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Showing 5 articles by Jeffery Stein

A Donkey Kong arcade cabinet.

January 10, 2014

Old Software and Games....They're Alive!

By Jeffery Stein

Ever get the urge to mess with VisiCalc or WordStar again? Play the original Donkey Kong or Adventure on your computer? Now you can! The Internet Archive, in a Christmas gift to the world, has unleashed the Historical Software Archive, a collection of prominent and historically notable pieces of...

A plaque marking where the LEO — the world's first business computer — ran, built by J. Lyons & Co.

November 11, 2013

The Story of LEO

By Jeffery Stein

LEO, more formally known as Lyons Electronic Office, was the world's first business computer, having been developed by the British company J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. between 1947-1954. John Simmons was very much the genius behind this adventure into business process re-engineering. His papers are archived...

The Colossus codebreaking computer at Bletchley Park, built under Tommy Flowers.

October 7, 2013

Honoring Computer Pioneer Tommy Flowers and Colossus

By Jeffery Stein

In November 1943, an electrical engineer working in the telecommunications department of Britain's General Post Office named Tommy Flowers designed and built the world’s first programmable computer. Named "Colossus," the thermionic tube-based programmable computer successfully broke the supposedly...

An original 1976 Apple-1 computer on display at the Computer History Museum.

May 23, 2013

Going Once, Going Twice...A Working Apple 1

By Jeffery Stein

Have you been longing for a working Apple 1 computer? Or maybe a reproduction of a Pascaline? This Saturday, May 25 at 10:00 am (CET) you'll get your chance when  Auction Team Breker of Cologne, Germany, holds an auction of "Mechanical Musik Instruments as well as Science Technology and Fine Toys &...

Women operating computing equipment in the 1950s.

February 6, 2013

The Day IBM Let Married Women Work

By Jeffery Stein

It's hard to imagine not being able to work at IBM if you're a woman who happens to be married, but  Gizmodo has published a memo from January 10, 1951  that discusses a "temporary modification" of IBM's personnel policy—yes, it finally allowed female employees to continue working once they were...