Slashdot Mirror

Get a 10 on the Cool Meter!

If an emulator, however cool, gets a 10, then Steve "Slug" Russell playing it last month on the original hardware at the Computer History Museum, definitely goes to eleven.

While you 'Mercans were using women to do ballistics calculations over this side of the pond we had our purpose built babbage difference engines doing the job automatically. What do you mean, the first babbage engine was only completed in 2002? That's even later than the US arrives for wars!!! :-)

It isn't the analytical engine, but it works ... today ... and can be seen at the Computer History Museum in the SF Bay Area. http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/

Here are direct links to downloads (not slashdotted at time of posting):

MacPaint http://s3data.computerhistory.org/102658076_macpaint_acc.zip

QuickDraw http://s3data.computerhistory.org/102658076_quickdraw_acc.zip

Here are direct links to downloads (not slashdotted at time of posting):

MacPaint http://s3data.computerhistory.org/102658076_macpaint_acc.zip

QuickDraw http://s3data.computerhistory.org/102658076_quickdraw_acc.zip

• FTP
• Telnet
• FTP mail (which predated SMTP)
• UUCP
• Kermit
• IBM IMS
• INGRES
• the original MUD
• MRDS

• Maybe you should just read A Brief History of the Internet which lists FTP, email, telnet, NCP, TCP, UUCP, and BITNET gateways as being developed and in production before MS-DOS was released in 1982.

  CBBS was a dial-in BBS (think web forum without the WWW, HTTP, browser, or pretense) in 1978 on CP/M.

  IBM had terminals connecting to remote servers -- a serious precursor to proper client/server -- in 1964. The first ATM -- clearly a client-server technology -- was installed in 1970. Usenet was invented in 1979. Essex MUD was in 1979. Ask the Computer History Museum about networking.

  Creeper traversed networks in 1971. Wikipedia calls it a virus, but the description they give is more of a worm. It ran on TENEX and infected systems over ARPANET.

  In 1971, RFC 189 described a method and system for submitting jobs to a mainframe from remote systems over ARAPANET and to receive the results. It includes the connections, protocols, the mapping of ASCII to EBCDIC for systems that used ASCII to not need to translate on their end, a name for the whole thing (NETRJS), and several details of implementation.

  Need any more examples?

  Why yes, yes, computer history is a hobby of mine.

With SYSTEM/360 you get the largest low-cost core memory ever offered. [...] The main memory comes in sizes up to 512,000 characters. To this you can add up to 8 million characters of bulk core memory.

Why would you ever need more than that?

Apple has been a closed platform pretty much since the very beginning.

You mean the Macintosh platform has been a closed platform since the beginning. Apple's first platform, the Apple I, was so open it came with source code and schematics.

It's hard to tell from the photograph, but I think the circular circuit board is a probe ring for an automated integrated circuit tester. The chip is placed in the hole in the center of the circuit board. Probe pins, like these, are placed on the gold area around the hole in the center to contact the pads of the IC under test. The other side of the pins are connected to the inner ring of contact points on the circuit board (just outside the gold area), which are, in turn, connected to the rows of contact points at the periphery of the board. These points are big enough for human beings to connect test equipment cables to.

It's an example of the transition needed from the micro- (or even nano-) world of integrated circuits to the human-scale physical world.

For those of us on the West Coast, there is the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The California museum also has an Enigma and a Cray-1* (complete with benches), as well as a piece of ENIAC, an original Google server, a System 360, pieces from Apollo, and even a working Babbage Difference Engine. The focus is not on cryptography--rather the general history of computing--but there are plenty of pieces of cryptographic history and codebreakers in their collection.

(*I *thought* it was the Cray-1, rather than the -2, that had benches, but I could be mistaken.)

The May 1975 issue of IEEE Computer magazine had a one-page ad from MITS for the Altair 8800. In the ad, they mention their "DOS Extended BASIC Language System for $6649" for an Altair with 16K memory, terminal and interface, "disc controller and 2 disc drives, DOS and Extended BASIC software."

