I was going to title this post "The End of Moore's Law," but that would not be quite right. What is happening is that increases in processor speeds have slowed or even stopped. Without faster processors, it is hard to take advantage of increases in memory capacity.

It's great to welcome new contributors to this blog. In the meantime, have a look at this video about the National Museum of Computing, located at Bletchley Park.

James W. Cortada IBM Corporation

Happy Birthdays?! Yes, the company has potentially three birthdays, so which one is the “real” birthday? In 2011 IBM is celebrating its 100th birthday, a remarkable achievement for any company, but especially one in such a volatile high-tech industry as ours. But three birthdays?! Isn’t that a bit much?

In March 2009 I interviewed Roland Bryan, one of the original Arpanet team and now CEO of 

Ken Olsen, co-founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, died Feb. 6. While most millennials would say “who?” those with a little more perspective will remember him as one of the most significant business leaders and entrepreneurs of 20th century computer history.

Hello everyone. I'm honoured to have been invited to be an occasional contributor to this stimulating and important blog. I hope you enjoy my contributions and find them relevant to your interests.

In a couple of months a book entitled Science Fiction and Computing, edited by David Ferro and Eric Swedin will appear. I contribute an essay about the relationship between Artificial Intelligence research and AI's portrayal in science fiction, especially "HAL" in the Kubrick film 2001: a Space Odyssey. In my paper I argue that the reality of AI has lagged way behind what the Sci Fi writers have projected.

Today, January 25th 2011, marks the first anniversary of Herb Grosch's death.

The 25th anniversary of Invention & Technology (from American Heritage) is marked by a list of the “top twenty five revolutionary inventions in the United States.” At least that is how it’s reported by IT economist (and sometime historian) Shane Greenstein in his blog, Virulent Word of Mouse. (I was unable to find the article for free on the website.)

A while ago I mentioned a book I was reading called The Laws of Simplicity, by John Maeda. Forgive me if I return to this topic, but it seems too important to ignore. With all the fuss about the products coming from Apple, and the Amazon Kindle, it is time to revisit the topic. I have resisted getting any of these devices, because they do not satisfy what  are very reasonable standards of "simple" design, which we  have a right to demand from those who would supply us with electronic gadgets.