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Computer History Museum

An evening pause: A quick review, with images, of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Like them, I was tickled by the gigantic scale of technological improvement that took place in this field in such a relatively short time.

Hat tip Ben K.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • Computer History Museum is a wonderful place. I’ve been a long-time supporter. They have an amazing collection of artifacts. Be prepared to spend some time! There is a great café for lunch. And the store! oh, it’s geek heaven.

    Check the schedule: you can see and play Spacewar! on a vintage PDP-1. Also a restored and fully-operational IBM 1401. Ah, the smell of oil from all those moving parts…

  • pzatchok

    I remember my first computer programming classes in high school. 1982/83.

    Green screen ASCI terminals connected to the local university. No internet and no passwords or security yet.
    A year later we were writing programs and games on TRS-80’s.

    My first home PC. An 8086.

  • Chris Lopes

    My first was a TI-99/4A. It came with an adapter cable to turn your cassette recorder into a mass storage device. The stone knives and bear skins era of home computing.

  • wayne

    Good stuff by all!

    Halt and Catch Fire, Episode 1,
    “Computer’s aren’t the thing…”
    https://youtu.be/YQLbi4VXYcA
    0:58

    in total contrast– for a great analog experience I’d recommend Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Detroit.

  • Andi

    It was very sobering, going to the museum and seeing computers of the type that I used to work on!

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