And another:

An IMSAI ad in June 1976, mentions a "floppy controller with on-board processor and DOS"

So obviously not only was the term DOS being used for Micro-Soft's BASIC-oriented OS in 1976, it was being used on 8080 computers from multiple manufacturers, and as we established earlier, being widely pirated (or at least widely enough for Bill to complain loudly). Case closed, and be careful arguing with old guys about history they lived through. Sometimes we can still remember stuff!

The sad thing about the Computer Museum is that almost nothing there works. The Difference Engine replica is about it, and that's entirely mechanical. Some people tried to restore an IBM 1620 back in 1999, but they never got it working.

It's almost the last computer museum, too. The ones in Boston, San Diego, and Germany went bust. There's one still open in Bozeman, Montana. There are a few others which are just stuff in storage. That's about it.

The history of this field disappears very fast.

If you're going to be in California:

For kids and adults -- the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose -- http://www.thetech.org/

A little farther north -- The Computer History Museum in Mountain View (it's only a couple hundred yards off 101, so it's the easiest of all to hit) -- http://www.computerhistory.org/

Somewhat farther north in San Carlos, again just a hair off 101 -- The Hiller Aviation Museum -- http://www.hiller.org/

In San Francisco -- The Exploratorium -- http://www.exploratorium.edu/ -- possibly the most fascinating place you'll ever see -- lots of hands-on science.

That's four within about a 50 mile stretch.

Remember:

When you go to New York, people ask, "What plays did you see?"

When you go to San Francisco, they ask, "Where did you eat?"

• Ask your local science museum if they have an AI Mind exhibit. If they do not, volunteer to install MindForth as an AI exhibit.See which museum is the home of the oldest living artificial intelligence.Albuquerque NM -- New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
• Baltimore MD -- Maryland Science Center Berkeley CA -- Lawrence Hall of Science Bloomingtown IN -- Wonderlab Museum of Science, Health, & Technology
  Boston MA -- Museum of Science
• Brantford, Ontario, Canada -- Personal Computer Museum
• Charlotte NC -- Discovery Place
• Chicago IL -- Museum of Science and Industry
• Columbus OH -- Center of Science and Industry (COSI)
• Detroit MI -- Detroit Science Center Jersey City NJ -- Liberty Science Center Kansas City MO -- Science City at Union Station
• Los Angeles CA -- the California Science Center
• Louisville KY -- the Louisville Science Center
• Manchester UK -- Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI)
• Mobile AL -- the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center
• Mountain View CA -- Computer History Museum
• New York City NY -- the New York Hall of Science
• Norwich VT -- Montshire Museum of Science
• Philadelphia PA -- the Franklin Institute Science Museum
• Pittsburgh PA -- Carnegie Science Center
  • with RoboWorld exhibit showing how robots
    • sense;

wear flowers in your hair, and visit:

Exploratorium. This is the original hands on museum.
The Golden Gate Park: Strybing Arboretum, Beautiful, stunning diversity, reminder of what that giant ball in the sky is for... oh and, ummm.... Biological Studies.
California Academy of Science is nice too, as is the DeYoung.

Over the bridge in Berkley is the Lawrence Hall of Science. I remember spending a little time with Liza there on a Pdp-11!
Chabot Space and Science Observatory is a great little place to study the stars.
Shockly's Semiconductor Labratory is also nearby: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley_Semiconductor_Laboratory. Not much to see, but Palo Alto is a mecca of technology.

and of course, the Computer History Museum.

http://www.computerhistory.org/about/

I second the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California.

Everything from a working Difference Engine to the Crays and Connection Machines that we kids dreamed about in the 80s. A fully-functional PDP-1; it still plays Slug Russel's "Space War". Within an hour's drive of anywhere in the Bay Area.

I'll see your computers and raise you some nukes. Next time you're in Vegas for some trade show or conference, take a day and see the Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Thankfully, there's nothing fully-functional here, but there lots of fascinating artifacts nonetheless. Everything from Einstein's letter to Roosevelt, to bits and pieces of a NERVA nuclear rocket prototype, to engineers' notebooks filled with humorous mementos of projects they'd worked on, to Doc Edgerton's impossibly-fast cameras. Within a 10 minute cab ride from the Strip.

