Historic computer pioneers

A Thought…

(Ars Technica letters on NASA’s refusing to require integrated end-to-end testing for the new moon-landing program)

Wickwick wrote: “Forgive me if I’m misunderstanding something, but if you’re testing "across multiple facilities," how can you be doing end-to-end testing?”

whiteknave wrote: “Simple. One end is in one facility, the other end is in another facility.”

mdrejhon wrote: “If you were testing a horse, you would have to saw the horse in half to test the front end and the rear end in distant facilities.

The horse will not function within the same nominal parameters if tested that way.”

Historic computer pioneers

Posted on 2023-Mar-05 at 10:28:00 by Phil

In this thread, I want to list various online articles relating to the history of people in computing, that is, the pioneers of the field. To start out, a couple of looks at Knnrad Zuse, creator of an astonishingly modern binary computer architecture in World War II Germany: here and here.

Posted on 2023-Mar-05 at 11:20:00 by Phil

Here is a series from the Computer Museum, featuring lectures by pioneers such as Zuse and Hopper: Part I and Part II.

Posted on 2023-Mar-06 at 13:48:00 by Phil

Here is a look (1996) at the origins of the personal computer industry by columnist Robert X. Cringely, featuring interviews with the Two Steves; Bill, Paul, and Steve; and many others: Part I and Part II.

According to this, Gary Kidall of Digital Research (CP/M fame) did not lose out on selling CP/M to IBM because he was out flying his plane (the usual story). What happened was… well, you can watch the show!

News:

A Thought…

Historic computer pioneers