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A single line of code brought down a half-billion euro rocket launch
And it was so avoidable! The bug was from a piece of dead code, left over from the previous Ariane 4 mission a decade before.
Topics /
History & Retro Computing
The most popular blog posts about history & retro computing on Hacker News. 1,024 posts.
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Caltech professor helps solve Hindenburg disaster
Konstantinos Giapis delves into the science of the iconic accident for a PBS special.
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The little-known winstart.bat batch file
It had been there long before Windows 95, but nobody remembered.
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IBM System 360 Model 20 restoration: The big push
Well, where to start! The last few weeks have consisted primarily of anticipation, excitement, and towards the end, utter exhaustion. But finally, FINALLY, the IBM is home!
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How DRAM changed the world
From an idea in 1966 to a patent in 1968, DRAM has had an outsized impact on the world with its dynamic random access memory technology enabling everything from mobile phones to automobiles. Cheers to 50+ years of innovation!
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Did the Windows 95 setup team forget that MS-DOS can do graphics?
Oh look what you just made there.
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Fragments of a rare Merlin manuscript from c. 1300
Fragments of a rare Merlin manuscript from the 1200s discovered and digitised in a ground-breaking three-year project at Cambridge University Library.
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Why do Windows functions begin with a pointless MOV EDI, EDI instruction? (2011)
Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.
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Unix and Multics (2019)
Story from the development of the Multics operating system. Unix, our famous child.
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Boards of Casio
While working away on the CZP-1 , which was at least initially an effort to create a Casio CZ-101 on a web page I happened to see this YouTube video by oliveoil22:
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Trilobites killed by volcanic ash
Some of the most perfectly preserved trilobite fossils ever found have revealed details of the extinct arthropod unknown until now.
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NEC’s Forgotten FPUs
NEC had a cross license agreement with Intel dating back to April of 1976 that allowed each company to make/sell products based on each others patents. This was particularly important in the 1970’s as having a viable ‘second source’ for your designs was considered critical for it to be viable in the market. This was…
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Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 was awarded jointly to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel "for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics"
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History of ZFS Part 2: Exploding in Popularity
Discover how ZFS rapidly gained popularity from its inception at Sun, leading to the rise of OpenZFS. Learn about its journey in the second part of our series.
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How the Hunt Brothers Cornered the Silver Market and Then Lost It All
In 1980, two brothers from Texas controlled two-thirds of all the privately held silver on earth. This is the story of how one of history's biggest bets went bust.
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When XML in Word Became Illegal
Plus! A Sonos v. Google surprise, a 101 case rejects cert, and Celgene's REVLIMID
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Debian 8.4 released
[03 Oct 2016] Several donations boost reliability of Debian's core infrastructure [27 Sep 2016] The Debian Project mourns the loss of Kristoffer H. Rose [17 Sep 2016] Updated Debian 8: 8.6 released [09 Jul 2016] DebConf16 closes in Cape Town and DebConf17 dates announced [02 Jul 2016] Debian Edu / Skolelinux Jessie …
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Engineers put Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge design to the test
MIT engineers have analyzed a bridge design proposed by Leonardo da Vinci, and found that it would indeed have stood solidly, had it ever been built.
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The CIA-in-Chile Scandal at 50
Washington, D.C., September 9, 2024 – Fifty years ago, as the New York Times prepared to break a major exposé on CIA covert operations in Chile, the architect of those operations, Henry Kissinger, misled President Gerald Ford about clandestine U.S. efforts to undermine the elected government of Socialist Party leader…
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Lessons for software developers from 1970s mainframe programming
Meet the experts. Explore the digital magazine where innovators share tech strategies, executive insights, and advancements in AI and IT transformation.
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A closer look at the Tabula Peutingeriana
This map story is about one specific map, the only one remaining from the Roman …
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Ancient Egyptian Stone-Drilling (1983)
<p>More than most technical procedures in the ancient world, drilling of hard stone such as quartz and granite has evoked […]</p>