Although both museums have material suitable for laypeople and/or children, they're targeted primarily at adults with engineering backgrounds. Expect to spend at least 3 hours at each of 'em.

Nukes are pretty cool, but you can have a lot more fun with a bunch of used pinball machine parts. And everything is fully functional in the Pinball Hall of Fame. Hey, you're already in Vegas -- flashing lights and wacky sounds are what it's all about. You won't need a DeLorean to go back in time, and it'll cost a lot less per hour than the blackjack tables.

The Computer History Museum is free and has an unbelievable collection of computer artifacts. It is in the Bay Area, so there are lots of other things you can see in San Francisco, San Jose, etc. I will leave recommendation of those up to others who will certainly chime in.

Here is a link to the museum: http://www.computerhistory.org/

Enjoy your trip!

Todd

TI Silent 700 Ad: See how much progress was made in 8 years? :-)

Is this news or ignorance? Over ten years ago a physical version of the "first" computer, the Manchester Baby, was rebuilt. This simulation is interesting, but it isn't "news" compared to some other projects in the history of computing or even the simulation of the history of computing. See computer50.org for more about what happened at Manchester 60 years ago, the Computer History Museum computerhistory.org, for a general overview and some really impressive displays and reconstructionos, or even the Computer History Simulation Project http://simh.trailing-edge.com/ for a hint at how simulation can be done.

...throw in some business management courses

Agreed. I'm 55 and I've been writing software since 1972. I only have an AAS -- I don't think CS degrees even existed when I was in school. Life was good until Jan, but then I was RIFed (first time for me). Now I'm bobbing along in a sea of baccalaureal hammerheads. Ever see the movie "Open Water"? Feels like that. I'm also going to try to get some relevant education and a degree or certification, since I have access to govt Trade Adjustment Allowance (TAA) funding ($13k). That should cover .... um .... about 2 hours of first year art history at Carnegie-Mellon SEI. Yee-ha. And meanwhile the COBRA will be eating $1100/mo.

Some unrelated observations/opinions:

• Older IT workers are generally better compensated, either because they've been loyal to the company, or they've amassed a substantial base of industry-relevant knowledge.
• Expensive workers float to the head of the RIF list.
• The cost of hiring a full-time worker is considerable. Virtues like flexibility, the willingness to learn and adapt, and the ability to "fit" into the culture and infrastructure of a company can be far more important than a canned education. These traits can be the hallmarks of older workers; at least I hope they are for me. Granted, I have worked with some crotchety, stubborn, command-line, two-finger-hunt-and-peck old coots.
• Younger, agile brains can more easily think outside the box.
• Older, more experienced brains know there's more than one box.
• A previous post mentioned the "ten thousand hours" threshold to achieve competency on a subject (probably referring to the book "Outliers"). On how many chips, operating systems, languages, and applications can you claim that kind of proficiency? Multiply that by 6 the next time you see one of us old farts. I don't wish to be judgmental, pedantic or dismissive. To provide some balancing perspective, I'll acknowledge that 60% of my accumulated proficiency would only be demonstrable in a museum.
• I know the lyrics of every "Beach Boys" song, but I'll be damned if I remember where I parked the truck.
• Twitter? No thanks. You really don't want to get me started on my prostate....

Back in my university days, we used these for offline archival.

I worked with punched cards as a student in the 60's, and at my first job in the 70's. It was kind of neat. Editing source code consisted of shuffling cards. To 'insert' or 'delete' a character, you had to press hard on the card to prevent it from dup'ing in synch with the other card. We invented the 240-column card (three four-bit digits per column).

Compiling a 4,000-line assembler program took 40 minutes. When cards jammed and tore, you had to re-key them manually.

