Jul 26, 2020
A lot of the technology we associate with the modern day started on anachronistic machines. I'm not talking about mainframes, I'm talking older. Today we are looking at George Julius's Automatic Totalisator, an analog computer used to manage betting at horse tracks around the world. These were massively complex...
Jul 12, 2020
In 1974 Intel released the 8080 processor, a chip long in the making. It was the first microprocessor that had the right combination of power and price to make personal computers viable. But that same year a small group of employees defected and formed their own company called Zilog. Among this group were...
Jul 5, 2020
I recently got the chance to sit down and talk with Microsoft alumni Brad Chase. He was the product manager for Microsoft Works on the Macintosh, DOS 5, DOS 6, and the marketing lead for Windows 95 as well as much more. We talk about the Apple-Microsoft relationship, the groundbreaking launch of Windows 95, and what...
Episode 33 Notes - Kay's Portable Sketches
Jul 1, 2020
In 1972 Alan Kay published a paper called "A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages". In it's pages Kay offers the first description of a portable computer, what he calls the DynaBook. What makes this document so remarkable is that the computer it describes is shockingly modern. Despite being nearly 50 years old the...
