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“Business Insider” Forgets Many Forgotten Tech Co-Founders

November 4, 2009 by hightechhistory

This morning, we found an interesting piece on “Tech’s Forgotten Co-Founders” in the Business Insider.  It’s a nice piece, but hey, there are only seven people profiled and they are all from West Coast companies!  Hello!  Where’s Harlan Anderson, co-founder of Digital Equipment, once the second largest computer company in the world?  Where’s Steve Wozniak from Apple?  The topic of forgotten co-founders throughout high-tech history deserves a little more than a slide show of seven guys.  Take a look for yourself and see what you think. 

Forgetting Some of Tech's Forgotten Co-Founders

Oops! Forgot Some of Tech's Most Important Co-Founders!

Posted in Apple, High Tech History, Microsoft | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

George Boole, Inventor of Boolean Logic, Was Born on November 2nd

November 2, 2009 by hightechhistory

George_BooleOn November 2, 1815, George Boole was born in Lincoln, England. As the inventor of Boolean logic, many consider him a founder of computer science.  Boolean logic allows  things to be mapped into bits and bytes.  It has many applications in electronics, computer hardware and software, and is the basis of all modern digital electronics.

At the time of his death in 1864, Boole’s work remained relatively obscure, except among logicians because it didn’t seem to have many practical uses. But, about 70 years after Boole’s death,  a fellow by the name of Claude Shannon attended a philosophy class at the University of Michigan which introduced him to Boole’s studies.  He recognized that Boole’s work could form the basis of mechanisms and processes and that it was highly relevant almost 100 years after it was originally published.

In 1937, Shannon wrote a master’s thesis at MIT where he showed how Boolean algebra could optimize the design of systems of electromechanical relays then used in telephone routing switches.  He also proved that circuits with relays could solve Boolean algebra problems.   Several others have since written about Boolean algebra  and  they have provided the theoretical grounding for the Digital Age.

Sources:  Wikipedia and The Computer History Museum

– Carole Gunst

Posted in High Tech History, MIT | Leave a Comment »

R.I.P. 2009: Circuit City, Geocities, SiCortex

October 31, 2009 by hightechhistory

Halloween has us here at High Tech History reviewing a seasonal offering, if not a treat,  from Network World: the IT Industry Graveyard slideshow.

Geeks can indulge in ghoulish fascination over the demise of industry tradeshows, rebranding of HP’s IT services, Palm OS products, and the IBM – Sun buyout that didn’t happen.  Remember that?

We did read with interest, but a little sadness, about the demise of SiCortex, a supercomputer company based in Maynard, Mass. that was enjoying success and profitability of 100% in Q1 2009 until its venture capital was yanked.

Based in Clock Tower Place, the same building where Digital Equipment Corporation was established, it’s heartening to know the high-tech industry endures in the very place that it was established.  But the VC expectations are totally different.

But the winds won’t be howling through the abandoned offices in those brick buildings for too long.

Scicortex

Another Maynard-based computer company passed into history

– Christopher Hartman

Posted in DEC, IBM, Sun, venture capital | Leave a Comment »

Happy Birthday, Bill Gates

October 28, 2009 by hightechhistory

On October 28, 1955, Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates was born.  We know him best as an entrepreneur of the personal computer revolution.  During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock.  Today, he spends most of his time as a philanthropist.

He was born in Seattle…

Bill Gates was born in Seattle, WA into an upper middle class family.  Because his dad was a lawyer, Gates’ parents had a law career in mind for him, but as we all know, his career took a different turn.   At 13, he took an interest in BASIC programming on an a GE system at his prep school.  His first computer program was a game of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to play the game against the computer.   The next computer he programmed was a DEC PDP-10.  At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Paul Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor.

The Most Famous Harvard Dropout?

In 1973, Bill Gates enrolled at Harvard College.  While there, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, who is now the CEO of Microsoft.  He did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard and spent a lot of time using the school’s computers. He remained in contact with Paul Allen, joining him at Honeywell for his summer job.    In 1975, the MITS Altair 8800 was released and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software company.

Whole books have been written about the the history of Microsoft which includes the motley crew shown in the photo below and there will be plenty of High Tech History pieces written about that in the future.  For today, let’s just say “Happy Birthday, Bill Gates.”

 

– Carole Gunst

Posted in Harvard, High Tech History, Microsoft | Leave a Comment »

Visited the Computer History Museum Lately?

