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Category Archives: Computer history
The impact of electrical engineering on 21st century innovation (Infographic)
Source: New Jersey Institute of Technology
Posted in Computer history, Engineering, Infographics, Social Impact
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SAGE Revealed: Birth of large-scale, real-time, distributed computing
Today in 1956, the development of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), is disclosed to the public. From MITRE’s website: “Looking back at the development of the computers supporting the SAGE, the origins of many key computer innovations are readily apparent. SAGE’s use of telephone … Continue reading
Steve Jobs on Starting Apple (1980 Video)
“We absolutely had no idea what people will do with [the PC] when we started out. The two people it was designed for were Woz and myself because we couldn’t afford to buy a computer kit on the market.” “Man … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Computer history, PCs
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IBM Introduces Personal Cloud Computing, Today in 1976
Today in 1976, IBM introduced Virtual Storage Personal Computing, “a new program product to allow people with little or no data processing experience to use a computer terminal to solve problems.” The terminals were connected to remote IBM mainframes via telephone … Continue reading
The PC: Machine of the Year
Today in 1983, Time magazine put on its cover the PC, calling it “machine of the year.” Roger Rosenblatt wrote: “Inventions arise when they’re needed. This here screen and keyboard might have come along any old decade, but it happened to pop up when … Continue reading
Steve Jobs Introduces Macintosh to BCS, January 1984 (Video)
January 1984: This is a brief clip of Steve Jobs speaking with Boston Computer Society members as he makes the first public showing ever of Macintosh. Steve Wozniak and the designers of Macintosh join with Steve in a very lively … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Computer history
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Robotics and the Birth of Silicon Valley
“The life of William Shockley—Nobel Prize winner, inventor of the junction transistor, and founder of the seminal silicon electronics laboratory—has been well chronicled. But recently, while digging through the Shockley archives at Stanford University, researcher David C. Brock made a … Continue reading
Posted in Automation, Business history, Computer history, Robots, Social Impact
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First Computer Science PhD
Today in 1965, the University of Pennsylvania awarded Richard L. Wexelblat a Ph.D. in computer science. Many Ph.D. candidates had performed computer-related work before, but Wexelblat’s diploma was the first one to carry the designation “computer science.”
Posted in Computer history
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Alan Turing On Computable Numbers
Today in 1936, Alan Turing delivered to the London Mathematical Society his paper “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem.” In the paper, Turing described the Universal Machine, which later became known as the Turing Machine. This was an idealized … Continue reading
General Meetings of The Boston Computer Society (Video)
“These are a few brief samples from more than 20 hours of The Boston Computer Society General Meetings. Each meeting featured a leading personal computer industry visionary introducing a new product or technology to the world’s largest personal computer user … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Computer history, Robots
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