Advent of Computing

Welcome to Advent of Computing, the show that talks about the shocking, intriguing, and all too often relevant history of computing. A lot of little things we take for granted today have rich stories behind their creation, in each episode we will learn how older tech has lead to our modern world.

160 episodes transcribed
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History

Episode 146 - The Z4

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

The Z4, completed by Konrad Zuse in 1945, is a computer with a wild story. It was made from scrounged parts, survived years of bombing raids, moved al...

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History

Episode 142 - OS and JEDGAR

Episode Date: October 13, 2024

This time we are diving back into the Jargon File to take a look at some hacker folklore. Back in the day hackers at MIT spent their time spying on on...

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History

Episode 139 - HUTSPIEL

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

The early history of computer games is messy, weird, and surprising. This episode we are looking at HUTSPIEL, perhaps one of the oldest games ever pla...

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History

Episode 135 - XENIX

Episode Date: July 7, 2024

In 1984 SCO released PC XENIX, a port of UNIX that ran on an IBM PC. To understand why that's such a technical feat, and how we even got here, we have...

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History

Episode 132 - The PDP-1

Episode Date: May 26, 2024

In 1959 the world bore witness to a new type of computer: the PDP-1. It was the first interactive computer to really make a dent in the market. Some s...

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History

Episode 129 - ALGOL, Part I

Episode Date: April 7, 2024

ALGOL is one of those topics that's haunted the show for a while. It comes up any time we talk about programming languages, and with good reason. Many...