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Television Media Technology

Computer History Museum's YouTube Channel 39

Posted by kdawson from the way-it-was dept.
Doctor-R writes "The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA has created a new YouTube channel for videos of their lecture series. Newest is the Dec 10 panel on the 25th Anniversary of the Commodore 64. Currently there are 23 lectures available and the 7-minute Museum overview."
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Computer History Museum's YouTube Channel More

Computer History Museum's YouTube Channel

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  • Newest is the Dec 10 panel
    I read that as "DEC-10 panel." Was thinking someone used a panel from a DEC-10 to show youtube videos?

  • Next step (Score:3, Informative)

    by Z80xxc! ( 1111479 ) on Saturday December 15, 2007 @11:58PM (#21714100)
    The next thing they need to do is take pictures inside the museum itself and make some of those quicktime 3D/360 degrees view things. I don't particularly like quicktime, but that is one cool thing about it.

    Or, they could make an actual 3D museum, sort of like google earth, only inside. Now THAT would be awesome.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by MichaelSmith ( 789609 )

      Or, they could make an actual 3D museum, sort of like google earth, only inside.

      They could do it inside second life! On second thoughts, maybe not so awesome.

    • Yeah, or make a level for a FPS, and distribute that. "Download our Quake level here", for example.

      Oh, I forgot, games are evil, and corrupt kids...

      • Yeah, or make a level for a FPS, and distribute that. "Download our Quake level here", for example.
        What are you going to do in an FPS besides kill things? So what would be the theme of such a game?

        What genre is Hello Kitty's Island Adventure?

    • With (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Weaselmancer ( 533834 ) on Sunday December 16, 2007 @02:14AM (#21714768)

      Or, they could make an actual 3D museum, sort of like google earth, only inside. Now THAT would be awesome.

      With emulations of the machines at each display point. Not too difficult to do these days. Use this [mess.org], or maybe something like this. [dreamfabric.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nurb432 ( 527695 )
        Emulations are for wimps.

        Seriously tho, you lose a lot of the 'effect' with an emulator. Its not the same as the real stuff siting there at your fingertips.

        • I own a C64 with 1541 drive, and Apple IIe, a Mac Classic, two Mac SE 030s, Amiga 500, Amiga 2000 w 1.3 roms and GVP 8 meg expansion and scsi 120 meg drive.

          I agree with you - there's nothing like real hardware. It's just a little difficult to download is all. =)

          PS: My wife and I are new parents. I told her that I'd like to set up all my old gear around the house for when the kid grows up. Tell him that's what computers are. Then on his 12th birthday say "just kidding!" and get him a top of the lin

          • As long as you max out the RAM and install NetBSD on the SE/30's, he wouldn't miss out on *that* much...

            Probably the same for the Amiga 2000.
  • I'm still kicking myself for not visiting this place the last time I was in CA. I was there to visit with my girlfriend at the time and meet her family - it turns out her dad made a pretty substantial donation to the museum. I believe it may have been a T/16, but that's just a guess - my memories of talking to him about it are pretty hazy. I tried to find out more on their website, but unfortunately they don't have anything mentioning donations on there (though his name is on a plaque at the museum from
  • The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia also have their own channel. They use it for similiar purposes as the museum but also to give overviews of each faculty and the research they are doing.

    I think this is an excellent way for these institutions to present themselves. It's much more convenient just watching a movie on Youtube than reading the "About Us" section on their websites.

    Furthermore, it's much easier formming opinions and attitudes when you see something visual than when you a webpa
  • ... I thought the DEC-10 panel was a plain pdp/11 ? Where's the point ?

  • Early computing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sanat ( 702 ) on Sunday December 16, 2007 @02:00AM (#21714706)
    I started my computer career in 1962 working as a systems analyst. Later in 1970 worked with the CDC 3200 mainframe. The basic timing mechanism was a delay line that sent a "0" down it with various taps for read, write, gating, etc that the magnetic core memory and associated electronics required.

    We would run margins on the computer by setting the voltage low and test it then setting the voltage high and retest to verify that it would pass diagnostics under both conditions.

    The toughest thing i ever did was rewire a memory board by hand to replace a broken ferrite core. It required unlacing the diagonal "Z" sense wire and then removing the x and y wires plus the inhibit x wire and then reinstalling the wiring. Fortunately I was nearsighted and could see the fine wires but today I would have problems even seeing a core since I am now very far sighted.

    Every job that I have ever had was like a game for me. I would have paid someone to allow me to do what i got paid to do. that sure makes time fly though.

    I worked with Dr. Wang at Wang Laboratories and traveled to China with him to meet his siblings. While there I installed some of the very first mini-computers/mainframe for China. We slowed the rpm of the disk drives down from 3600 to 2400 and then installed high altitude heads to keep the disk's heads from crashing. Also the seek flip-flop in the logic had a bigger capacitor on it so that after the heads settled from moving then the read/write cycle could occur. By adding the extra capacitance slowed the access time down greatly so that China would not be on parity with us,

    That has been a career of 45 years which is far older than most individual who read Slashdot. My 4H project when I was 13 or 14 was building a ham transmitter and modulator. That was back in the 50's.

    I was one of the original geeks and today could not stay up with what the average individual on slashdot needs to know... it is just too much information now, but I do enjoy those that post here and those that actually enjoy the coding and the fixing of equipment for it shows in your posts.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by MikeSty ( 890569 )
      What an awesome life story. As a youngin' who's a freshman engineering student, I tip my cap to you good sir.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by SL Baur ( 19540 )

      I started my computer career in 1962
      Hmm, a 3 digit id and I was only born in 1962. I guess I'm new here.

      I wish you would post more ... you're a goldmine of knowledge.
    • I was one of the original geeks and today could not stay up with what the average individual on slashdot needs to know... it is just too much information now

      The trick is specialization. In the past it was possible to have in-depth knowledge in all areas of computing. Today that is impossible. You have to narrow down your expertise to fewer areas. A lot of geek younglings think they know everything, but it's just opinionated arrogance and not true knowledge.

    • That has been a career of 45 years which is far older than most individual who read Slashdot. My 4H project when I was 13 or 14 was building a ham transmitter and modulator. That was back in the 50's.
      I'm just hoping I will enjoy my career as much as you have obviously enjoyed yours.
  • ...when Tool said "Who of you is here for the first time ?.... Wow... Thank you to you all... (Applause)" ;=)
     
    What's next, dude standing up saying: "I am Vic, and I am a Commodore-addict for 20 years, I haven't poked 32768 for 2 weeks" (Loud Applause)

  • They're available in high resolution, too (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tore S B ( 711705 ) on Sunday December 16, 2007 @09:07AM (#21716298) Homepage
    If you view the Past Events on the Computer History Museum, you will see all of the talks, in quite high-quality WMV files.

    http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?view=previous&section=calendar [computerhistory.org]

    In addition, there is a website called http://archive.computerhistory.org/ [computerhistory.org] which apparently functions as somewhere they stash files that they don't mind being public, but don't care enough to yell loudly about. There are a lot of cool videos there! Highly recommended.

    Also highly recommended is the Computer History Museum itself. It is an incredibly exciting place to go. It's about two or three stone's throws from the Googleplex, in Mountain View, in an old SGI building. Go there. Donations also recommended, because in short: They do extremely important work, they're the only ones who do it well enough, and they've got extremely skilled people there.

    I am not affiliated with the museum, but I do wear the "Volunteer" shirt with some amount of pride. :)

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