#historyofcomputing — Public Fediverse posts

Tom’s Hardware: Atari ST Public Floppy Database now open for everyone — online archive originally designed for ST flash cart packed with classics and homebrew. “An extensive Atari ST floppy disk database can now easily be accessed by all netizens. Originally created to serve floppy images to the owners of the SidecarTridge multi‑function hardware add‑on for the Atari ST family (ST, STE, […]

Tom’s Hardware: Atari ST Public Floppy Database now open for everyone — online archive originally designed for ST flash cart packed with classics and homebrew. “An extensive Atari ST floppy disk database can now easily be accessed by all netizens. Originally created to serve floppy images to the owners of the SidecarTridge multi‑function hardware add‑on for the Atari ST family (ST, STE, […]

Computer history is rarely as clear-cut as labels like “the first computer” suggest. The story of programming ENIAC shows how new evidence, changing definitions, and overlooked technical details can complicate familiar historical narratives:
https://computerhistory.org/blog/programming-the-eniac-an-example-of-why-computer-history-is-hard/
And the handwriting looks about as readable as mine.
#ComputerHistory #ENIAC #HistoryOfComputing #Computing #TechHistory

Computer history is rarely as clear-cut as labels like “the first computer” suggest. The story of programming ENIAC shows how new evidence, changing definitions, and overlooked technical details can complicate familiar historical narratives:
https://computerhistory.org/blog/programming-the-eniac-an-example-of-why-computer-history-is-hard/
And the handwriting looks about as readable as mine.
#ComputerHistory #ENIAC #HistoryOfComputing #Computing #TechHistory

You’ll learn about transistors, microchips, programming languages, and how the internet grew from ARPANET to what we know today.
#books #bookreview #HistoryOfComputing #InternetHistory #TechBooks
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/digital-revolution-pioneers-book-review/

You’ll learn about transistors, microchips, programming languages, and how the internet grew from ARPANET to what we know today.
#books #bookreview #HistoryOfComputing #InternetHistory #TechBooks
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/digital-revolution-pioneers-book-review/

You’ll learn about transistors, microchips, programming languages, and how the internet grew from ARPANET to what we know today.
#books #bookreview #HistoryOfComputing #InternetHistory #TechBooks
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/digital-revolution-pioneers-book-review/

You’ll learn about transistors, microchips, programming languages, and how the internet grew from ARPANET to what we know today.
#books #bookreview #HistoryOfComputing #InternetHistory #TechBooks
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/digital-revolution-pioneers-book-review/

"Although ELIZA was far from a faultless conversation partner, it astonished its users. The recent discovery and archaeology of the original ELIZA source code represents a significant intervention in the history of computing. By examining the actual implementation of ELIZA rather than relying on later reconstructions and reimplementations, we challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about this key software artifact.

For example, the source code reveals that ELIZA was not merely a simple pattern-matching chatbot but can be better understood as a sophisticated platform designed for multiple “personas,” or scripts, with a complex set of capabilities, including script editing and contextual memory. The script that most people conflate with the program ELIZA was actually called Doctor, which performed the role of a psychotherapist. Yet, like a modern chatbot prompted to behave with different personalities, ELIZA could take on many roles.

This unearthed material transforms our understanding of early AI development by demonstrating that Joseph Weizenbaum’s technical innovations were far more advanced than previously documented. Moreover, the discrepancies between his published descriptions and the actual implementation help to show the gap between theoretical computational models and their material instantiations in computer source code, a tension that continues to shape digital culture today."

https://spectrum.ieee.org/eliza-chatbot-source-code

#AI #Chatbots #Weizenbaum #Psychotherapy #Eliza #HistoryOfComputing

"Although ELIZA was far from a faultless conversation partner, it astonished its users. The recent discovery and archaeology of the original ELIZA source code represents a significant intervention in the history of computing. By examining the actual implementation of ELIZA rather than relying on later reconstructions and reimplementations, we challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about this key software artifact.

