Welcome to Advent of Computing, the show that talks about the shocking, intriguing, and all too often relevant history of computing. A lot of little things we take for granted today have rich stories behind their creation, in each episode we will learn how older tech has lead to our modern world.
http://adventofcomputing.com/
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 5 days 8 hours 15 minutes
episode 92: Copy Protection
It's Spook Month 2022! To kick things off we are diving into the frustrating depth of copy protection, piracy, and the origins of commercial software. In 1969 the Great Unbundling made the software market viable for the first time. Ever since then...
episode 91: Whirlwind
Whirlwind represents a fascinating story of transition. The project started in the middle of the 1940s as an analog machine. As times changed it became a digital device. By 1951 it was perhaps the fastest computer in the world, filled to the brim with...
episode 90: Where Did The S100 Bus Go?
In the last half of the 70s there was one gold standard in home computing: S100. This was a standardized bus that was the heart of many computers. It allowed for the interchange of parts from different manufacturers. Best of all, the S100 bus was...
episode 89: Forth
What language has two stacks? What language is used on satellites and in home computers? What language deals in words? Why, Forth, of course! Forth is a highly unique language developed in the 60s by Chuck Moore. And when I say unique, I mean...
episode 88: BEFLIX, Early Computer Anumation
Digital animation has really become an artform in and of itself. In the current epoch these animations play out on fancy bitmapped displays, but it's origins are far more visceral. Or maybe we should say far more hacky. This episode we are diving in...
episode 87: The ILLIAC Suite
Can a computer be creative? Can we program a machine to make art? It turns out the answer is yes, and it doesn't even take artificial intelligence. This episode we are diving in to the ILLIAC Suite, a piece for string quartet that was composed by a...
episode 86: Fluidic Computing
What is a computer? A miserable pile of electrons! But... not necessarily. I have yet to find a fully satisfying definition for "computer" that encompasses the full grandeur of calculating machines. This episode we are further complicating that quest...
episode 85: Visi On, the PC GUI
More Visi-fun ahead! Today we are looking at Visi On, a visionary user interface developed for home computers. Along the way we will discuss smalltalk, portability, and how the slick graphics over at Xerox were adapted to run on smaller machines. ...
episode 84: VisiCalc, the Killer App
Today we are looking at VisiCalc, the original killer app. Hitting the market in 1979, VisiCalc was the first computer spreadsheet program. Through it's 6 year lifespan it was ported to everything from the Apple II to the IBM PC to the Apple III. It...