Episode 47 - ITS: Open Computing
Modern operating systems adhere to a pretty rigid formula. They all have users with password-protected accounts and secure files. They all have restrictions to keep programs from breaking stuff. That ...
11 Jan 202151min
Episode 46 - Hacker Folklore
Hacker hasn't always been used to describe dangerous computer experts will ill intent. More accurately it should be sued to describe those enamored with computers, programming, and trying to push mach...
28 Dec 202056min
Episode 45 - Keeping Things BASIC
BASIC is a strange language. During the early days of home computing it was everywhere you looked, pretty much every microcomputer in the 70s and early 80s ran BASIC. For a time it filled a niche almo...
14 Dec 202057min
Episode 44 - ENIAC, Part II
In 1946 John Eckert and John Mauchly left the Moore School, patented ENIAC, and founded a company. One of those discussions would have consequences that wouldn't be resolved until 1973. Today we close...
30 Nov 202059min
Episode 43 - ENIAC, Part I
Completed in 1945, ENIAC was one of the first electronic digital computers. The machine was archaic, but highly influential. But it wasn't a totally new take on computing. Today we are taking a look a...
16 Nov 202056min
Episode 42 - IBM Gets Personal
This episode is not about the IBM PC. In 1981 the Personal Computer would change the world. Really, it's hard to talk about home computing without diving into it. But I've always had an issue with the...
2 Nov 20201h 1min
Episode 41 - Return of Viruses: The Spread
It's time to round out spook month with a return to one of last year's topics: the computer virus. Malicious code traveling over networks is actually a relatively new phenomenon, early viruses were mu...
18 Okt 202049min
Episode 40 - Spam, Email, and Best Intentions
Spam emails are a fact of modern life. Who hasn't been sent annoying and sometimes cryptic messages from unidentified addresses? To understand where spam comes from we need to look at the origins of e...
4 Okt 202055min
