IBM, and as a kid, I sometimes went with him on service calls and watched him repair keypunch machines. We're still using leftover keypunch cards as scrap paper in or workshop!
November 19, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I actually used punch cards in the 5th grade! (That was a teacher who understood even then that computers were the future.)
On the nostalgic note, my dad worked for AIRMICS (Army Institute for Research in Military Intelligence and Computer Science), and he brought home some 8½" floppies (much bigger than those piddly 5¼" floppies!). Unfortunately, those are probably some of the only things he didn't save.
November 19, 2008 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll add one to that: When those big, 12" diameter magnetic tape reels came in, my dad ended up with one of the clear platic cases they were stored in. I haven't seen it for awhile, but he used it for nut and bolt storage in the garage. I should take a look around for it, probably an historic artifact at this point.
November 19, 2008 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink