Andy van Dam, Brown University
CHM Fellow
#ComputerHistoryMuseum
Oral History Interview
Dec 2008

#ComputerGraphics #Hypertext
#DigitalHumanities

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-_M2lSm5N1M&feature=share

@yassie_j
Years ago, I took Gene Amdahl (IBM S/360 architect) around #ComputerHistoryMuseum, which had Gene’s 1st computer, the WISC, done at U Wisconsin. It had several bullet marks on it, left panel in image. I asked Gene if this was first example of user being angry at computer and shooting it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Integrally_Synchronized_Computer#/media/File%3AWisconsin_Integrally_Synchronized_Computer_(2102310007).jpg
Answer: no. When decommissioned at UW, a colleague took it home for consulting work, had a teenaged son who set targets for gun practice on top of it and sometimes missed low.

@rmn @aka_pugs
At the #ComputerHistoryMuseum, we have an Enigma, a small piece of Colossus, and a video on it and reconstruction of one from schematics (that Churchill ordered destroyed). But as usual, "first" is hard, in that Colossus was an electronic computer ... but rather special-purpose.
Note: I was lucky to meet David Wheeler once, and often talked to Maurice when he visited Palo Alto for Hot Chips, and then twice in Cambridge when I was doing talks there.

@nixCraft
And for folks interested in the history of Enigma, Colossus, we have one of the former and piece of the latter, plus discussions of recreation of a Colossus from schematics (that Churchill had ordered destroyed).
#computerhistorymuseum
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=colossus
And of course, much on Turing:
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=turing

#5yrsago A hard look at the wastefulness of “#ProofOfWork,” the core of the blockchain https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/05/22/bitcoins-stupendous-power-waste-is-green-apparently-bad-excuses-for-proof-of-work/

#5yrsago @cstross on the “soft genocide” of eugenics-tainted, alt-right climate dystopia https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2018/05/happy-21st-century.html

#5yrsago The #ComputerHistoryMuseum just published the sourcecode for #Eudora https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudora-email-client-source-code/

#5yrsago The company that made #GrenfellTower’s flammable, poisonous insulation used dangerous lies to make hundreds of sales https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-tower-fire-latest-inquiry-london-cladding-building-safety-uk-celotex-a8362186.html

11/

#5yrsago A hard look at the wastefulness of “#ProofOfWork,” the core of the blockchain https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/05/22/bitcoins-stupendous-power-waste-is-green-apparently-bad-excuses-for-proof-of-work/

#5yrsago @cstross on the “soft genocide” of eugenics-tainted, alt-right climate dystopia https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2018/05/happy-21st-century.html

#5yrsago The #ComputerHistoryMuseum just published the sourcecode for #Eudora https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudora-email-client-source-code/

#5yrsago The company that made #GrenfellTower’s flammable, poisonous insulation used dangerous lies to make hundreds of sales https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/grenfell-tower-fire-latest-inquiry-london-cladding-building-safety-uk-celotex-a8362186.html

11/

@mattblaze
I ran into Stewart at a #ComputerHistoryMuseum event.
He was delighted when I told him I'd particularly enjoyed that book, as I don't think many at that event knew of it.
A somewhat-related one includes Bell Labs:
https://www.amazon.com/Pastoral-Capitalism-Landscapes-Industrial-Environments/dp/026252614X

@secretgeek @unixorn @SteveBellovin @k8em0 @realhackhistory
Vernor of course was a CMPSC professor, always good at taking current research & extrapolating into good stories:
True Names: identity in cyberspace
Fire upon the deep: (galactic) social networks
Deepness in the Sky: smart dust computing
Rainbow’s End: augmented realityXsocial network disinformation
I got Vernor to speak at Hot Chips, then 2nd day took him around #ComputerHistoryMuseum after he got Hugo for Rainbow’s End. Fun!

@lauren In honor of this fact, the #ComputerHistoryMuseum has a SPAM display.

Another weekend, more treasures and artifacts to sift through. #computerHistoryMuseum #vintageElectronics

@jwildeboer
Recall that BWK coined name Unix (and not as AT&T said, to be one where Multics was many, but as Multics without b*lls), so joking was early.
Another joke: BWK was an associate editor for Prentice-Hall and once bugged me to write a book, saying you don't make money, but people think you know something. I suspect "the C Programming Language" has done $OK.
Finally, here's BWK's oral history I got for #computerhistorymuseum https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102740170

@brewsterkahle @carlmalamud
As in that presentation, I’d started using the term in my general-purpose talk, and it later joined Big Viz & Big Compute as SGI marketing theme, and I started doing talks featuring it… but
When I retired from SGI 2001, I more or less ignored it, until I got call from NYTtimes reporter in 2012 asking about the history. After that article appeared, I started getting calls from meetup groups & since I’ve been Trustee at #ComputerHistoryMuseum, seemed worth recording.

@Markoff @mattblaze
Well there has been a book or two, like this one, from which I learned much about someone I'd talked to at #ComputerHistoryMuseum:
https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Earth-Lives-Stewart-Brand/dp/B098Z69TV8

A really interesting group of speakers for an event on April 26th at the #ComputerHistoryMuseum for the 50th anniversary of the Xerox Alto.
https://computerhistory.org/events/the-legendary-alto-and-research-at-the-edge/?utm_campaign=2023-04%20Alto%20Event&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=253275843&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--RtCYgtM55Pw6_LPkjLF4N-X0DmRKUGitD4aVpRPwLB6BJ8WXNviWyeAK3ncraQ47zaaXBPMvmFIr0I9Uize0Ct2av632Yk-9_HZiGdO393nCpbbg&utm_content=253275843&utm_source=hs_email#register

@pleia2 and of course at #ComputerHistoryMuseum we have many S/360 artifacts & have had events:
https://computerhistory.org/events/360-revolution/
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=IBM+S%2F360

@ItzyG
Agreed & another trans women people may not know as well.
I was lucky to attend #ComputerHistoryMuseum Fellows award event for Conway, still have her book with Carver Mead:
https://mstdn.social/@JohnMashey/109882464505602795

For computing history fans, the University of Utah was *the* place for computer graphics & they're doing a 50th anniversary event:
https://www.cs.utah.edu/50th-anniversary-of-computing-at-the-university-of-utah-and-ieee-milestone-event-march-23-24-2023/
Yesteray's (7-hour)video is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUFp6sjKbkE
But for a really nice short one, see Tom Scott's 3-minute "The World's Most Famous Teapot: The Utah Teapot" done at the #computerhistorymuseum
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIxt9guMbXo
When I take people around, it's always fun to show them that one!

@stancarey
George Dyson is an excellent computing historian. We were lucky to have him at #ComputerHistoryMuseum years ago:
https://computerhistory.org/events/turings-cathedral-author-george-dyson/

Reading the story immediately preceding this reveals the tragedy.

1/2 picojoule/bit at 40 G/bs.

"Mitchell: Oracle’s not giving them that IP, so I don’t know what they’re doing exactly."

#ComputerHistoryMuseum

https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2019/05/102781074-05-01-acc.pdf

This is a story worth reading, for a a particular crowd. 🙂

''Mitchell: But the group in Cambridge, when they finally were going to close the doors on Acorn, the group went to Olivetti and made a deal that I think involved one dollar or something to say “Can we have the intellectual property for the Acorn RISC Machine?''

#ComputerHistoryMuseum
#ARM

https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2019/05/102781074-05-01-acc.pdf