links.lmorchard.com - #history

Margaret Hamilton, computing pioneer who led software development for the Apollo program, dies at 90 | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:04:01 +0000

Over two decades at MIT, Hamilton forged new paths in computer science and engineering. Her groundbreaking work included leading the team that programmed the first computers that took humans to the moon.

Tags: #compsci #history #mit #nasa

Byte - a visual archive

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:23:29 +0000

This zoomable map shows every page of every issue of BYTE starting from the front cover of the first issue (top left) to the last page of the final edition (bottom right). The search bar runs RE2 regex over the full text of all 100k pages. The archive itself is not new, scans of BYTE have long existed on the Internet Archive and elsewhere on the net – but I hope seeing everything in single, searchable place offers a unique perspective.

Tags: #byte #computers #history #magazines #nifty #retro

The Test Card Gallery

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 02:43:47 +0000

The BBC and ITV have over the years used a number of tuning signals, test cards and captions either for engineering purposes, or just to fill time in the days before breakfast and daytime TV. This page shows some of them, and some of the captions used in days past.

Tags: #history #tech #tv #video

Antiquated HTML Snippets and Artefacts | Vale.Rocks

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 02:41:46 +0000

This article doesn’t cover once-specced but now obsolete bits of HTML but instead looks at all the snippets that have wormed their way into websites as result of, or in combat against, third-party integrations, browser competition, vendor extensions, and platform-specific hacks. The bits of HTML that were included for reasons, and which have been forgotten for present irrelevance. The snippets that live on only in the markup of sites from bygone eras and in the minds of those who fought during the browser wars.

Tags: #history #html #webdev

Memories Can’t Wait—or, How I Learned to Keep Worrying About the Web - Jeffrey Zeldman Presents

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:14:19 +0000

The web is still the best hope we have for a durable, shared memory. But it requires us to be gardeners, not just tenants. To plant things in soil we control, and to tend them. Because if we don’t, the only record that we were here will be someone else’s ad inventory, and when the ads move on, we’ll move with them—into the quiet, unmarked graveyard of the deleted.

Tags: #history #selfhosting #web #webdev

The Descent — What Happened to the Frontend While You Weren't Watching

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 19:55:49 +0000

Two decades, forty-four meters of build tools, and one very confused

The Web We Know Is Going to Disappear - Minid.net

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:24:09 +0000

Every generation of computing believes the interface it loves will last forever. It never does. I saw information move from floppy disks to BBSs, from BBSs to the Web, from the Web to Flash, from Flash back to open standards, from websites to mobile apps, and now from search engines to AI chat interfaces. The Web will not vanish overnight, but the Web as we know it, the open place where people search, click, read, browse, publish, and discover, is already being replaced by something more convenient, more centralized, and much harder to escape.

Tags: #ai #bbses #history #tech #web

Hiltzik: When Steve Jobs got a show-and-tell at Xerox - Los Angeles Times

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:09:23 +0000

Gates responded, “Steve, I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”

Tags: #MSFT #apple #gui #history #parc #xerox

joshuanwalker/Raiders2600: Reverse Engineering Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 05:00:45 +0000

Reverse Engineering Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600

Tags: #atari #gaming #history #retro

Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle – Dmitry Brant

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 04:11:27 +0000

That’s right — this little device is what stood between me and the ability to run an even older piece of software that I recently unearthed during an expedition of software archaeology. For a bit more background, I was recently involved in helping a friend’s accounting firm to move away from using an extremely legacy software package that they had locked themselves into using for the last four decades.

Tags: #copyprotection #hacks #history #retro #software

Computer History Museum Launches Digital Portal to Its Vast Collection - CHM

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 06:50:58 +0000

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – January 21, 2026 – The Computer History Museum (CHM), a leader in decoding technology—its computing past, digital present, and future impact on humanity—announced the launch of OpenCHM, a new digital portal providing global access to its unparalleled collection.

Tags: #chm #history #museums #tech

Adventure 751 (1980) | Renga in Blue

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 18:23:35 +0000

Adventure 751 has been, by my reckoning, the most sought-after variation of Crowther/Woods Adventure. It was generally available on the online portal CompuServe from nearly the beginning of the service and it disappeared when they shut down their games in the 90s. Arthur O’Dwyer started a web page in 2012 (with semi-regular updates!) dedicated to hunting down a copy. To finish off a wild 2025 in game preservation, Arthur O’Dwyer announced the game has been found (by LanHawk, a regular amongst the comments here) and is playable.

Tags: #gaming #history #ifiction #nifty #retro

The Long, Knotty, World-Spanning Story of String | Hakai Magazine

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 23:19:14 +0000

On its own, a stray thread cannot accomplish much. But when several fibers are twisted into yarn, and yarn into strands, and strands into string or rope, a once feeble thing becomes both strong and flexible—a hybrid material of limitless possibility. A string can cut, choke, and trip; it can also link, bandage, and reel. String makes it possible to sew, to shoot an arrow, to strum a chord. It’s difficult to think of an aspect of human culture that is not laced through with some form of string or rope; it has helped us develop shelter, clothing, agriculture, weaponry, art, mathematics, and oral hygiene. Without string, our ancestors could not have domesticated horses and cattle or efficiently plowed the earth to grow crops. If not for rope, the great stone monuments of the world—Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the moai of Easter Island—would still be recumbent. In a fiberless world, the age of naval exploration would never have happened; early light bulbs would have lacked suitable filaments; the pendulum would never have inspired advances in physics and timekeeping; and there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, no tennis shoes, no Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

Tags: #fibers #history #rope #tech #textiles

Toaster vs Washing Machine - YouTube

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 23:09:54 +0000

When you buy appliances, always ask yourself this question - toaster or washing machine? tl;dw: Toaster is an invitation to use more tech for its own sake when other solutions already exist. Washing machine is tech that transforms life.

Tags: #electricity #history #tech

How to use the internet, 1995 - YouTube

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 05:42:46 +0000

Computer consultant Cory Doctorow predicts video on demand while showing a CBC reporter some of the new medium's features. Aired on CBC's The National on June 19, 1995.

Tags: #cbc #doctorow #history #internet #retro