Advent of Computing

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/

Eine durchschnittliche Folge dieses Podcasts dauert 1h0m. Bisher sind 141 Folge(n) erschienen. Dieser Podcast erscheint jede zweite Woche.

Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 5 days 5 hours 55 minutes

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episode 81: A Ballad in 2600 Hertz


There's power in music, but not all tones are created equal. During the reign of Bell Telephone there was one tone in particular that opened up a world of possibilities: 2600 Hz. The devotees of this note were called phreakers, and in some cases they...


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 May 2, 2022  1h5m
 
 

episode 80: The Analytical Engine


When people talk about early computers Babbage's Analytical Engine is bound to come up. Designed back in the 1830's it's definitely older than any other example of the art. But it also has a lot of strikes against it. The machine was purely...


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 April 18, 2022  1h13m
 
 

episode 79: ZOG: Military Strength Hypertext


We're getting back to my hypertext series with a big of an obscure tale. ZOG is a hypertext system what was first developed in 1972 at Carnegie-Melon University. It then stagnated until the latter half of the 1970s when it was picked back up. By 1983...


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 April 4, 2022  1h11m
 
 

episode 78: INTERCAL and Esoterica


Programming doesn't have to be a very serious discipline. In fact, sometimes it's better if it's a little silly. Today we are talking about INTERCAL, the first esoteric programming language. Is it a joke? Is it a form of hacker folk art? Is it even a...


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 March 21, 2022  1h5m
 
 

episode 77: Magnetic Memories


It's no secret, I'm a big fan of memory. Not only is memory crucial for the functioning of a computer, it's also plain weird. This episode we are looking at magnetic core memory; a technology that defined computing for more than two decades. We'll be...


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 March 7, 2022  1h9m
 
 

episode 76: Star Trek the (Unofficial) Game


This episode we blast off at warp speed! We're looking at Star Trek, a game written in BASIC in 1971. Examining this game gives us some insight into the early spread of BASIC. Along the way we will see the issue with paper, why strings matter, and how...


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 February 22, 2022  1h1m
 
 

episode 75: A Cybernetic Future


Cybernetics is broadly defined as the study of control and communications, with a special emphasis on feedback-based systems. Put another way: cybernetics is the study of the flow of data. Predating computer science by decades, cybernetics offers up...


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 February 7, 2022  1h7m
 
 

episode 74: The Elegance of LISP


This is the conclusion to my exploration of why LISP is the "mother tongue of artificial intelligence". We pick up from the end of last episode and continue to cover the early days of AI. We follow the meandering path from the FORTRAN List Processing...


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 January 24, 2022  1h9m
 
 

episode 73: IPL, AI, and Linked Lists


I'll let you in on a secret: I've never understood why LISP is so closely associated with artificial intelligence. I've decided to fix this. In this episode, and the next, I'm tracing the early roots of AI and why list processing is important in the...


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 January 10, 2022  1h10m
 
 

episode 72: Viatron Topples IBM


Viatron's System 21 was the computer of the 1970s! ...At least that's what their marketing claimed. Started in 1967 Viatron was set to be one of the most exciting companies of the coming decade. They were offering a desktop sized computing machine,...


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 December 27, 2021  1h11m