For example, the source code reveals that ELIZA was not merely a simple pattern-matching chatbot but can be better understood as a sophisticated platform designed for multiple “personas,” or scripts, with a complex set of capabilities, including script editing and contextual memory. The script that most people conflate with the program ELIZA was actually called Doctor, which performed the role of a psychotherapist. Yet, like a modern chatbot prompted to behave with different personalities, ELIZA could take on many roles.

This unearthed material transforms our understanding of early AI development by demonstrating that Joseph Weizenbaum’s technical innovations were far more advanced than previously documented. Moreover, the discrepancies between his published descriptions and the actual implementation help to show the gap between theoretical computational models and their material instantiations in computer source code, a tension that continues to shape digital culture today."

https://spectrum.ieee.org/eliza-chatbot-source-code

#AI #Chatbots #Weizenbaum #Psychotherapy #Eliza #HistoryOfComputing

A developer's journey from counting CPU cycles on the Atari 2600 to the age of AI. https://hackernoon.com/the-end-of-counting-what-ai-really-changes-about-work #historyofcomputing

A developer's journey from counting CPU cycles on the Atari 2600 to the age of AI. https://hackernoon.com/the-end-of-counting-what-ai-really-changes-about-work #historyofcomputing

Today in my #RSSEnterprise browser: #ComputerHistory #HistoryOfComputers #HistoryOfComputing #chm
🚀 https://mprove.de/blogs/rss/index.php?rss=mastodon.social/tags/ComputerHistory,HistoryOfComputers,HistoryOfComputing,chm&rss2=hci.social/@mprove/tagged/ComputerHistory

“Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate”*…

Punched cards have a long history in machine control (dating back to Jacquard) and computing (starting with Babbage‘s Difference Engine), but it was Herman Hollerith who brought them into modern computation in the late 1880s… where punch cards remained for about 100 years. From the Smithsonian’s American History Museum…

In the late 1880s, American engineer Herman Hollerith saw a railroad punch card when he was trying to figure out new ways of compiling statistical information for the U.S. Census. His first punch card, like those used on railways, only had holes along the edges. The meaning of each hole was indicated on the card. By the time Hollerith tabulating equipment was used in the 1890 U.S. Census, holes were scattered across the cards, although their meaning was not indicated on it.

Hollerith and his employees at the Tabulating Machine Company in Washington, D.C. soon developed punched cards for use in compiling information for commercial enterprises such as railroads. They and staff of the U.S. Census Bureau prepared improved machines—these devices are shown in the object group on tabulating equipment. By the 1920s, the United States had two major manufacturers of punch card equipment, International Business Machines (the descendent of the Tabulating Machine Company) and Remington Rand (the descendent of Powers Accounting Machine Company established by Russian emigré and former Census Bureau employee James Powers). Each manufacturer developed a distinctive standard punch card. IBM cards had eighty columns of rectangular holes while those of Remington Rand had ninety columns of circular holes. Tabulating machines were widely used in both government and commerce, with cards designed to meet the needs of customers. For example, checks issued by the U.S. government often came on punch cards.

When IBM and Remington Rand began selling electronic computers in the years following World War II, punch cards became the preferred method of entering data and programs onto them. They also were used in later minicomputers and some early desktop calculators. Punch cards surviving in the Smithsonian collections reflect the widespread use of computers – they announced scores on standardized tests, served as a library cards, were part of the proof of mathematical theorems, and kept medical records. Some are printed with the names of users, from university computer centers and computer clubs to the Library of Congress to Bell Laboratories…

Browse the collection: “Punch Cards for Data Processing“

See also: here, here, and here.

* Ubiquitous warning on punch cards:

… in the 1950s, after the invention of the computer and its widespread business use, that everyone began to see punch cards. Companies sent punch cards out with bills: the telephone company, utility companies, and even department stores realized that they could save a step in their billing process, as well as making it easier for them to process the returned check, by using the cards themselves as the bills. By the 1960s, punch cards were familiar, everyday objects.

