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Showing posts with the label Technology

January 02, 2019

Living Computers

Long ago, she went to school to learn to punch cards and operate the computers that used them.

Living Computers is unlike any other computer museum that I've visited. Most of the computers on display are working and available for use by visitors. They have a huge collection of computer technology from the 1960s to the present. I especially enjoyed encountering computers from my past; including a CDC Cyber supercomputer, early Macs, and a Commodore 64. If I lived in Seattle, I'd immediately buy an annual membership.

Time-traveling back to my junior high school programming class.

Learning about the history of digital computing.

Time-traveling back to high school, playing video games and listening to Duran Duran.

Exploring the limits of a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer

Painting with Bob Ross, on an Apple IIgs

Examining the innards of a Cray supercomputer.

Remembering using a CDC Cyber in college.

Exploring Microsoft Excel on the machine on which I first used it.

Being reminded of copy protection through requiring users have the printed manual.

Patiently waiting for one of my teenage self's favorite games to load.

Programming a Commodore PET to greet the world.

Hoping I don't get eaten by a grue.

Considering whether one of these tele-presence robots would make my remote work easier.

October 13, 2018

Professor Gray's Computers

Paul Gray PC Museum

There are a half dozen display cases scattered about halls of Claremont Graduate University's Academic Computing Building. The contents of these cases make up the Paul Gray PC Museum -- a retired professor Paul Gray's collection of personal computers. Most of the machines were familiar to me, and I've used many of them. However. I understand that these are likely ancient artifacts to today's students. I only wish the computers were powered up and computing.