In the late 80's, the Boston Computer Museum had an excellent working display of punched card equipment. They closed, but their exhibits were shipped to a computer museum in Mountain View, CA. http://www.computerhistory.org/

They sell a DVD of a movie that shows the early days of computing, including scientists manually copying results displayed on a primitive CRT: "See how they ran". ahref=http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/VT%20298rel=url2html-8937http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/VT%20298>, which I seem to recall runs longer than 17 min.

PS: I never dropped, nor saw dropped, a tray of cards. Besides, they were sequence-numbered and could be re-sorted.

If you're serious, give the folks at the Computer History Museum a ring and see if they have any advice. But, be prepared for disappointment. There are many 40-50 year old pieces in their collection that don't work anymore, and it's kinda hard to get parts with how quickly tech changes.

...opening a sealed original package. Cut its value on the collectibles market by 50%, easy.

The Computer History Museum has one of these but it is not in original packaging. Original packaging, even when opened, greatly adds to the historic, research (and sale) value.

I take it many of you have never got to a Vintage Computer Festival http://www.vintage.org/ Where people bring in their home computers to show off - as an example with one this guy's computers: http://www.vintage.org/pictures/LARGE/VCF%207.0%20Exhibitor%20-%20Pavl%20Zachary.JPG (it's tough being a DEC fan)

The guy who runs the Festival, Sellam Ismael (hope I spelled it right), certainly has a sizable warehouse for his collection.

The West Coast US VCF has been held at the Computer History Museum, which is truly a massive collection of computers you are not likely to see anywhere else: http://www.computerhistory.org/

My collection is mainly Commodore 8-bits, about 30 or so, pretty tiny.

You would really need to be a Bomar Brain to do such work.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Computer History Museum hosts its home page on an ENIAC replica, as I believe we just slashdotted this site though the *comment* section.

I mean, c'mon. Do that many of us really live in Mountain View?

For those curious, like I was, here are the original Google server pictures missing from the Wayback Machine's archive.

And if you're ever in Mountain View, CA, you can see one the first production server racks from 1999, as well as the Lego (actually Duplo) blocks that housed the original 1998 beta server shown in your link.

The artifacts can be viewed by the public at the Computer History Museum, along with everything from a Difference Engine, an Enigma machine, parts of ENIAC, numerous Crays, a restored and working PDP-1, an Apple I, and pretty much everything else you can imagine.

No visit to the Bay Area is complete without a trip to the Computer History Museum.

``The initial test involved VOIP! (You can see the truck used for testing the internet at the Computer History Museum. http://www.computerhistory.org/events/ index.php?id=1191351626)''

But...but...I thought the Internet was _not_ a truck???

Somehow I doubt that Al Gore played a significant role in democratizing the information age. That role would fall to a new category of leaders. And I think you of all people should know :)

Al Gore was instrumental in securing funding for the development of the internet. One can infer that the internet was always intended to eventually make its way to public use based on its initial test: The initial test involved VOIP! (You can see the truck used for testing the internet at the Computer History Museum. http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1191351626)

Furthermore, if you take the time to watch the video, you can listen to Vint Cerf's attitude towards internet. The internet was a way to make multiple networks talk to each other. Vint seemed to indicate that he always pushed for IP to be the protocol used to connect different networks together, which is why it beat OSI.

Thus, I think we can infer that there was always an intent to make the internet public and we can thank Al Gore for helping to fund its development. That's what Vint seems to indicate.

Around 1998 I saw a poster for Intel with an image similar to this one: http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/images/1993_intel_pentium_large.jpg But with much more colour, in a shop as advertisment, I have never forgotten it, and it still amazes me.

Speaking of which, there are two replicas (originals?) of Babbage's Analytical Engine which actually work and are demonstrated with their original algorithms.

I remember reading somewhere that the museums sell list of primes calculated by the machine, with Ada's original code, but I can't find the link right now. (Or was it roots of a polynomial?)

Those would certainly count as the oldest program still running, but I can't find more info on the program being demonstrated ATM.

