Lmst

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Making News with Data
Tech and the Future of News

Apr 16, 2025 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.

https://computerhistory.org/events/making-news-with-data/

I've been traveling the past couple weeks, but I'm finally home and it feels good. This week's mug is one of my favorites that I picked up at the #ComputerHistoryMuseum

#MugShotMonday #Homebrew #RetroComputing #VintageComputing #coffee #tea

A white mug with a blue kettle on it. The kettle says "home brew".

I got distracted yesterday, but to continue what I promised:
Everyone who knows me, knows that I am slightly obsessed with the Zuse #z23. So I was happy to see (small) parts of it at the #ComputerHistoryMuseum.
But the choice of cards is slightly confusing.
This computer is built out of discrete transistor logic, on relatively low density cards. So what happened here is, they apparently selected 2 visually interesting cards and by doing so picked cards which are analog in nature and not part of the compute logic at all!

One of the cards has 601 visible, which is the identifier of this card type, which can be looked up in the official documentation, which luckily is hosted online by multiple universities.
This tells us, that this is actually part of the storage drum (think hard disk, but the data is on the side rather than on the top surface) and it's a "single impulse amplifier".
I totally see how that happens, as a card with 4 transistors and 4 resistors isn't visually interesting to look at.
I am also very aware, that I am probably one of 10, certainly less than 100 people alive, who would notice this.
We talk about an obscure German computer from the late 1950s after all.

https://museum.cs.rptu.de/Rechner/Zuse/Z23/Schaltbilder/Bausteine/Trommel/Ts601%20Einzelimpulsverstaerker.pdf

#Zuse #ZuseZ23 #CHM #retrocomputing

A small museum display with 2 brown boards with huge discreet electric elements soldered to them and only very few connecting pins on the edge of the board visible.
Above one of the cards is a small text describing the z23:

"Zuse Z23 circuit boards, ca. 1960s

The transistorized Z23 was a compatible successor to the vacuum tube Z22. It was an even bigger success: 98 units were made.

SAP Collection, Computer History Museum, 102668242, 102711701"

Since I will try to have a relaxed day, expect some sorted thoughts from the last week and in particular yesterday's museum visits.
I start with one of the most unusual exhibition pieces:
A Xerox Parc Beanbag Chair.

#CHM #ComputerHistoryMuseum

Picture of a mustard colored cord beanbag as they were used at Xerox PARC

E o que tivemos de novo no Computer History Museum recentemente?

https://retropolis.com.br/2025/02/24/chm-novidades/

#MundoRetro #AppleLisa #BillAtkinson #BillGates #BlizzardEntertainment #ComputerHistoryMuseum #IA #Jogos #museu #palestras #Retrocomputao #Starcraft #VCFWest #VintageComputerFestival #Warcraft

Went to #ComputerHistoryMuseum in #MountainView #California ... Fantastic ! Here some pictures ...

Went to #ComputerHistoryMuseum in #MountainView #California, and regret not taking pictures. Fascinating to see how all our lives unfolded within the displays.

When my son was 10 yrs old, all he wanted was a #Commodore64 computer. Being divorced, money was tight, I worked with his dad to combine a birthday and Christmas from both of us.

An hour after it was unboxed, my 10 yr old son was making a hole in the case with a screwdriver & hammer. He said he was installing a reset switch & did. 🤯

Computer History Museum, my natural habitat https://travelwithalefe.com/countries/united-states/cities/san-francisco/posts/29
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#unitedstates #california #sanfrancisco #siliconvalley #computerhistorymuseum #computermuseum #computer #oldcomputer #apple2 #appleii

Backlash on Generative AI
#computerhistorymuseum

@ambientspace @catselbow

Before a presentation at the #ComputerHistoryMuseum (I think in 2019) seated up front I happened to notice Donald Knuth (largely thanks to his name tag).

I introduced myself and thanked him for his work, which of course has had a big impact on mine.

Bob Supnik breaks the CVAX to make COBOL run faster:

#DEC #Digital #DigitalEquipmentCorporation #VAX #CVAX #COBOL #ComputerArchitecture #ComputerHistory #ComputingHistory #ComputerHistoryMuseum #CHM #BobSupnik

these small VAXs are so successful, the software group comes in with a request. They say, “You know, we think we could actually make COBOL work just as fast on these machines as on the big ones with all their fancy instructions if you just give us a few more instructions. And not even decimal instructions, just give us a few more of the character string instructions.” So, | do some trial coding. And it was yeah, yeah. It's-- it looks good. So, in like the last six weeks before tape out of the second pass, | insert these instructions in the microcode, do the verification, send it out in the field. | broke the machine. | had overlooked a sneak path where when they're interrupted and something particularly peculiar happens in the interrupt pack up process and, as a result, the interrupt never happens, and you're supposed to resume, the instruction goes haywire. So, | have now personally set the project back three months. And it's like all right, time to retire from microcoding. Time to let somebody else do this. But it’s still out in time.

El 17 de octubre de 2005, la Fundación Bill Gates y Melinda Gates dona 15 millones USD al Museo de Historia de la Computación, que tiene en su haber, artículos e historias de Silicon Valley
#retrocomputingmx #fundaciongates #computerhistorymuseum

Historical Microsoft and Apple Artifacts Among First Christie’s Auction of Living Computers Museum https://hackaday.com/2024/08/19/historical-microsoft-and-apple-artifacts-among-first-christies-auction-of-living-computers-museum/ #computerhistorymuseum #Retrocomputing #retrocomputing #News

@bitsplusatoms @kenshirriff Ken is *amazing*! Such a humble & nice & competent person! 🫶 I wish I could meet him (and #CuriousMarc ) some day!! But living in Germany doesn‘t make it easy … And back in 2013 when I was in California and visited the #ComputerHistoryMuseum I didn‘t know about them. 🙄🙈 #vcfwest

@rzbrk Look what I found in my photo library – photos of a #pdp8/e and a #pdp11/20 I took in 2013 at the #ComputerHistoryMuseum in Palo Alto! 😍
I wonder if @kenshirriff could tell us more about these, if they’re still there today and if they actually work?!

@newtontalk Great point! I wonder there's any chance that the #ComputerHistoryMuseum still has a contact at Qualcomm?

How did I miss that the #ComputerHistoryMuseum (#CHM) was able to negotiate not only publishing the #Eudora #Mac & #Windows source code from Qualcomm back in 2018, but re-licensing it under the BSD license?!

https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudora-email-client-source-code/

I wonder if anyone ever did anything with it?