Advent of Computing

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 intrepi...

13 Okt 202419min

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...

6 Okt 202418min

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 ma...

29 Sep 20241h 3min

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 sim...

15 Sep 20241h 6min

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 tradition...

1 Sep 20241h 3min

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 th...

18 Aug 202452min

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 ...

4 Aug 202418min

Have you ever formed a bad first impression? Way back when I formed a hasty impression of this language called TRAC. It's been called a proto-esoteric language, and for good reason. It's outlandish, c...

21 Jul 20241h 14min