There are two operating Babbage Difference Engine No. 2's, one in the London Science Museum, and one on loan to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Not sure about today, but yesterday the one at the Computer History Museum was set up to produce actual log table results, and being hand cranked by a docent. The Computer History Museum also has an operating PDP-1 capable of running the original Spacewar! code.

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/

http://www.computerhistory.org/restorations/

There are two operating Babbage Difference Engine No. 2's, one in the London Science Museum, and one on loan to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Not sure about today, but yesterday the one at the Computer History Museum was set up to produce actual log table results, and being hand cranked by a docent. The Computer History Museum also has an operating PDP-1 capable of running the original Spacewar! code.

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/

http://www.computerhistory.org/restorations/

Ada Bryon's Notes on the analytical engine contains the oldest running code today. It can be run here.

Of course Charles Babbage holds the claim for longest vaporware project at 153 years. And also apparently the longest unfixed bug.

In this 1982 talk, Robert Noyce says John Von Neuman made that prediction:

http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/moving-image/robert_noyce.102630513.wmv

I find that equally unlikely. On the other hand, if Watson did say that in 1943 then he was right for about a decade which is pretty good as computer market predictions go.

If you view the Past Events on the Computer History Museum, you will see all of the talks, in quite high-quality WMV files.

http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?view=previous&section=calendar

In addition, there is a website called http://archive.computerhistory.org/ which apparently functions as somewhere they stash files that they don't mind being public, but don't care enough to yell loudly about. There are a lot of cool videos there! Highly recommended.

Also highly recommended is the Computer History Museum itself. It is an incredibly exciting place to go. It's about two or three stone's throws from the Googleplex, in Mountain View, in an old SGI building. Go there. Donations also recommended, because in short: They do extremely important work, they're the only ones who do it well enough, and they've got extremely skilled people there.

I am not affiliated with the museum, but I do wear the "Volunteer" shirt with some amount of pride. :)

If you view the Past Events on the Computer History Museum, you will see all of the talks, in quite high-quality WMV files.

http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?view=previous&section=calendar

In addition, there is a website called http://archive.computerhistory.org/ which apparently functions as somewhere they stash files that they don't mind being public, but don't care enough to yell loudly about. There are a lot of cool videos there! Highly recommended.

Also highly recommended is the Computer History Museum itself. It is an incredibly exciting place to go. It's about two or three stone's throws from the Googleplex, in Mountain View, in an old SGI building. Go there. Donations also recommended, because in short: They do extremely important work, they're the only ones who do it well enough, and they've got extremely skilled people there.

I am not affiliated with the museum, but I do wear the "Volunteer" shirt with some amount of pride. :)

As noted in passing above, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA has an IBM 305 RAMAC on display. This RAMAC is in process of being restored to working condition as noted here. The restoration process, as documented on the magnetic disk heritage club club web page, seems to have been rather lengthy and meandering -- not surprising for a volunteer-run project that has moved multiple times and had changing personnel. Some interesting photos, schematics, and wave-forms are in the PDF progress reports at the sjmdhc site.

As noted in passing above, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA has an IBM 305 RAMAC on display. This RAMAC is in process of being restored to working condition as noted here. The restoration process, as documented on the magnetic disk heritage club club web page, seems to have been rather lengthy and meandering -- not surprising for a volunteer-run project that has moved multiple times and had changing personnel. Some interesting photos, schematics, and wave-forms are in the PDF progress reports at the sjmdhc site.

Computer History Museum has an event next Monday "Impact of the Commodore 64: A 25th Anniversary Celebration". Here is the link: http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1193702785 This event is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the C64. Speakers will include Adam Chowaniec, Chairman of the Board, Liquid Computing, William C. Lowe, Chief Executive Officer and President, NEPS, Jack Tramiel, Founder and CEO, Commodore International, Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder, Apple Computer, and Moderator, John Markoff, New York Times Journalist

trying to promote removing the "PC" from making any money what-so-ever in the U.S., ironically the country that invented the PC.

A French company invented, marketed, and sold the first personal computer, the Micral, in 1973.

