Source: BBC Business Date: October 17th, 2019 Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49842681 Discussion “Adam Smith, the father of economics, would have been proud of the way Clark was taking advantage of specialisation and the division of labour – perhaps his defining idea. The existing mainframes would keep on doing what they already did well. The new minicomputers would… Read more »
Posts Categorized: History of IT and IS
The extinct tech you forgot existed
A recent study has revealed which kinds of tech have stood the test of time – in terms of recognition, if not use. Source: BBC Future Date: August 20th, 2018 Link (to a gallery of 10 items): http://www.bbc.com/future/gallery/20180816-do-you-recognise-these-obsolete-technologies Discussion 1) “More than five billion floppy disks were sold per year worldwide at their peak in the mid-1990s” –… Read more »
Why didn’t electricity immediately change manufacturing?
For investors in Boo.com, WebVan and eToys, the bursting of the dotcom bubble came as a bit of a shock. Companies like this raised vast sums on the promise that the worldwide web would change everything. Then, in the spring of 2000, stock markets collapsed. Some economists had long been sceptical about the promise of computers. In… Read more »
Internet pioneer Robert Taylor dies
While working at the Pentagon in the 1960s, he instigated the creation of Arpanet – a computer network that initially linked together four US research centres, and later evolved into the internet. At Xerox, he later oversaw the first computer with desktop-inspired icons and a word processor that formed the basis of Microsoft Word. Source: BBC… Read more »
Programming in the early days of the computer age
Everyone remembers the first computer they ever used. And Joyce Wheeler is no exception. But in her case the situation was a bit different. The first computer she used was one of the first computers anyone used. The machine was Edsac – the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator – that ran for the first time… Read more »
Is there a place for old tech in the 21st Century?
It might have been the general consensus that the floppy disk, which was big in the 1980s, had had its day – but after the US government’s revelation that the technology remains in use at the Pentagon, enthusiasts wonder whether there is still a place for old tech in today’s hi-tech world? Source: BBC Technology Date: May… Read more »
Wesley A. Clark, Who Designed First Personal Computer, Dies at 88
Mr. Clark’s computer designs built a bridge from the era of mainframe systems, which were inaccessible to the general public and were programmed with stacks of punch cards, to personal computers that respond interactively to a user. He achieved his breakthroughs working with a small group of scientists and engineers at the Lincoln Laboratory of… Read more »
17 Ancient Abandoned Websites That Still Work
Source: Mental Floss Date: January 29th, 2016 Link: http://mentalfloss.com/article/53792/17-ancient-abandoned-websites-still-work Discussion 1) It has been said that we are destined to repeat our mistakes if we don’t understand history. How might a review of these “ancient” websites help us? 2) Why do you think these sites are still up and running, some of them 20 years after they are… Read more »
A Blackberry
Well before Apple’s iPhone, Blackberry kicked off the smartphone revolution and brought the office out of the office and into the tap-tap-tap grasp of workers all over the world. Source: BBC Tech Date: November 11th, 2015 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34741778 (includes a video) Discussion 1) For years, Blackberry was totally dominant as the smartphone of choice. Indeed, the company… Read more »
1971: The world’s first “commercially available personal computer”
Visionary John Blankenbaker, and his ground-breaking invention, the Kenbak-1 Digital Computer was a machine that first went on sale in 1971 and is considered to have been the world’s first “commercially available personal computer”, coming on to the market some five years before Apple 1. In fact it was a panel of experts, including Apple… Read more »
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