While company employees could be trusted to take care of the cards, the person in the street could not. Warnings were necessary. In the 1930s the University of Iowa used cards for student registration; on each card was printed “Do not fold or bend this card.” Cards reproduced in an IBM sales brochure of the 1930s read “Do not fold, tear, or mutilate this card” and “Do not fold tear or destroy.” I’m not sure when the canonical “Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate” first appeared; it’s one of those traditions whose author and origin is lost in the mists of time. Let’s consider the words one at a time, stop and take them seriously…

– “A Cultural History of the Punch Card” (from 1991; eminently worth reading in full)

###

As we contemplate chads (of which, punch cards produced a gracious plenty), we might spare a thought for Gerald Hawkins; he died on this date in 2003. An astronomer and author, he was best known for his work in archaeoastronomy— most of all, for his 1965 book, Stonehenge Decoded. In the early 1960s, Hawkins had used punch cards to load data modeling sun and moon movements onto magnetic tapes, then into an IBM 7090. The results led him to conclude, as the book argues, that the features at the monument were arranged in such a way as to predict a variety of astronomical events– that Stonehenge was a giant prehistoric observatory and computer. While some archaeologists are hesitant to accept Hawkins’ theories, many archaeoastronomers have built upon his work. More widely, scholars accept that the importance of astronomical alignment and large complexes being planned and constructed to fulfill cosmology has been demonstrated at other prehistoric sites, such as the Snake Mound and Cahokia in the U.S.

source

“Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate”*…

Punched cards have a long history in machine control (dating back to Jacquard) and computing (starting with Babbage‘s Difference Engine), but it was Herman Hollerith who brought them into modern computation in the late 1880s… where punch cards remained for about 100 years. From the Smithsonian’s American History Museum…

In the late 1880s, American engineer Herman Hollerith saw a railroad punch card when he was trying to figure out new ways of compiling statistical information for the U.S. Census. His first punch card, like those used on railways, only had holes along the edges. The meaning of each hole was indicated on the card. By the time Hollerith tabulating equipment was used in the 1890 U.S. Census, holes were scattered across the cards, although their meaning was not indicated on it.

Hollerith and his employees at the Tabulating Machine Company in Washington, D.C. soon developed punched cards for use in compiling information for commercial enterprises such as railroads. They and staff of the U.S. Census Bureau prepared improved machines—these devices are shown in the object group on tabulating equipment. By the 1920s, the United States had two major manufacturers of punch card equipment, International Business Machines (the descendent of the Tabulating Machine Company) and Remington Rand (the descendent of Powers Accounting Machine Company established by Russian emigré and former Census Bureau employee James Powers). Each manufacturer developed a distinctive standard punch card. IBM cards had eighty columns of rectangular holes while those of Remington Rand had ninety columns of circular holes. Tabulating machines were widely used in both government and commerce, with cards designed to meet the needs of customers. For example, checks issued by the U.S. government often came on punch cards.

When IBM and Remington Rand began selling electronic computers in the years following World War II, punch cards became the preferred method of entering data and programs onto them. They also were used in later minicomputers and some early desktop calculators. Punch cards surviving in the Smithsonian collections reflect the widespread use of computers – they announced scores on standardized tests, served as a library cards, were part of the proof of mathematical theorems, and kept medical records. Some are printed with the names of users, from university computer centers and computer clubs to the Library of Congress to Bell Laboratories…

Browse the collection: “Punch Cards for Data Processing“

See also: here, here, and here.

* Ubiquitous warning on punch cards:

… in the 1950s, after the invention of the computer and its widespread business use, that everyone began to see punch cards. Companies sent punch cards out with bills: the telephone company, utility companies, and even department stores realized that they could save a step in their billing process, as well as making it easier for them to process the returned check, by using the cards themselves as the bills. By the 1960s, punch cards were familiar, everyday objects.

