Apr 19, 2026

The image of a mainframe is almost always accompanied by it's companion: the magnetic tape drive. For decades magnetic tape served as the medium of choice for computing. It was faster than punch cards, and more available than hard drives. But where did it come from? Is it a borrowed technology like the vacuum tube?

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Apr 4, 2026

In which we discuss GPSS: the General Purpose Simulation Language. As for as languages go, this is a unique one. It's designed for certain types of simulations. It's code is just a handy way to feed a flowchart into a computer. It's design is closer to an analog computer than it is to a programming language. Yet GPSS is...