techarchive
/techarchive3366
All things covering the history of technology
Ampex Nagra VPR-5- "The world's smallest and lightest broadcast quality portable video recorder", circa 1984.
3854
Darryl Yeo 🐬🥇
@darrylyeo·07:18 07/03/2025
Pretty incredible how instead of .txt or .csv or .rtf or .html, we collectively landed on “discretely positioned lines of text and vector graphics broken up into arbitrarily-sized rectangles encoded with a declarative subset of a proprietary scripting language” as our de facto format for sharing data.
Like, just imagine the collective human hours we could have saved on data entry in the post-printer–pre-LLM era if not for this impedance mismatch.
https://x.com/deedydas/status/1897726053759725670
Like, just imagine the collective human hours we could have saved on data entry in the post-printer–pre-LLM era if not for this impedance mismatch.
https://x.com/deedydas/status/1897726053759725670
ZX81 Basic Programming (1981), Sinclair
featuring epic cover art, the manual covered installation, programming and runtime aspects of the ZX81 home computer. the ZX81 came with only four chips, eliminated the need for the processor to drive the TV display, thus causing the screen to go blank during processing
featuring epic cover art, the manual covered installation, programming and runtime aspects of the ZX81 home computer. the ZX81 came with only four chips, eliminated the need for the processor to drive the TV display, thus causing the screen to go blank during processing
Seymour Cray, founder of the early super computer company, dug tunnels (by hand, for fun) under his Wisconsin home.
He said "elves" visited him underground, whispering suggestions to complex computing problems.
He said "elves" visited him underground, whispering suggestions to complex computing problems.
a french friend educated me about MINITEL - the internet before the internet in France.
Launched in 1982, people could book train tickets, browse business information, and look up phone numbers.
In 2009, you still had 10 million active connections.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel
Launched in 1982, people could book train tickets, browse business information, and look up phone numbers.
In 2009, you still had 10 million active connections.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel
Pizza Hut was the first major food chain to let you order online. It went live in Santa Cruz in 1994, but was also a bit of a gimmick since all orders would go to a single central location, and then faxed to corresponding locations
summed-area tables for texture mapping (1984) by franklin crow
texture-map computations can be made tractable through use of precalculated tables which allow computational costs independent of the texture density. the first example, the “mip” map, uses a set of tables containing successively lower-resolution representations filtered down from the discrete texture function. An alternative method using a single table of values representing the integral over the texture function rather than the function itself may yield superior results at similar cost
texture-map computations can be made tractable through use of precalculated tables which allow computational costs independent of the texture density. the first example, the “mip” map, uses a set of tables containing successively lower-resolution representations filtered down from the discrete texture function. An alternative method using a single table of values representing the integral over the texture function rather than the function itself may yield superior results at similar cost
Apple TimeBand (1990s)
The TimeBand was a wearable PDA prototype and a precursor to the Apple Watch.
The device was featured in the 1997 book: Apple Design: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group
The TimeBand was a wearable PDA prototype and a precursor to the Apple Watch.
The device was featured in the 1997 book: Apple Design: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group
35 years of Adobe Photoshop
First released on February 19, 1990.
https://youtu.be/oPlVmMUclPo?feature=shared
First released on February 19, 1990.
https://youtu.be/oPlVmMUclPo?feature=shared
If someone launched this as a Kickstarter today, it would be funded so fast. https://swling.com/blog/2021/03/the-sony-fx-300-jackal-a-holy-grail-technological-marvel-of-the-late-70s/
3854
Darryl Yeo 🐬🥇
@darrylyeo·06:35 18/02/2025
Super aesthetic video essay on the history of the DNS protocol, its commercialization and attempts to hack the root servers.
https://youtu.be/Dmy3IThKO14
https://youtu.be/Dmy3IThKO14
I would love to make an NES game one day and flash it to a physical cartridge and play it on an original NES. https://pubby.games/nesfab.html
Apple’s proprietary alternative to Ethernet in the 80s. https://computer.rip/2025-02-02-residential-networking-over-telephone.html
SGI Onyx2 (1996), Silicon Graphics
with 8 MIPS R10000 CPUs, 16GB RAM and two graphics pipelines. Up to 16 racks could be connected to act as a single computer
with 8 MIPS R10000 CPUs, 16GB RAM and two graphics pipelines. Up to 16 racks could be connected to act as a single computer
Great inspiration for AI model names
4085
christopher
@christopher·17:18 27/01/2025
Market is tanking because everyone realizes o1 and R1 are terrible names for AI products and there are only 24 letters left
Incredibly detailed history of Digital Equipment Corporation. Fun fact: one of the first computers I owned in the 90s was a DEC. https://www.abortretry.fail/p/work-at-the-mill
Hisashi Saito took approximately 10 years (73-83) to create the drawings for the Super Range Metal Tape campaign.
