The Wrath of Kahn

Oxide and Friends Twitter Space: November 15th, 2021

The Wrath of Kahn

We’ve been holding a Twitter Space weekly on Mondays at 5p for about an hour. Even though it’s not (yet?) a feature of Twitter Spaces, we have been recording them all; here is the recording for our Twitter Space for November 15th, 2021.

In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers on November 15th included Dan Cross, Tom Lyon, Antranig Vartanian, Mat Trudel, Gabe Rudy, Simeon Miteff and bch. (Did we miss your name and/or get it wrong? Drop a PR!)

Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:

• Severo Ornstein (2002) Computing in the Middle Ages: A View from the Trenches 1955-1983 book
  • TX-2 computer in 1958
  • LINC Laboratory INstrument Computer in 1962
  • Wesley Clark
  • IMP
• [@6:21](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=381) Quote on paternity of ARPANET and the Internet
• [@7:51](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=471) Bryan meets Knuth… briefly
  • SOAP
• [@20:00](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=1200) Quote from oral history of Bob Taylor (2008)
• [@21:37](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=1297) Dan meets Knuth?
• [@25:23](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=1523) The lone inventor
• [@26:40](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=1600) The patent race with Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray (wiki)
  • “Inventor” of email
• [@30:49](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=1849) Fathering and parenting (pioneers and settlers)
• Any lone inventors?
• Credit where credit is due. Teams as more than the sum of the parts.
  • Turing Awards
• [@35:49](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=2149) Science papers, teams
• [@37:14](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=2234) Andy van Dam (wiki)
  • “Hypertext ’87 Keynote” address
  • “Reflections on a Half Century of Hypertext” (2019) ~100mins presentation
• Ron Minnich (On the Metal podcast)
• [@39:11](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=2351) Dennis Klatt and DECtalk
  • DECtalk DTC01 used a 68000 and a TI 32010 DSP; DECtalk DTC03 used a 80186 and the same TI 32010. mame
• Doug Engelbart (wiki)
• [@44:37](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=2677) Who’s going to lead the charge?
  • Michael Stonebraker (wiki)
  • Seeing things through
• [@49:23](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=2963) bch: communications and crediting
• [@50:53](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=3053) DTrace, ZFS
• [@53:15](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=3195) Mat: The Dream Machine
  • M. Mitchell Waldrop (2001) “The Dream Machine: JCR Licklider and the Revolution that Made Computing Personal” book
  • DARPA, private public research funding
• [@56:57](https://youtu.be/oft5i5RzIC8?t=3417) The hero narrative sells well

If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next Twitter space will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time; stay tuned to our Twitter feeds for details. We’d love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!