31
SR-71 Blackbird Speed Check Story
There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this...
Topics /
History & Retro Computing
The most popular blog posts about history & retro computing on Hacker News. 97 posts.
32
33
34
The machines of Tatjana van Vark
Building scientific instruments from the past, along with other technical projects.
35
Shining a light on the digital dark age
Without maintenance, most digital information will be lost in just a few decades. How might we secure our data so that it survives for generations?
36
Red Hat 30th anniversary
To help us celebrate three decades of open source innovation, State of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper declared March 26, 2023, as Red Hat Day across North Carolina.
37
Leonardo da Vinci’s experiments explored gravity as a form of acceleration
A new look at da Vinci’s papers reveals his insightful attempts to probe the nature of gravity 500 years ago
38
39
In 1961 a Gallup poll showed only 33% of Americans in favor of moon landing
Today marks the 54th anniversary of the moon landing. In retrospect it has almost unanimous support and adoration in the US: pleasing the left as an example of the power of public funding and the right as a triumph of the capitalist west against the
40
Mach 3.5 Over Libya in an SR-71 Blackbird
In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111's had inflicted. Qaddafi had established a 'line of death,' a territorial marking…
41
Thirty Years Ago: MS-DOS 6.00
A retrospective on MS-DOS 6.00 and my small contributions to the product.
42
Archaeologists discover oldest wooden structure
Archaeologists discover world’s oldest wooden structure
43
Happy 50th Birthday, Ethernet
Why has Ethernet endured as a ubiquitous data framing protocol over all these years?
44
NetHack 3.6.7
This release primarily corrects a security issue present in NetHack versions 3.6.2, 3.6.3, 3.6.4, 3.6.5, and 3.6.6. For details about the security issues please see https://www.nethack.org/security . You are encouraged to update to NetHack 3.6.7 as soon as possible.
45
46
47
Canaries in coal mines (2018)
Have you ever wondered what our curators' favourite collection items are? Here, assistant curator Lewis takes us through his rather surprising pick.
48
Google was incorporated 25 years ago on September 4 1998
Find out where it all began. Read the history of how Google has grown since Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the company in 1998.
49
AARON: AI Art Generator from 1973
Harold Cohen (1928 – 2016) explored AI and art for nearly 50 years before we saw the rising popularity of these new machine learning tools. In those five decades, Cohen worked on a single program called Aaron that involved teaching a robot to create drawings. Aaron’s education took a similar pa
50
Gordon Moore, Intel Co-Founder, Dies at 94
Moore, who set the course for the future of the semiconductor industry, devoted his later years to philanthropy.
51
A History of the Amen Break: From the Winstons to Futurama and Om Unit
How did a six second drum sample go on to inspire entire sub-genres of music? Let's examine the history of the Amen Break.
52
53
Unearthing a long-ignored African writing system
When BU’s Fallou Ngom found a note written by his late father, in a language that looked like Arabic but sounded like Wolof, it opened the door to a lifetime of discovery in African language and history.
54
The KDE Free Qt Foundation: 25 Years of Celebration
We are celebrating 25 years of the KDE Free Qt Foundation.
55
Hedy Lamarr (2018)
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress and inventor who pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for today’s WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems
56
C.R. Rao: A Life in Statistics (2020)
Presently into the 100th year of his life of vast experience, living in his Buffalo residence, here is a video message communicated by his daughter when he turned 99, at the beginning of a year-long celebration, with conferences in his honour at various places.
57
Nintendo 64 Test Cart ROM
We were sent a Nintendo 64 test cartridge ROM that was dumped anonymously. Zoinkity wrote up a nice readme explaining the details which is included in the 7ZIP file we’ve uploaded to the Internet Archive for safekeeping. Download it by clicking here .
58
Black currants were banned in the USA (2017)
Do you know what got black currants banned? They nearly destroyed a huge part of American forests. Find out how this healthy berry became a threat.
59
Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits
What did Vincent van Gogh look like? His self-portraits provide a good indication. Read on to find out all about them.
60
