History of technology
The secret history of Windows
Following up its collection of opinions on the future of Windows, Technologizer has a story, The Secret Origin of Windows. Tandy Trower, who was the product manager who ultimately shipped Windows 1.0, tells the story.
How the PC began and Xerox lost an unprcedented opportunity
The way the PC is set up today is a very old concept. Windows is 25 years old but the basic design for the PC goes back further to the early work done at the Stanford Research Institute and the Xerox PARC lab in Palo Alto, California. The story of how Xerox could have been [...]
The desktop metaphor doesn’t work anymore
When PCs were introduced, their prime function involved what might be called office work. There were word processors, spread sheets and data bases. The desktop was the metaphor for the workspace. Information was stored in files and folders, just like in an office. PCs were standalone work stations with no connection to anything else. There [...]
Will UEFI replace the BIOS?
Most PC users have little contact with the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) but it can be useful to know a little about the subject. I have posted a number of times on various aspects of the BIOS (for example, here and also here). The basic structure of the BIOS has been around a very long [...]
How your CPU works
This won’t be everybody’s cup of tea but, if you are curious about how a computer does what it does, here’s a link that explains how the arithmetic unit of a CPU works.
In simplest terms, a computer is an adding machine together with simple logic functions that can choose different operations depending on whether [...]
Windows Start-up & Shutdown Sounds from Windows 3.1 on up
It seems that people will collect almost anything. Vince Bognot has put together Windows Start-up and Shutdown Sounds from Windows 3.1 to Windows 7. I am not sure who cares but here is his collection:
Via the Windows Club
Gopher still lives
Unless you were using the Internet before the World Wide Web came along, you probably never heard of the Gopher protocol or the search facilities called Archie and Veronica. I didn’t realize that Gopher still lived until I saw an Ars Technica post, The Web may have won, but Gopher tunnels on. It brought me [...]
The first real browser
The Web is so much a part of our lives today that it is hard to remember that not long ago we managed without it. One thing that was instrumental in the development of the Web was the Netscape browser. It was just 15 years ago that this first example of a popular browser was [...]
Unix is 40
Most home PC users are unaware of what is the most important operating system ever developed. Yes, it’s Unix and not Windows. That takes nothing away from Windows because Unix has played a unique role in general computing. Unix has reached its 40th birthday and eWeek commemorates it with a slideshow:
Forty years ago, a new [...]
The Internet Archive
I’ve previously mentioned the Wayback Machine, an archive of old Web pages. An even more comprehensive digital collection is being constructed at the Internet Archive. The site is described:
The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide [...]
Finding old computer games
Is there a DOS game that you loved and wished you had back? There are several sites that are keeping these games alive. Most games are probably single EXE files. It is interesting to note how small the files are. Remember that DOS worked with a limit of 640 KB of RAM. MakeUseOf gives four [...]