SIGGRAPH 1983, Exhibition of Computer Art, Detroit
the Tenth Annual Conference on Computer Graphics
and Interactive Techniques
the Tenth Annual Conference on Computer Graphics
and Interactive Techniques
Zuck DMs a FB engineer about Instagram
https://x.com/techemails/status/1888313183024074910?s=46&t=ZnRZ_0I2fxYylP8sKiFGHg
https://x.com/techemails/status/1888313183024074910?s=46&t=ZnRZ_0I2fxYylP8sKiFGHg
I unironically miss doing this.
A lot.
A lot.
142
will
@w·17:53 08/02/2025
if you recognize this picture you old af
3854
Darryl Yeo 🐬🥇
@darrylyeo·03:58 05/02/2025
"Sketchpad" Demo
Ivan Sutherland,
1963, MIT's Lincoln Labs
Running on a TX-2 computer (built circa 1958).
↑ "Architecture transcends Architecture" — Alan Kay
Historical footage:
https://youtu.be/6orsmFndx_o?si=GHP9F2OBc_SyErLz
Ivan Sutherland,
1963, MIT's Lincoln Labs
Running on a TX-2 computer (built circa 1958).
↑ "Architecture transcends Architecture" — Alan Kay
Historical footage:
https://youtu.be/6orsmFndx_o?si=GHP9F2OBc_SyErLz
Supposedly from IBM in 1979 https://simonwillison.net/2025/Feb/3/a-computer-can-never-be-held-accountable/
IBM ThinkPad 220 (1993)
The ThinkPad was a joined development by IBM and Ricoh. It was only available in Japan.
The ThinkPad was a joined development by IBM and Ricoh. It was only available in Japan.
Cauzin Softstrip: Software on paper in the 80s.
Back then, magazines used to publish code listings, that readers would copy by hand. May sound tedious, and it was, but it was the best way to distribute code, and well... we did it. The obvious thought is, can't we print those listings in computer-readable form?
Check out the video, it describes the whole story, where Softstrip was just a chapter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIGotStRCkA
Back then, magazines used to publish code listings, that readers would copy by hand. May sound tedious, and it was, but it was the best way to distribute code, and well... we did it. The obvious thought is, can't we print those listings in computer-readable form?
Check out the video, it describes the whole story, where Softstrip was just a chapter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIGotStRCkA
Edison's electric pen (1875)
One of the first consumer products to use an electric motor.
When someone wrote with it, a needle moved up and down to create a stencil. Then the stencil was put into a separate press, and ink was rolled through it to make copies of the handwritten document.
One of the first consumer products to use an electric motor.
When someone wrote with it, a needle moved up and down to create a stencil. Then the stencil was put into a separate press, and ink was rolled through it to make copies of the handwritten document.
… or, the structure of a building is sometimes more beautiful than the building (1983), flatbed vector plot by Gerald Hushlak
Alan Kay: "A Dynamic Medium for Creative Thought" - 1972
https://augmentingcognition.com/assets/Kay1977.pdf
Video of Alan giving a slide presentation of the ideas in the paper to the National Council of Teachers of English Conference (NCTE) Conference “20 things to do with a Dynabook”
https://youtu.be/WJzi9R_55Iw?si=Wre8sNLhWg2LgXm6
https://augmentingcognition.com/assets/Kay1977.pdf
Video of Alan giving a slide presentation of the ideas in the paper to the National Council of Teachers of English Conference (NCTE) Conference “20 things to do with a Dynabook”
https://youtu.be/WJzi9R_55Iw?si=Wre8sNLhWg2LgXm6
Nokia design archive- The archive mostly seems to document Nokia designers noodling around with non-working prototypes and playing with the aesthetics and forms of devices, rather than serious attempts at products people would use in the real world. But they had the freedom to play around with technology, something that feels largely lost in consumer electronics today.
https://www.404media.co/nokia-design-archive-aalto-university/
https://www.404media.co/nokia-design-archive-aalto-university/
KINGJIM DM30 SIL
eInk Computer from Japan (was discontinued 2021)
eInk Computer from Japan (was discontinued 2021)
5694
shazow
@shazow.eth·21:02 16/01/2025
Experimenting using my eink android tablet (boox note air 4c) as a display for long-form writing (and eventually maybe coding).
Using https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy for now.
Mainly I want to avoid bringing a dedicated bluetooth keyboard if I already have my laptop with me anyway.
Using https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy for now.
Mainly I want to avoid bringing a dedicated bluetooth keyboard if I already have my laptop with me anyway.
