The Story of Software

In this episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO of Zartis, is joined by Sean O’Sullivan, CTO at Engage EHS, as they explore the evolution of the Irish tech sector in the second half of the 20th century. 

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

For the past 5 years, Ireland has ranked as the fastest growing economy in the European Union. This is in no small part due to its booming technology sector. In this episode, we explore how the Irish tech industry as we know it today came to be.

The first stored-program computer was purchased by the Irish Sugar company, and it arrived in Ireland in 1957. Its purpose was to perform complex calculations regarding payments to sugar beet farmers. Around the same time, in 1956, the first multinational – IBM – set up in Ireland. A decade later, in 1968, the first indigenous technology company – System Dynamics – was set up.

In the following decades, Ireland would see a growing number of multinationals and indigenous tech companies open up offices. This has enabled a shift in the wider economic and societal outlook of the country. Moving away from an agrarian society towards high value-added industries, from a conservative to a more liberal society.

To learn more, follow us on a deep dive through the second half of the 20th century in the Irish tech sector.

We hope you enjoy listening to our tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected].

In this episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by André Neubauer, CTO at Smava, to discuss software architecture and its evolution throughout the years.

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

We live in a changing world and a changing economy, where the demands of the market and the customers evolve at an incredibly rapid pace. Software development has had to adapt. And a major aspect in adapting is re-thinking about the way software is designed.

What is software architecture? What are the main factors that have influenced its evolution? Who owns the architecture in an organization and what are the implications of that? Listen in to hear the details.

We hope you enjoy listening and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected].

In this episode of our tech podcast, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined once again by John Dennehy, Founder of Zartis, Agreeable and Hirehive, to continue their discussion on the evolution of video games. This time, tackling a new decade - the 90s.

The 90s brought in a lot of innovation across the gaming sector. On the games side, we saw the rise of first-shooter games and the further popularization of console and PC games. On the business side, companies were tapping into new demographics, targeting older audiences, while also experimenting with new distribution models, such as shareware.

Tune in to hear more and revisit some of the most popular games of the decade, and the people behind them.

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

We hope you enjoy listening to our tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected].

In this episode of our software podcast, we explore the early days of video games, from the first game in 1952 till the glory days of arcade games.

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

We look into the rise and fall of the early console gaming industry in the 80s. The market collapsed by 97% between 1983 and 1985, as annual revenues across the sector went from 3.2 billion to 100 million. 

To learn what caused this crash and what followed in the evolution of video games, tune in!

For this episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by John Dennehy, Founder at HireHive, Agreeable and Zartis.

We hope you enjoy listening to our tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected].

In this episode of our weekly software podcast, we look at the life and legacy of George Boole. Boole was a 19th century mathematician, whose work laid the theoretical foundation for digital computing as we know it today. 

We explore his symbolic logic and its impact on the evolution of modern computing - from the logic behind 0s and 1s in the circuits of a computer processor, to the instruction sequences at the basis of modern programming languages.

For this episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by Albena Krasteva, Head of Growth at Zartis.

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

We hope you enjoy listening to our tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected].

Some sources we used and enjoyed:

George Boole, Claude Shannon’s and Alan Turing’s role in Computing Evolution

How Aristotle Created the Computer

Claude Shannon: Reluctant Father of the Digital Age

The Genius of George Boole - How to be a Genius

This is the second episode of our two-part podcast series on the Dot-com bubble of the late 90s. While in episode 5 we explored the inflation of the bubble, we are now looking at the bust.

Between the years 1995 and 2000, there was a 4-fold increase in the NASDAQ index and a level of VC investment in the sector which has never been seen before or since. As the bubble burst, from peak to trough, there was an 80% decline in the NASDAQ index, which took almost 15 years to recover. More than half of the startups of this period went under.

In the context of the wider economic picture, we look at our own history. The Zartis Founder, John Dennehy shares the stories of experiencing the bust first-hand and walks us through the first version of Zartis - a company he founded and sold in the late 90s. The Zartis we know today is 2.0.

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

We hope you enjoy listening to our tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected].

In this two-part series of episodes, we explore the dot-com bubble of the 1990, which has been referred to as the biggest economic rise and fall in business history.

In this first podcast episode, we look specifically at the inflation of the dotcom bubble - the social, economic and technological factors that defined the era of innovation, excessive valuations and a noticeably changing work culture.  
 

For this podcast episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by John Dennehy, Founder at HireHive, Agreeable and Zartis.

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

Tune in for episode 6, which will dive into the burst of the bubble. We hope you enjoy listening and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

For this episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by John Dennehy, Founder at HireHive and Zartis.

Episode 3 had covered the birth of hacker culture in the 50s and 60s. Following up, in this episode we look at how the movement progressed in the 1970s. We explore what happened as the centre of gravity shifted to the West Coast, and specifically Northern California.

We look at the pioneering computer networks Arpanet and Darpanet and  their French counterpart  - Cyclades. The growth in popularity of Unix and C is another pivotal moment of the decade, which poured gasoline on the fire of innovation. And last but not least - we look at the early days of  Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

We hope you enjoy listening and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected] or www.zartis.com.

In this episode, we explore Hacker Culture in its early years. We look into the birth of hacker culture in MIT in the late 1950s, and look at the progress of the movement up until 1970. 

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

What is Hacker Culture?

It is considered hacker culture was born when members of the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT took an interest in programming. Those were the guys who would physically break into computer labs they didn’t have credentials for, or dumpster dive for hardware parts outside of the buildings of defense contractors in the Boston area. From the Tech Model Railroad Club to John McCarthy, L. Peter Deutsch, Bill Gosper - we explore the evolution of hacker culture through the lives and eccentricities of those driving it.

For this episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by Antonio Reher, Tech Lead at Zartis.

We hope you enjoy listening and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected] or www.zartis.com.

For the second episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by Phil Thomas, UI Lead at Zartis.

This week, we look at advances in software during the period from 1945 to 1961 - essentially we are looking at the incipient stages of the Cold War, up to the era of the Bay of Pigs invasion. 

This period is marked by a hypercompetitive duopoly of superpowers - the US and the USSR. We explore how this rivalry created the context for many advancements in technology, including the early days of supercomputers, the space race, NASA, ARPA/DARPA etc. We additionally explore the first programming languages advancements, including Short Code, Autocode, FORTRAN, and LISP.

Note: The ‘History of Software’ podcast has been rebranded to The Story of Software since the recording of this episode.

We hope you enjoy listening and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected] or www.zartis.com.