October 24, 2009 by hightechhistory

In 1979, Gordon Bell founded the Computer Museum when he opened an exhibit of the computing devices from his personal collection in the lobby of Digital Equipment Corporation.  In 1984, The Computer Museum moved to the Museum Wharf in Boston, sharing space with the Children’s Museum.  By 2000, all of the exhibits from Boston were moved to Silicon Valley which is where the Computer Museum is headquartered today.

What Will You Find at the Computer Museum?

  • Internet History from 1962 – 1992 - this Internet timeline starts before the word “Internet” is invented.  The 10,000 computers in the world are primitive and super expensive.  The four-year-old Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) out of the U.S. Department of Defense, lays the groundwork for what becomes ARPANET.  By 1992, when the timeline ends, the Internet has one million hosts and the ARPANET ceased to exist.
  • Mastering the Game of Computer Chess - The history of computer chess is a five-decade long quest to solve a difficult intellectual problem. The story starts in the earliest days of computing and reflects the general advances in hardware and software over this period. This on-line exhibition contains documents, images, artifacts, oral histories, moving images and software related to computer chess from 1945 to 1997.
  • PDP-1 Restoration Project - this exhibit focust on the launch of Digital Equipment Corporation’s PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) computer in 1959 which marked a radical shift in the philosophy of computer design.  It covers covers the history of this groundbreaking computer and the Computer History Museum’s recent restoration of a PDP-1 to working order.
  • Computer Revolution marketing brochures - there’s an entire collection of sales collateral dating back to the 1960s.  You can see the original Apple ad slicks along with the brochures for the Cray supercomputers.  The exhibit covers over 25 years of high tech marcomm.

With great exhibits and a wonderful lecture series, what are you waiting for?  Visit the Computer Museum soon.

– Carole Gunst

Posted in High Tech History | Leave a Comment »

The First Domain Ever Registered Was Symbolics.com

October 19, 2009 by hightechhistory

symbolics

Original Symbolics Logo

Symbolics.com was the first domain name ever registered.  Symbolics, Inc. was a computer manufacturer headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.   They designed and manufactured a line of Lisp machines, single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp  programming language. 

 As a historical note – the first domain name ever created (as opposed to registered) was Nordu.net, a name that was created by the registry on opening day (Jan. 1, 1985) for use as the first ever root server (nic.nordu.net). While it was technically the first domain name in the current domain name system, it was created for a special purpose before domains were allowed to be registered. Once that process was put in place, Symbolics.com was the first name taken. Since that initial domain registration almost 25 years ago, about 180 million domains names have been registered.  Here’s a listing of the  100 first registered .COM domains.

– Carole Gunst

Posted in Internet | 2 Comments »

Digital Co-Founder Writes Autobiography

October 17, 2009 by hightechhistory

learn, earn & return cover

Digital Equipment Corporation co-founder, Harlan E. Anderson, has written his autobiography which will be released in November, 2009.  The title is “Learn, Earn, and Return:  My Life as a Computer Pioneer. “  The hardcover book is about 300 pages with approximately 100 photos. 

In the book, he writes about learning about computers and writing programs at the University of Illinois in the late 1940’s when the first stored program computes were still under construction.  Anderson shares his experience of meeting Ken Olsen at MIT’s Lincoln Lab where they built the Whirlwind computer’s core memory.  And, he writes about co-founding Digital Equipment Corporation.

Anderson’s earning days were strongly related to his being the co-founder, vice president, and board director of Digital from 1957 to 1966.  In this book, he tells of his close relationship with co-founder Ken Olsen for over 13 years and how it came apart during this period.  The book also includes an appendix “The Rise and Fall of a Computer Empire” that chronicles Digital’s amazing growth and decline during the period after he resigned.

He also writes about his returning days which are still going on through his contributions to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and many other organizations.

“Learn, Earn & Return“ can be pre-ordered now through Locust Press for delivery in November, 2009.  Pre-publication orders will receive a personalized bookplate signed by Anderson.

– Carole Gunst

Posted in DEC, MIT | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

This day, April 3, 1986: IBM introduces the first “laptop” computer

April 2, 2009 by hightechhistory

ibm5140-small2On April 3, 1986, IBM introduced the 5140 “Convertible.” It weighed 12 lbs., listed at $1,995, and had a grand total of 256K Random Access Memory, or “RAM.” It was considered a big improvement over its predecessor, the giant IBM Portable PC 5155, which was introduced in 1984. That model, which was much bulkier, had a handle on it, giving it “portability.”

The ”Convertible” had a detachable miniature monitor, which theoretically allowed the user, with a monitor adapter, to hook up the unit to a larger, external monitor.

It was notable for its capacity to run on batteries, and from its being the first computer to utilize 3.5″ floppy disks. 

