David Brock

Dec 12, 2024 | spectrum.ieee.org | David Brock

It seems to me that every item in the Computer History Museum’s collection has a biography of sorts—a life before CHM, a tale about how it came to us, and a life within the museum. The chapters of that biography include the uses made of it, and the historical and interpretive stories it can be made to tell. This then is a biography of one item that recently entered the museum’s collection—an early Memorex videotape containing a recording from 1968—and the historical discovery it has afforded.

Oct 16, 2024 | computerhistory.org | David Brock

A Pioneer of the Form From her childhood, Lillian Schwartz was a ceaseless artist. Indeed, she began her oral history interview with the Computer History Museum with early childhood memories of drawing: drawing with sticks in dirt, and with chalk on sidewalks.

Aug 22, 2023 | computerhistory.org | David Brock

A Mathematician with an Artist’s Eye The Adobe Corporation has announced that cofounder John Warnock died at the age of 82 on August 19, 2023. His death will be a loss to many, most of all his closely knit family, but extending as well to many professional colleagues and, indeed, to us at the Computer History Museum. Among his many interests, Warnock was engaged with history. He collected books from across the history of science, technology, and mathematics.

May 10, 2023 | computerhistory.org | David Brock

Access the Xerox PARC file system archive here. An Ancient Anxiety “Is my phone really backed up in the Cloud?” “When was the last time I backed up my laptop?” “Is it true that I need a local backup of my Google Drive?!” “Oh dear, I forgot my password!” Now that we have interwoven computers so deeply into our daily lives, an ancient anxiety has become a fiercer everyday companion for us.