Advent of Computing

In 1933 Konrad Zuse, a German civil engineer, caught the computing bug. It would consume the rest of his life. According Zuse he invented the world's first digital computer during WWII, working in near total isolation within the Third Reich. How true is this claim? Today we are looking at Zuse's early machines, the Z1, Z2, and Z3.

Selected Sources:

The Computer -- My Life, by Konrad Zuse

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.1886 - Z1 Architecture paper by Rojas

https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/85.707574 - Z3... Turing Complete? also by Rojas

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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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.