While company employees could be trusted to take care of the cards, the person in the street could not. Warnings were necessary. In the 1930s the University of Iowa used cards for student registration; on each card was printed “Do not fold or bend this card.” Cards reproduced in an IBM sales brochure of the 1930s read “Do not fold, tear, or mutilate this card” and “Do not fold tear or destroy.” I’m not sure when the canonical “Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate” first appeared; it’s one of those traditions whose author and origin is lost in the mists of time. Let’s consider the words one at a time, stop and take them seriously…

– “A Cultural History of the Punch Card” (from 1991; eminently worth reading in full)

###

As we contemplate chads (of which, punch cards produced a gracious plenty), we might spare a thought for Gerald Hawkins; he died on this date in 2003. An astronomer and author, he was best known for his work in archaeoastronomy— most of all, for his 1965 book, Stonehenge Decoded. In the early 1960s, Hawkins had used punch cards to load data modeling sun and moon movements onto magnetic tapes, then into an IBM 7090. The results led him to conclude, as the book argues, that the features at the monument were arranged in such a way as to predict a variety of astronomical events– that Stonehenge was a giant prehistoric observatory and computer. While some archaeologists are hesitant to accept Hawkins’ theories, many archaeoastronomers have built upon his work. More widely, scholars accept that the importance of astronomical alignment and large complexes being planned and constructed to fulfill cosmology has been demonstrated at other prehistoric sites, such as the Snake Mound and Cahokia in the U.S.

source

Turned up in my Calishat Snaps: Tristan Davey’s Punch Card Archive. I think it launched around February 2025 but I’m not sure. “At their peak of use, in the 1950s and 60s, hundreds of companies around the world printed millions of punch cards every month. Yet within a few years of their obsolescence they all but disappeared from the public consciousness. This archive captures a small selection […]

Turned up in my Calishat Snaps: Tristan Davey’s Punch Card Archive. I think it launched around February 2025 but I’m not sure. “At their peak of use, in the 1950s and 60s, hundreds of companies around the world printed millions of punch cards every month. Yet within a few years of their obsolescence they all but disappeared from the public consciousness. This archive captures a small selection […]

Found in the Machine now has a bookshop on Bookshop.org! A Computing History list with books on the hidden labor behind the field, the pioneers who got written out, and the cultural history of computing.
Supports indie bookstores across the US and the podcast (affiliate). 🌟
https://bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine
#historyofcomputing #podcast #indieBookstore

Found in the Machine now has a bookshop on Bookshop.org! A Computing History list with books on the hidden labor behind the field, the pioneers who got written out, and the cultural history of computing.
Supports indie bookstores across the US and the podcast (affiliate). 🌟
https://bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine
#historyofcomputing #podcast #indieBookstore

@vivdunstan Yeah! #Hyperland also found it’s way to the Internet Archive >> https://archive.org/details/HyperlandBBSDouglasAdamsAndTomBaker1990

#HistoryOfHypertext #HistoryOfComputing #ComputerHistory

@vivdunstan Yeah! #Hyperland also found it’s way to the Internet Archive >> https://archive.org/details/HyperlandBBSDouglasAdamsAndTomBaker1990

#HistoryOfHypertext #HistoryOfComputing #ComputerHistory

Tom’s Hardware: Original Apollo 11 code open-sourced by NASA — original Command Module and Lunar Module code repos are now public domain resources. “The historic computer software code that took Apollo 11 to the moon has been open-sourced and is available for anyone to read, download, and tinker with. NASA’s Chris Garry made the code available on GitHub as public domain. The published […]

Tom’s Hardware: Original Apollo 11 code open-sourced by NASA — original Command Module and Lunar Module code repos are now public domain resources. “The historic computer software code that took Apollo 11 to the moon has been open-sourced and is available for anyone to read, download, and tinker with. NASA’s Chris Garry made the code available on GitHub as public domain. The published […]

How did PCs take over the world? Fire in the Valley breaks down the early battles, bold ideas, and big personalities behind Apple, Microsoft, and the tech revolution.
#Books #BookTokTech #HistoryOfComputing #TechNerd

How did PCs take over the world? Fire in the Valley breaks down the early battles, bold ideas, and big personalities behind Apple, Microsoft, and the tech revolution.
#Books #BookTokTech #HistoryOfComputing #TechNerd

How did PCs take over the world? Fire in the Valley breaks down the early battles, bold ideas, and big personalities behind Apple, Microsoft, and the tech revolution.
#BookTokTech #HistoryOfComputing #TechNerd #books

How did PCs take over the world? Fire in the Valley breaks down the early battles, bold ideas, and big personalities behind Apple, Microsoft, and the tech revolution.
#BookTokTech #HistoryOfComputing #TechNerd #books

A brief word of explanation - this is an old, old website, #historyofcomputing on the hoof, and a lot of stuff doesn't work. The last time I published to it was 2014, and even that was an attempt at revival after it had lain dormant since 2009. Some of it dates back to 1997 or so.

