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July 23, 2008

Music

All three of my kids have I-Pods.

July 10, 2008

Introduction: Hazards of life…

Maybe this post ought have come first before my comment on the Three Societies Meeting just up the blog. Still as it was more about me I have preferred leaving it out as second. I hope not being murdered for that.

July 10, 2008

A few historians of computing among lots of historians of science

When recently I got contacted about the opportunity to contribute to this blog, I thought as a first post to report on the panels on the history of computing of the 6th Three Societies Meeting .

July 2, 2008

The First What?

The first business computer. The first Systems Analyst. As a curator, I always demur when asked "what was the first....? There's no end to it, and technology does not proceed that way. A new technology does not suddenly appear in fully functional form; it "eases up" to functionality.

June 27, 2008

SAGE and the Origins of Modern Computing

An old, rare IBM film about SAGE recently surfaced on YouTube -- what a fantastic resource that web site is.

June 13, 2008

Moore's Law Again, and a (Possibly) Naked Emperor

In an earlier post (March 20), I discussed Moore’s Law and its relation to the history of computing.

May 21, 2008

History of Computing--the View from Montana

In an earlier post I mentioned the Ame

May 5, 2008

Science Fiction, Science Fact, and the Future of Computing

Last February I had the privilege of attending a conference

April 16, 2008

What we don't know

An obituary in a recent

April 4, 2008

"Cybernetics is the Universal Solvent of Technology"

Those words were spoken by the late Professor W. David Lewis, of Auburn University, discussing a talk I had given about the relationship of computing to aerospace.

March 26, 2008

Moore's Law, Steve Case, and YouTube

Moore’s Law is an empirical observation—that the density of computer memory chips doubles about every 18 months, and it has been doing so for the past four decades.