Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchStarting Windows Up
Episode 150
In the modern day Windows is a power house, but that wasn't always the case. In this episode we are looking at the fraught development of Windows 1.0. During development it was called vaporware, it w…
Published on 9 months, 2 weeks ago
IDRIS Is Not UNIX
Episode 149
This episode we are taking a trip back to UNIX world. We're looking at IDRIS, the first clone of UNIX. It was supposed to be highly compatible, but use no code from Bell Labs. IDRIS ran on everything…
Published on 9 months, 4 weeks ago
Is BLISS Ignorance?
Episode 148
In 1970 a little language called BLISS emerged from Carnegie Mellon University. It was a systems language, meant for operating systems and compilers. It was designed, in part, as a response to Dijkst…
Published on 10 months, 1 week ago
Molecular Electronic Computer
Episode 127
In 1961 Texas Instruments unveiled the Molecular Electronic Computer, aka: Mol-E-Com. It was a machine that fit in the palm of your hand, but had all the power of a much larger computer. This was in …
Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago
The Z4
Episode 146
The Z4, completed by Konrad Zuse in 1945, is a computer with a wild story. It was made from scrounged parts, survived years of bombing raids, moved all around Berlin, and eventually took refuge in ba…
Published on 11 months, 1 week ago
Zuse's Mysterious Machines
Episode 145
In 1933 Konrad Zuse, a German civil engineer, caught the computing bug. It would consume the rest of his life. According Zuse he invented the world's first digital computer during WWII, working in ne…
Published on 11 months, 3 weeks ago
RABBITS
Episode 144
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Published on 1 year ago
The Haunted Hard Drive
Episode 143
Have you ever felt like a computer just refuses to work? Like a machine has a mind of it's own? In 1970 a hard drive at the National Farmers Union Corp. office decided to do just that. That year it s…
Published on 1 year ago
OS and JEDGAR
Episode 142
This time we are diving back into the Jargon File to take a look at some hacker folklore. Back in the day hackers at MIT spent their time spying on one another's terminals. That is, until some intrep…
Published on 1 year ago
Computer Ruins Grocer
Episode 141
In 1962 Food Center Wholesale Grocers Inc installed a new IBM 305 RAMAC. That's when things started to go wrong. The faulty machine seemed to have a mind of it's own, and would spread chaos to grocer…
Published on 1 year ago