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October 28, 2012
Doomsday Scenarios-Big Science Discussion @ Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mt View, CA on October 27, 2012
Several very provocative doomsday scenarios were discussed, but then refuted by subject matter experts called up to the stage to engage in conversation with the program hosts. For each scenario top scientists were called on stage to discuss and refute several spectacular predictions about the end...
October 26, 2012
Shockley Semiconductor Reunion at CHM + Brief History of Shockley, Fairchild Semiconductor & Intel
A handful of former Shockley Semiconductor Labs employees recently got together at the Computer History Museum in Mt View, CA to tour a semiconductor exhibit on silicon. http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline/1956-Silicon.html 1. Here's the reunion story from today's San Jose...
October 21, 2012
Microsoft's Chief Research Officer Rick Rashid in Conversation with NYT's John Markoff @CHM
On October 16th, Rick Rashid, Microsoft Research's first employee and now its Chief Research Officer, engaged in a spirited conversation with NY Times science & technology journalist John Markoff at the Computer History (CHM) museum in Mt View, CA. The discussion was part of the museum’s...
October 9, 2012
Exciting New Happenings at Computer History Museum: Blog, Social Media, Digital Repository, Exhibits & Events!
1. The venerable Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mt View, CA recently launched a multimedia blog, with contributors from their seasoned staff of curators and subject matter experts. CHM Prez John Hollar told me, "This has been one of the most important initiatives CHM has taken in the area of...
August 1, 2012
Ken Segall at CHM: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success
A Sell Out/SRO crowd of over 400 people attended an outstanding Computer History Museum (CHM) talk by Ken Segall, author of the book, Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success. Mr. Segall was interviewed by Harry McCracken of Time magazine about his experiences with Steve Jobs...
July 9, 2012
The future of computers ain't what it used to be
Back in a previous century — when I was a doctoral student and aspiring academic — I met some interesting researchers who were then trying to contradict (or at least temper) some of the wild claims made about the first mover advantage. Anyone who knows the computer industry knows that IBM didn’t...
April 18, 2012
It's a trap!
I listened to a radio program on the subject of trap streets. Fictitious streets, towns and other pieces of geography added to a map made copying detectable, since if the other map had been independently created it could not contain these inventions, a trap. This phenomenon has come into sharp...
April 6, 2012
Bell Labs
The Computer History Museum recently hosted a forum with John Gertner, the author of a new book about Bell Labs. Here is the link. Gertner discusses the many world-changing inventions and innovations that came out of the Labs, especially during its peak years of innovation from the late 1920s...
March 19, 2012
The Sweet Spot
PC World recently ran an interesting piece about vintage DP equipment still being used on a daily basis, for practical purposes. They even found someone using punched card accounting equipment. I don't go back that far, but the other day I got a chuckle from a co-worker when I needed to do a simple...
September 28, 2011
Another Historic Plaque
By now you must know that I am fond of historic plaques, especially ones that have to do with the District of Columbia or Northern Virginia. Here's another one, from Arlington: The full text reads: The ARPANET, a project of the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense,...
September 26, 2011
The History of Enterprise Software
Software Advice, an online reviewer of ERP software, has published a four-part series on the history of enterprise software. In the series, Lara Zuehlke, Managing Editor at Software Advice, investigates how computing hardware and software evolved from punched cards all the way to the Internet and...
August 12, 2011
After 30 years, is the IBM PC reign ending?
Thirty years ago, the International Business Machines company introduced its first general-purpose personal computer, the 5150. (The IBM 5100 and DisplayWriter were also personal computing devices, but most people don’t count them as a first.) Although I have written about August 1981, I would have...