Kopec Explains Software

The IBM PC, released in 1981, set the standard for personal computing for decades. In this episode we discuss why it was so influential. We talk about IBM's market position and strategy for the PC, as well as choices the company made in terms of both hardware and software that made a standard possible. We discuss Microsoft's role in creating DOS, CP/M's failure, and how PC compatible clones worked.

This episode is a follow-up to episode 16, The Personal Computer Revolution, in which we covered the period of 1975-1980 in personal computer history.

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Through the history of computing, user interfaces (UIs) have evolved from punch cards to voice interaction. In this episode we track that evolution, discussing each paradigm and the machine that popularized it. We primarily focus on personal computer UIs, covering command-line interfaces (CLIs), graphical user interfaces (GUIs), touch-screen interaction, and voice interfaces. We also imagine the future, including neural interfaces, virtual reality, and augmented reality. This episode is an introductory guide to the interfaces available and a short history, not a comprehensive tour.

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Digital images can be broadly categorized into two kinds: bitmap and vector. In this episode we provide the listener a general understanding of how both bitmap and vector images work. We start with the basics, by explaining pixels, but then we talk about a standard color model, and some specific file formats that most people are familiar with. We finish our discussion by talking about smartphone cameras, image manipulation software, and how images work together to make videos.

Note: In this episode we used the term "graphics card" generically. We could have more accurately said Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to include embedded GPUs as exist in most devices.

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Linux is the foundational piece of software in the majority of computing systems in use today, including most Internet servers, Internet-of-Things devices, and all Android smartphones/tablets. Yet, despite being ubiquitous, most people don't really know what it is. In this episode, we build on our prior episodes about Operating Systems and Open Source Software to give listeners an overview of Linux's origins, how it became ubiquitous, and where it's being used today. We get into the two different ways the term "Linux" is used: including as a way to refer to the ubiquitous kernel and as a short-hand for whole operating systems that are more accurately called "Linux distributions."

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Email is the most important communications technology of our time. In this episode we explain how it works behind the scenes. We talk about how email clients talk to email servers, including protocols like SMTP, IMAP, and POP3. We discuss email's format, security, and ecosystem. We touch on spam filters, and end with a call-to-arms about keeping the email ecosystem open.

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Encryption enables online payment, secure communication, identity verification, and so much more. In this episode we discuss what encryption is, what it does for us, and we go over some of the different types of encryption. We explain the purpose of a key, and try to provide an intuitive understanding of public key cryptography. We also discuss some practical tips around passwords. Finally, we talk about some of the public policy debates surrounding encryption.

Note that in this episode we refer to cryptographic hash functions as "one-way encryption" to try to simplify the discussion.

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In 1975, the Altair 8800 powered by the Intel 8080 ignited the personal computer revolution. In this episode, we discuss the pivotal forces that made computers accessible to normal people, and enabled the creation of companies like Microsoft and Apple. We discuss some of the major computers of the late 1970s and some of the important software products. We cover the period of 1975-1980.

This episode is not meant to be an exhaustive history, but instead a good general overview. We couldn’t cover every computer, software product, or important person in the PC revolution. But we hope we excited listeners to explore more.

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Product managers manage the teams that build software. In this episode we interview David Short, whose been a product manager for software teams at multiple companies. He tells us what it’s like to be a product manager, how he works together with software developers, and David gives some advice for aspiring product managers.

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Since the invention of the modern computer, humans have been trying to write chess playing programs. In this episode, we trace the history of computer chess, and explain how a chess program works. We discuss why developing a world champion computer chess AI was considered a great achievement. And we finish with how computer chess continues to evolve, and how it’s evolving human chess.

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Artificial Intelligence is enabling exciting new computing applications, but many people don’t really understand what it is. In this episode we give AI a broad definition, explain the difference between strong AI and weak AI, and delve into some of the many sub-disciplines that fall under its umbrella. We provide a general sense of machine learning by touching on a few of its approaches including artificial neural networks, clustering, and linear regression. We also briefly dive into older AI techniques like expert systems and adversarial search. We use chess as an example to talk about different AI approaches.

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