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There should be more cash prizes for solving historical mysteries
On the Herculaneum scroll and the underrated value of historical knowledge
Topics /
History & Retro Computing
The most popular blog posts about history & retro computing on Hacker News. 3,229 posts.
3002
How early American inventors funded their ventures
From Colt's traveling show to the Wrights' bicycle shop
3003
Software woven into wire: Core rope and the Apollo Guidance Computer
Onboard the Apollo spacecraft, the revolutionary Apollo Guidance Computer helped navigate to the Moon and land on its surface. One of the f...
3004
Inside the ALU of the 8085 microprocessor
The arithmetic-logic unit is a fundamental part of any computer, performing addition, subtraction, and logic operations, but how it works i...
3005
The Beautiful Islands of San Serriffe (2016)
Some printers at a newspaper in the UK made a funny joke about fake islands
3006
RISC on a Chip: David Patterson and Berkeley RISC-I
David Patterson and team at UC Berkeley give RISC its name and make the first RISC microprocessor design.
3007
The Core Memory Module from my dad’s homebuilt PDP-11/05
This is basically the 1974 version of a DIMM. It measures 16″ by 11.5″ and holds 16 kilobytes. It’s technically 18 bits wide but only 16 were used in the PDP-11. The raised part in the middle is where the cores are actually stored. Each bit is a little ring with 3 wires running through the middle. By running current…
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The Demon Machine
Over the weekend I was reunited with the first two computers I spent extensive time programming. The Sharp MZ-80K (released in 1979) and t...
3010
Tolkien’s Little-Known Original Drawings for the First Edition of “The Hobbit”
A lively new look at one of the most beloved fantasy stories of all time.
3011
In the Shadow of John McCarthy
John McCarthy was a genius of the highest order. Much is known about his contribution to Lisp as its inventor, but he was also the mind behind much of early AI research, the progenitor of much of computer chess, and the initiator of time-sharing. As a Lisp advocate I have many thanks due to John McCarthy and it…
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Robert and Virginia Heinlein's Colorado Springs House
Socolive là địa chỉ được nhiều người hâm mộ bóng đá tìm đến khi muốn cập nhật và theo dõi trực tiếp bóng đá trên nền tảng trực tuyến. Nội dung tại Socolive được xây dựng xoay quanh nhiều giải đấu và cuộc đối đầu đáng chú ý, giúp người xem dễ dàng tìm thấy trận đấu đang được quan tâm. Cách phân loại thông tin theo từng…
3014
Myth Busting Banksy
The recent incident around Banksy embedding a shredder into the frame of his Girl With A Balloon has caught the world’s attention. As a nerd obsessed with the intersection of art and tech, I too was sucked in over the weekend in trying to unravel the mysteries behind Banksy’s self-shredding paint
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Film Review: BlackBerry
The Greatest business film ever made... in Canada
3017
Why the iPhone will fail (2007)
The forthcoming (June 29) release of the Apple iPhone is going to be a bigger marketing flop than Ishtar and Waterworld (dating myself aga...
3018
3019
Atari 520ST Review in Creative Computing – By Paul Lefebvre
The Atari 520ST was released in the US in July 1985, but because Atari did not provide magazines with pre-production models (like Commodore did with the Amiga), it took a while before magazine reviews appeared.
3020
The Computer Revolution Has yet to Happen
A combination of this “carry anywhere” device and a global information utility such as the ARPA network or two-way cable TV, will bring the…
3021
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Bill Gates sums up Microsoft's abusive history
The latest news about Opera web browsers, tech trends, internet tips.
3023
Has Apple sounded the last POST?
Power-on self-test routines are widespread in electronics, and one of the oldest features in personal computers. Do Apple silicon Macs run them?
3024
Repairing a tiny ribbon cable inside a 28 year old IBM ThinkPad 701c
I'm in the middle of turning two badly treated IBM ThinkPad 701CS machines (the ones with the lovely unfolding keyboard) into a single, wor...
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Examining Windows 1.0 Hello.c
For those who’ve been long-time readers of SoylentNews, it’s not exactly a secret that I have a personal interest in retro computing and documenting the history and evolution of the Personal Computer. About three years ago, I ran a series of articles about restoring Xenix 2.2.3c, and I’m far overdue on writing a new…
3027
A dive into the world of MS-DOS viruses
This post is a textual version of a talk I gave at The 35th Chaos Computer Congress at the end of 2018. You can watch the talk that was recorded by the wonderful C3VOC team below if that’s your preferred medium:
3028
Cash, Canadians and CPUs: Intel's 'Lost' Early Microprocessor
The story of Microsystems International and the Intel 4005
3029
The History of DR DOS
The last of Digital Research
3030
The Logistics of Road War in the Wasteland
This week, we’re doing another ‘silly’ topic, but this being me, it is a silly logistics topic, because – as the saying goes – amateurs talk tactics, professionals tal…