Collaborate Disseminate
Britain’s hush hush Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intelligence and security organization has released new images never before made public of Colossus, the world’s first digital electronic computer, to mark its 80th anniversary.Continue … Continue reading British spy agency releases previously secret images of Colossus computer
Recently the [Periscope Film] channel on YouTube published a 1960 color documentary featuring the 1958 launch of the Atlas B (SM-65B) ICBM, in its second, Missile 4B iteration. This was …read more Continue reading Testing The Atlas ICBM: A 1958 Time Capsule Video
There’s an upcoming movie, Argyle, about an author whose spy novels are a little too accurate, and she becomes a target of a real-life spy game. We haven’t seen the …read more Continue reading Predicting the A-Bomb: The Cartmill Affair
Those who haven’t experienced the destruction of a house fire should consider themselves lucky. The speed with which fire can erase a lifetime of work — or a life, for …read more Continue reading Retrotechtacular: Rebuilding a Fire-Ravaged Telephone Exchange
As a nerdy kid in the 90s, I spent a fair bit of time watching the computer-themed cartoon Reboot. During the course of making a documentary about the show, [Jacob …read more Continue reading Digital Master Tapes Seek Deck
What’s the most thrilling part of rocketry? Well, the liftoff, naturally. But what about the sweet anticipation in those tense moments leading up to liftoff? In other words, the countdown. …read more Continue reading Liftoff! The Origin of the Countdown
It’s weird to think that an abacus would have still been used sixty years ago, or so posits the documentary series The Computer and the Mind of Man. This six …read more Continue reading Retrotechtacular: 1960s Doc Calls Computers The Universal Machine
The 1970s was a somewhat awkward phase for the computer industry — as hulking, room-sized mainframes became ever smaller and the concept of home and portable computers more capable than …read more Continue reading Bringing APL To The Masses: The History Of The IBM 5100
Researchers have examined the teeth of Swedish Vikings and found that aside from evidence of decay and loss, they engaged in surprisingly advanced dental practices not dissimilar from modern practices to relieve toothache. The study provides a rare ins… Continue reading Swedish Vikings were surprisingly good dentists, research finds
Many inventions happen not by design but through failure. They don’t happen through the failure directly, but because someone was paying attention and remembered the how and why of the …read more Continue reading Tech In Plain Sight: Superglue