Everything pertinent to Jumbo works. Everything else is ... well. Don't bother notifying me of things that don't work, let's put it that way.

It's a miracle the blog works again, honestly.

I'm halfway through a reimplementation of Douglas Hofstadter's 1982 program Jumbo, the first implementation of his parallel terraced scan, and I've written a bit about it.

Explanatory blog post at http://www.vivtek.com/blog/jum-sprint-done.html, and that links to a PDF paper, the code, and a few explanatory pages on the project. Feedback welcome! But I'll keep plugging away regardless. It's got its teeth into me now.

#hofstadter #ai #historyofcomputing

New Interfaces article by CBI Senior Research Fellow William Aspray & Union College Prof. Emeritus David Hemmendinger "Using Reference Works to Study the Intellectual and Cultural History of Computing." It reflects on their terrific new book pictured below. #HistoryOfComputing #computers #AI #computerscience #technology #science #history

Interfaces:
cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces

New Interfaces article by CBI Senior Research Fellow William Aspray & Union College Prof. Emeritus David Hemmendinger "Using Reference Works to Study the Intellectual and Cultural History of Computing." It reflects on their terrific new book pictured below. #HistoryOfComputing #computers #AI #computerscience #technology #science #history

Interfaces:
cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces

L'OKI IF-800 Model 50 de 1983 est fascinant :
un ordinateur conçu comme infrastructure de bureau, avec Kanji natif et approche “système”.
Il montre pourquoi le Japon, malgré sa maîtrise technique, a perdu la bataille des standards mondiaux.

A lire : https://www.silicium.org/index.php/blog-catalogue/divers/oki-if-800-model-50

#RetroComputing #HistoryOfComputing #JapaneseTech #OKI #IF800 #DigitalHistory

L'OKI IF-800 Model 50 de 1983 est fascinant :
un ordinateur conçu comme infrastructure de bureau, avec Kanji natif et approche “système”.
Il montre pourquoi le Japon, malgré sa maîtrise technique, a perdu la bataille des standards mondiaux.

A lire : https://www.silicium.org/index.php/blog-catalogue/divers/oki-if-800-model-50

#RetroComputing #HistoryOfComputing #JapaneseTech #OKI #IF800 #DigitalHistory

En 1986, Compaq sort le Deskpro 386, premier PC 32 bits du marché.
Moment clé : IBM perd le contrôle de l’évolution du PC.
Un vrai tournant pour l’écosystème ouvert.

#RetroComputing #HistoryOfComputing #PC #silicium #retrocomputing

En 1986, Compaq sort le Deskpro 386, premier PC 32 bits du marché.
Moment clé : IBM perd le contrôle de l’évolution du PC.
Un vrai tournant pour l’écosystème ouvert.

#RetroComputing #HistoryOfComputing #PC #silicium #retrocomputing

📜 In the 1950s, Dr. Newell and Simon were developing the Logic Theory Machine to simulate human problem-solving. They faced a challenge: tracking an unpredictable number of logical statements. Early machines like ENIAC used fixed-size arrays, where the size had to be predefined.

🤔Want to know how they solved this, given those limitations?

👉 Read the full story here - "Story of The First Linked List" - https://priyabrata-paul-blog.hashnode.dev/story-of-the-first-linked-list

#HistoryOfComputing #DataStructures #LinkedList

Frances Elizabeth Allen: The Woman Who Made Code Run Fast – and Was Forgotten

https://voxmeditantis.com/2025/12/13/frances-elizabeth-allen-the-woman-who-made-code-run-fast-and-was-forgotten-because-it-worked/

#HackerNews #FrancesAllen #Legacy #WomenInTech #CodeOptimization #ComputerScience #HistoryOfComputing