I dont know about other slashdotters but I was rather unimpressed with the 7 wonders of the IT world. Not much on there in the way of impressive other than my boy blue. What about impressive symbolic marvels like The Teapot which were the icons of modern Graphics shaping science and technology. Or code that drives technology like C++ or Perl, or dare I even say it, BASIC. These current wonders are very temporary whereas the original wonders are a bit more timeless, more representative of human innovation than just something that looks cool.

My personal favorite was Peter Jennings Microchess, written in 1976 for a computer called the Kim-1.

http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/main.php?sec= thm-42f15c9b2be73&sel=thm-42f15cab2be73

Top this: this is a program that plays chess. It does not play it well, but it does accept input and makes a legal move in response. How long is the program?

838 bytes.

Yes, bytes, no k or M prefix.

You can see the entire hex listing here:

http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/ related_materials/text/4-1.MicroChess_%20Manual_fo r_6502.Micro-Ware/MicroChessManual.PETER_JENNINGS. 062303071.sm.pdf

Check page 24/41.

My personal favorite was Peter Jennings Microchess, written in 1976 for a computer called the Kim-1.

http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/main.php?sec= thm-42f15c9b2be73&sel=thm-42f15cab2be73

Top this: this is a program that plays chess. It does not play it well, but it does accept input and makes a legal move in response. How long is the program?

838 bytes.

Yes, bytes, no k or M prefix.

You can see the entire hex listing here:

http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/ related_materials/text/4-1.MicroChess_%20Manual_fo r_6502.Micro-Ware/MicroChessManual.PETER_JENNINGS. 062303071.sm.pdf

Check page 24/41.

Then there was buying Cray, and selling the SMP Sparc based system to Sun,

I thought SGI were forced to split Cray up in order to conform to anti-monopoly legislation.

Though, I still find it hard to believe that SGI's original corporate headquarters (Building 20) became a
computer history museum.

When Sun said they were going to make SGI history, they weren't kidding.

What about me? I'm not important and I hardly ever post here any more, so... oh, wait.

And to apologize for that lame joke, here's some research:
The Computer History Museum has transcripts and interviews, but no source: http://search.computerhistory.org/search?q=macpain t&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&site=chm_collection&client =chm_collection&proxystylesheet=chm_collection&out put=xml_no_dtd
Another interview with the original reference to putting MacPaint in there: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/transcripts/001 .html

I agree that code written to the Tcl/Tk style guide is clean, though messy Tcl exists. Sort of like Perl, the language everyone loves to blame for their sophomore code.

Play Spacewar here:

http://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/play_spacewar .html

Nitpick: It was a PDP-1, one of which has been restored to working order, much to the delight of Spacewar's creators.

But everything else you said was essentially correct, including the homebuilt input device, which consists of five switches laid out in a pattern that anyone who played the coin-op versions of Spacewar and Asteroids will immediately recognize.

"Fact 1: MIT has granted Full Professorships to people without degrees."

Can you cite an example, please?

I don't believe that Ed Fredkin has any degrees (except probably honorary ones, I've seen him titled as "Dr." and he is certainly deserving), but he was appointed a full professor at MIT in electrical engineering in the sixties, while on his way to becoming a pioneer in artificial intelligence (reversible computing, the Fredkin Gate, etc.) and establishing his concept ("digital physics/philosophy") that the universe can be represented as a discrete/finite cellular automata, or essentially as a computer program. He dropped out of Caltech at 19 to become a fighter pilot and built his experience at MIT Lincoln Labs and through a career as an early computer entrepreneur, working with the PDP-1. He has held other positions as a professor in physics and is currently a "Distinguished Career Professor" at Carnegie Mellon.

I'm certain there are other examples where MIT professors lacked advanced degrees particularly in the early computing days and where successful entrepreneurs have returned for appointments. Certainly this is common at Ivy league schools such as Harvard where former politicians and other notable figures frequently hold appointments. To someone's point about accreditation, certainly the qualifications of the faculty are an important component but this does not generally require that 100% of teaching or research staff hold advanced degrees, particularly if they have practical experience and/or published research.