One of several drawbacks was that with its smaller screen, typical letters were compressed to half their normal size  (at this time, IBMs did not utilize a graphic interface).

In addition to the criticism of its screen and keyboard, there were a number of other problems which resulted in poor sales. The Convertible was heavier and no faster than its predecessor the 5155 (despite the innovations of a CMOS processor and static RAM), and didn’t include traditional PC expansion ports.

It also had to compete against faster portable computers based on the Intel 80286 processor made by Toshiba and Zenith – that were lighter and offered similar specifications, sometimes at half the price.

– Christopher Hartman

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Today, March 27, 1884, the first long-distance telephone line between Boston and New York is inaugurated

March 27, 2009 by hightechhistory

bellTwo years after the invention of the telephone, in 1878, the first telephone was installed in the White House by the just inaugurated President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes. The first “official” call was between Alexander Graham Bell and the President. Although the federal government strongly supported this new technology, international long distance phone calls still left a lot to be desired. In the following years, long distance telephone service would be improved in many incremental stages as new associated inventions and more efficient applications of available technologies were developed.

On March 27, 1884  the first long-distance telephone line between New York  and Boston was activated, using copper for the very first time. Copper had greater attenuation of signal that the previous galvanized iron, which was used for the 1881 connection between Boston and Providence.  The cost of a connection between the cities was daytime: $2 and nightime $1.

Subsequently, there were connections made between New York and Philadelphia (1885), Atlanta and Chicago (1890) and New York and Chicago (1892), which was personally opened by Bell (see photo above).

References: Cybertelecom.com; San Jose Mercury News; idPhonecard.com.

– Christopher Hartman

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Aulikki Olsen, wife of DEC co-founder Ken Olsen, dies at 84

March 26, 2009 by hightechhistory

declogo_largeEeva-Liisa Aulikki Olsen, 84, died March 2, 2009. She and her husband, Digital Equipment Corp. co-founder Kenneth Olsen together with Harlan and Lois Anderson, were the entrepreneurs who put together what was, until the rise of the personal computer in  the mid-1980s, the second most successful computer firm in the world. From all accounts, there is no question the support she gave her husband Ken was instrumental in the great success DEC experienced for over thirty years.

According to Edward Baer Roberts, in his book Entrepreneurs in High Technology, “Incorporating DEC on August 28, 1957, were two young married couples, Kenneth and Eeva-Liisa Aulikki Olsen and Harlan and Lois Jean Anderson, somewhat prototypical of American entrepreneurial  beginnings; but certainly not typical in the outcomes they achieved over the next three decades.”

And in a March 5, 2009  remembrance by Alan Earls in Mass High Tech (www.masshightech.com):

“Eeva-Liisa Aulikki Olsen, 84, the wife of Digital Equipment Corp. co-founder and long-time president Kenneth Olsen, died earlier this week, according to published reports.

“Most of the time, Aulikki kept her distance from the business. But that doesn’t mean her behind-the-scenes role was unimportant. For instance, when Olsen sought startup funding from American Research & Development, the nation’s pioneer venture fund, General (Georges) Doriot, its president, insisted on meeting Olsen’s wife — to take the measure of the couple and ascertain whether she would support an entrepreneur bent on challenging the computer industry.

“Aulikki reportedly charmed the general and his key associate, Dorothy Rowe, helping to cement a cordial friendship that lasted another 30 years. And, according to the authors of The Ultimate Entrepreneur, a book which profiled Olsen and Digital at their peak, in the late 1980s, Olsen pursued his future wife, Eeva-Lissa Aulikki Valve, a Finnish exchange student he had first met through a mutual friend, with the same determination he later brought to building the second largest computer company in the world. Despite the brevity of their acquaintance while Aulikki was in the U.S., Olsen put his graduate school work on MIT’s Whirlwind computer aside long enough to fly to Europe and track down and court Aulikki. Olsen had to support himself by working in a Swedish ball bearing factory and then, when the two decided to marry, he had to get special permission from the State Department because of Finland’s ambiguous position in the cosmology of the cold war. They were married on Dec. 12, 1950, with Aulikki’s father, a Lutheran minister, officiating.

“The two were married for 59 years had three sons, one of whom predeceased her. According to the obituary In the Indianapolis Star, she was born on Sept. 1, 1924, in Lahti, Finland, the daughter of Juho and Hilja Valve. She was a member of the Lotta Svaard, the women’s auxiliary of the Finnish Army in the 1939 Winter War with the Soviet Union. She later attended Valparaiso University.”

– Christopher Hartman

Posted in DEC | Leave a Comment »

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