Advent of Computing
Sean Haas
Welcome to Advent of Computing, the show that talks about the shocking, intriguing, and all too often relevant history of computing. A lot of little things we take for granted today have rich stories behind their creation, in each episode we will learn how older tech has lead to our modern world.
Episodes HN recommended
Episode 113 - Prolog, Part II
Jul 30, 2023 • 1 h 10 minEpisode 102 - Application of Ada
Feb 20, 2023 • 1 h 05 minEpisode 101 - Origins of Ada
Feb 6, 2023 • 1 h 02 minEpisode 99 - The Berkeley Software Distribution
Jan 9, 2023 • 1 h 10 minEpisode 98 - The Canon Cat
Dec 26, 2022 • 1 h 10 minEpisode 92 - Copy Protection
Oct 2, 2022 • 1 h 26 minEpisode 89 - Forth
Aug 21, 2022 • 1 h 17 minEpisode 84 - VisiCalc, the Killer App
Jun 12, 2022 • 1 h 07 minEpisode 47 - ITS: Open Computing
Jan 11, 2021 • 52 minEpisode 38 - JOVIAL, the Evolution of Programming
Sep 6, 2020 • 55 minEpisode 36 - The Rise of CP/M
Aug 9, 2020 • 53 minEpisode 34 - 8080 VS Z80
Jul 12, 2020 • 46 minEpisode 30 - Coherent Is Not UNIX!
May 17, 2020 • 47 minEpisode 6.5 - Edge-Notched
Jun 23, 2019 • 7 minEpisode 6 - Digital Voices
Jun 16, 2019 • 25 minEpisode 4.5 - Space Travel!
May 27, 2019 • 6 minEpisode 3 - Mythic Macintosh
May 5, 2019 • 27 min
Recent episodes
Episode 193 - Digital Dating... SCAM?
Oct 25, 2026 • 26 minEpisode 192 - Local Computer Held Hostage!
Oct 18, 2026 • 29 minEpisode 191 - The BHP Virus
Oct 11, 2026 • 25 minEpisode 190 - Machine Room or DEATH TRAP!?
Oct 4, 2026 • 30 minEpisode 189 - The IBM 701
Sep 27, 2026 • 1 h 06 minUsagi Electric and the LGP-21 Restoration
Sep 13, 2026 • 1 h 03 minEpisode 188 - Training and Teaching with the Bi-Tran Six
Sep 1, 2026 • 53 minEpisode 187 - What's Better Than Binary?
Aug 17, 2026 • 1 h 05 minLIVE from VCF West - Wait, Is That Really UNIX?
Aug 3, 2026 • 48 minEpisode 186 - MADDIDA
Jul 19, 2026 • 1 h 07 minEpisode 185 - Is EMUL-8ion a Form of Flattery?
Jul 6, 2026 • 1 h 01 minEpisode 184 - What Is A Programming Language?
Jun 21, 2026 • 1 h 10 minDale Biagio - Hello, World!
Jun 14, 2026 • 32 minEpisode 183 - A Digital Gap?
May 31, 2026 • 55 minEpisode 182 - Spinning Memories
May 18, 2026 • 59 minEpisode 181 - RAYDAC
May 3, 2026 • 1 h 12 minEpisode 180 - You Wouldn't Magnetize a Tape!
Apr 19, 2026 • 1 h 06 minEpisode 179 - Programming Block by Block
Apr 4, 2026 • 1 h 02 minEpisode 178 - The Programma 101
Mar 22, 2026 • 1 h 03 minDan Temkin - Forty-Four Esolangs
Mar 9, 2026 • 52 minEpisode 177 - Getting Real with RSX
Feb 23, 2026 • 58 minEpisode 176 - Is That Even UNIX?
Feb 9, 2026 • 1 h 02 minEpisode 175 - SNOBOL? That's Disgusting!
Jan 28, 2026 • 1 h 06 minEpisode 174 - The Bell Model I
Jan 12, 2026 • 1 h 03 minEpisode 173 - Hybrid Programming
Dec 29, 2025 • 1 h 03 minEpisode 172 - Analog/Hybrid
Dec 15, 2025 • 1 h 05 minEpisode 171 - What Is a 4GL?
Nov 24, 2025 • 55 minEpisode 170 - Thoroughbred/OS
Nov 10, 2025 • 1 h 00 minEpisode 169.5 - Ben Zotto and the Story of Sphere Computers
Nov 1, 2025 • 53 minEpisode 169 - Dellinger's Viruses
Oct 26, 2025 • 26 min
What HN said
- adamnew123456Jan 2021The Advent of Computing [1] podcast recently put out their episode 47 which I think provides a sort-of explanation of this line of thinking. The short answer is that the context in which Emacs was originally developed (a contemporary of Unix, and not Unix itself, which was something I wasn't aware of before) emphasized user power and lack of restriction to a much greater degree than much of the current computing landscape does. Why would you lock users or developers into a fixed, defined plugin API when you could write the application in such a way that they have access to whatever they need?
Excluding maybe NodeJS, most of the Javascript you encounter is going to be executed by a browser which has a whole ton of sandboxing and mitigation mechanisms to prevent the big bad web from abusing your computer. I don't blame it for working that way given how few trustworthy (I mean really trustworthy, as in "free range within $HOME") actors exist on the web these days, but one wonders how far we could take the web ecosystem if we tossed the idea of granting special access through WebGL or WebUSB and just gave the browser full access to calling C or executing processes on your system.
Don't get me wrong - it would be a security nightmare, but there's a cost to trying to guarantee security through mechanism rather than trust.
[1] https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/episode-47-its-open-com...
- shadowofneptuneApr 2022If you like podcasts, there is Advent of Computing. It's not chronological, instead covering a different topic every episode. Most recent episodes are about magnetic core memory, INTERCAL, a hypertext system developed by the US military, and the Analytical Engine, respectively. There's over 80 episodes now so there's a lot to learn about.
Website: https://adventofcomputing.com/ RSS: https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/rss
If you want an idea of how computers work, there are toy virtual machines that are a good teaching tool (https://peterhigginson.co.uk/RISC/).
- siparikhApr 2020If you're into listening to podcasts, I highly recommend Sean Haas's Advent of Computing podcast, which bills itself as "the show that talks about the shocking, intriguing, and all too often relevant history of computing."
- nrclarkAug 2020Advent of Computing did a great podcast about Coherent recently. For anybody who's interested, I'd recommend checking it out:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coherent-is-not-unix/i...
- pjmlpOct 2020For those that care about how it came to be, and is still being used, Advent of Computing podcast did a session on it and how it traces back to the 8080.
- seemazeJul 2022Entertainingly clarified in the wonderful podcast 'Advent of Computing' ep. 36 [0]. Highly recommended!
[0]https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/episode-36-the-rise-of-...