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Category Archives: Computer history
How Many Spiders it Takes to Make a Web?
Today is the fifth annual OneWebDay, raising “awareness of the importance of maintaining the open-networking principles that have made it the success it is.” Tim Berners-Lee in Weaving the Web: “When I first began tinkering with a software program that eventually … Continue reading
The First Laptop
Today in 1983, the Osborne Computer Corporation declared bankruptcy. The Osborne I, the first portable computer, was designed by company founder Adam Osborne.
Posted in Computer history, Mobile, PCs, This day in information
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Spinning Disks
Fifty-five years ago today, IBM introduced the disk drive. In 1953, Arthur J. Critchlow, a young member of IBM’s advanced technologies research lab in San Jose, California, was assigned the task of finding a better information storage medium than punch-cards. … Continue reading
Apple: Welcome, IBM. Seriously.
Thirty years ago today, Apple Computer ran a full-page ad in the The Wall Street Journal, twelve days after IBM entered the personal computer market with the launch of the IBM PC.
Posted in Computer history, PCs, This day in information
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Steve Jobs and the Next Big Thing
[Originally appeared on this blog on October 12, 2010] Today in 1988, Steve Jobs unveiled the NeXT Computer at Symphony Hall in San Francisco. A day or two later, I was among a standing-room only crowd at Boston’s Symphony Hall admiring the … Continue reading
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Birth of the IBM PC
Thirty years ago today, IBM announced the IBM Personal Computer, model 5150. The PC featured a 4.77MHz Intel 8088 CPU containing 29,000 transistors, 16KB RAM (64KB standard, expandable to 256KB), 40KB ROM, one or two Tandon brand 5.25-inch floppy drives (160KB capacity), a … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, IBM, This day in information
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Computing Milestones
Sixty-five years ago today, the Subcommittee on Large-Scale Computing Devices (LCD) of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was formed, evolving in 1963 into the IEEE. Also today, in 1944, the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC)–also known as the … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, IBM, This day in information
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The Web Unleashed
Twenty years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee posted files to alt.hypertext, making the WorldWideWeb available to the Internet community. Berners-Lee message said, in part: “The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow links to be made to any information anywhere… The WWW … Continue reading
A Brief History of Computer Graphics and What’s Next
One way to look at the history of computer graphics is to look at eras, giving each era a name. For example, the middle 50’s to the early 60’s was the “beginnings” era. The early 60’s to the late 60’s … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, Predictions
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The Birth of the Integrated Circuit
Today in 1958, Jack Kilby sketched a rough design of the first integrated circuit in his notebook. By the early 1960s, some computers had more than 200,000 individual electronic components–transistors, diodes, resistors, and capacitors–and connecting all of the components was … Continue reading
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