Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchCSIRAC, Australia's First Computer
Episode 162
In 1949 CSIRAC sprung to life in a lab in Sydney, Australia. It was a very early stored program computer. All machines of the era were unique. But CS…
1 year ago
The IAS Machine
Episode 161
The first batch of digital computers emerge directly following WWII. The hallmark of this generation is uniqueness: no two computers are the same. Ho…
1 year, 1 month ago
What can Lunar Lander tell us about FOCAL?
Episode 160
Lunar Lander is one of the best loves video games of all time. The game was created in 1969 as an homage to the recent Apollo 11. From there it would…
1 year, 2 months ago
The Intel 286: A Legacy Trap
Episode 159
In 1982 Intel released the iAPX 286. It's was the first heir to the smash-hit 8086. But the 286 was developed before the IBM PC put an Intel chip on …
1 year, 2 months ago
INTERCAL RIDES AGAIN - Restoring a Lost Compiler
Episode 158
In 1973 the world caught it's first glimpse of INTERCAL. It's a wild and wacky language, somewhere between comedy and cutting satire. But the compile…
1 year, 3 months ago
Only S1 Users Will Survive!
Episode 157
The S1 operating system can do it all! It can run on any computer, read any disk, and execute any software. It can be UNIX compatible, DOS comp…
1 year, 3 months ago
RPG, a Different Paradigm?
Episode 156
How do you make a computer act less like a computer? It sounds like some kind of riddle, but in the early 1960s it was an actual problem. As IBM cust…
1 year, 4 months ago
LINC
Episode 155
In the early 1960s a neat little machine came out of MIT. Well, kind of MIT. The machine was called LINC. It was small, flexible, and designed to liv…
1 year, 4 months ago
ACTing Up
Episode 154
The LGP-30 is one of my favorite computers. It's small, scrappy, strange, and wonderous. Among its many wonders are two obscure languages: ACT-I and …
1 year, 5 months ago
The Keypact Mystery
Episode 153
When I was down at VCF SoCal I ran into a strange machine: the Keypact Micro-VIP. It's a terminal without a keyboard, covered in dials, with a speake…
1 year, 5 months ago