Frances Elizabeth Allen: The Woman Who Made Code Run Fast – and Was Forgotten

https://voxmeditantis.com/2025/12/13/frances-elizabeth-allen-the-woman-who-made-code-run-fast-and-was-forgotten-because-it-worked/

#HackerNews #FrancesAllen #Legacy #WomenInTech #CodeOptimization #ComputerScience #HistoryOfComputing

Euler Conjecture and CDC 6600

https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/euler-conjecture-and-cdc-6600/10501

#HackerNews #EulerConjecture #CDC6600 #Mathematics #ComputerScience #HistoryOfComputing

Euler Conjecture and CDC 6600

https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/euler-conjecture-and-cdc-6600/10501

#HackerNews #EulerConjecture #CDC6600 #Mathematics #ComputerScience #HistoryOfComputing

Call for Applications: ACM History and Archiving Fellowship program, due 28th February 2026

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) History Committee plans to support up to 5 research projects with awards of up to $4,000 each. Call is at link below.
#historyofcomputing #softwarehistory #aihistory #history

https://history.acm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ACM-HC-fellowship-CFP-2026-final.pdf

Call for Applications: ACM History and Archiving Fellowship program, due 28th February 2026

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) History Committee plans to support up to 5 research projects with awards of up to $4,000 each. Call is at link below.
#historyofcomputing #softwarehistory #aihistory #history

https://history.acm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ACM-HC-fellowship-CFP-2026-final.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/12/move-over-alan-turing-meet-the-working-class-hero-of-bletchley-park-you-didnt-see-in-the-movies

Wonderful article about Tommy Flowers, Post Office engineer, and his crucial role in the history of computing.
#computing #historyofcomputing #bletchleypark

> It's really stunning that it does not mention the Scheme language

So very, very true.

There are several large pieces of history in this regard that deserve not only to be published, but to be studied well.

Just a properly written history of closures in computer programming would be worth its weight in gold.
Even a short history.

#Algol
#BlockStructure
#CallByName
#Closures
#HistoryOfComputing
#Lisp
#Scheme

@kentpitman @amoroso

> It's really stunning that it does not mention the Scheme language

So very, very true.

There are several large pieces of history in this regard that deserve not only to be published, but to be studied well.

Just a properly written history of closures in computer programming would be worth its weight in gold.
Even a short history.

#Algol
#BlockStructure
#CallByName
#Closures
#HistoryOfComputing
#Lisp
#Scheme

@kentpitman @amoroso

IMO Aspen Movie Map (1981) has still better concepts than google maps & #streetview today.

left video via: https://mprove.de/chrono3d?q=39.19068,-106.81934&z=17.13&r=98&t=69&d=0&s=1&i=1
right: https://www.google.com/maps/place/39%C2%B011'27.1%22N+106%C2%B049'12.3%22W/@39.1909152,-106.8200994,3a,60y,94.01h,95.62t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s5FFPJFs9kWvdhGgmUUmiuQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-5.617753428994192%26panoid%3D5FFPJFs9kWvdhGgmUUmiuQ%26yaw%3D94.00903749570698!7i16384!8i8192!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d39.19086!4d-106.82008?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDUxMy4xIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDUzSAFQAw%3D%3D

#HistoryOfComputing #computerhistory

Notation as a Tool of Thought (1979)

https://www.jsoftware.com/papers/tot.htm

#HackerNews #Notation #as #a #Tool #of #Thought #1979 #Notation #CognitiveTools #HackerNews #Programming #HistoryOfComputing

@RanaldClouston ⬆️ a great story of history of women in computing. #historyOfComputing #Latvia’n migrant to Australia

CBI for Computing, Information and Culture's Tomash Dissertation Fellowship application deadline (ABD req.) January 15th. This competitive fellowship supports a PhD student doing a dissertation focused on the history of computing, software or networking.

#historyofcomputing #historyofsoftware
@histodons
https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/adelle-and-erwin-tomash-fellowship-history-information-technology

During Analysis, Design & Architecture Conf I was in a few conversations that involved the history of computing. These are some recommendations on books about it https://www.roundcrisis.com/2018/10/04/recommended-history/

#historyOfComputing