Computer History Museum

A short piece by local Silicon Valley television station KTEH about IBM inventor Rey Johnson. Johnson was founder and director of IBM’s San Jose Research Laboratory in 1952. Tasked with developing projects that would bring West Coast engineers into IBM and create new markets, Johnson led a number of experimental research programs and supervised development of the world’s first disk drive—the IBM RAMAC (1956). The disk drive brought near-instant random access to information, a dramatic improvement over the sequential access punched cards and magnetic tape of the day offered. In turn, random access brought real-time transaction processing to businesses, letting managers see a ‘snapshot’ of their business whenever they wanted (instead of waiting for cumbersome ‘batch’ processes to complete). Businesses could finally manage their work at electronic speeds. Every disk drive in use today is similar in basic principle to RAMAC.

Type
Moving Image
Format
DVCAM
Catalogue number
102651750
Rey Johnson interview, from the television program "Silicon Valley Reports," episode 214

The recording was created on May 21, 2014 and was conducted by telephone. In the interview, Albert Slade describes his long career in electronics and technology, with particular emphasis on his work in superconducting electronics. Slade first encountered superconducting electronics when he worked at the NSA on computer circuitry. There, Slade learned of the invention of the cryotron by Dudley Buck. Slade became a close collaborator of Buck’s, creating many of the first superconducting electronic devices and circuits at Arthur D. Little.

Type
Audio
Format
MP3
Catalogue number
102706879

Albert Slade interviewed about his donation to the Computer History Museum

Type
Moving Image
Format
MP4
Catalogue number
102706884
Slade, Albert interviewed about his donation to the Computer History Museum

The destruction of cultural heritage sites cannot always be avoided, but for every instance of nature devastating a historical landmark there are easily as many cases where mankind knowingly and willfully destroys its own history in the name of progress, profit, or real estate. Losses like that can be averted.This is the case with Sue Black and Bletchley Park. After becoming a Senior Research Associate at University College London, Black organized a web and social media campaign, making exceptional use of Twitter and Facebook, to preserve Bletchley Park, the headquarters for British decryption programs during World War II. Her book, Saving Bletchley Park, details the preservation initiative and was the fastest crowdfunded book of all time. Sue Black joined us to discuss her book, her life and career, and the campaign that saved Bletchley Park.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102717265
The preservation game

Launched in 2008, social-coding site GitHub supports over 15 million users who use the online platform to collaborate, build, and store software. Appealing to organizations with a large base of software developers, including Google, NASA, and even the White House, GitHub taps into the growing enthusiasm for open source projects and currently houses the world’s largest collection of public software. The site’s popularity among its user community has also attracted attention and dollars from major investors, including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Last year, the company raised $250 million, valuing it at more than $2 billion. GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath, who was named to Fortune's 40 Under 40 in 2015, likens the medium to Facebook but for programmers. “You log in, you’re connected to people, but instead of seeing photos of their baby, you see their code,” he says. During the event GitHub CEO and Co-founder Chris Wanstrath discusses the fascinating story of GitHub’s growth, the most amazing pieces of software built on the platform, and his vision for coding education. Wanstrath sits down with Fortune Senior Writer Michal Lev-Ram, who covers technology for both Fortune magazine and its website. She is also co-chair of Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference and Most Powerful Women Next Gen event. Her outstanding reporting contributed to Fortune winning a SABEW Best in Business Award for its technology coverage in 2012.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102717289
How the world builds software

Mary Lou Jepsen has lead Facebook’s virtual reality efforts, advised Google’s Sergey Brin and invented $100 laptops. Now she is turning her consumer electronics experience to the task of curing disease. After decades of working in display divisions at some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies, her goal is to shrink today’s massive MRI machines into wearable devices that continuously scan the body. Jepsen’s new company, Openwater, is developing technology that uses the way the body scatters infrared light to develop high resolution images equal to those produced by an MRI. This is enabled by novel LCDs with pixels small enough to create holographic images, coupled with the use of body-temperature detectors and complex software. These LCDs are small and light enough that they could line a beanie or a bandage. The implications of a wearable body imaging system are significant for detecting and treating cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and even mental illnesses. Mary Lou Jepsen discusses her Silicon Valley history, her company on the cutting edge of tech and medicine, and her vision for the future of body imaging and healthcare. Until mid-2016 she led advanced consumer electronics and virtual reality at Facebook and Oculus. Previously she had a similar role at Google and Google [x], where she was also a close advisor to Sergey Brin. She co-founded One Laptop per Child (OLPC) with Nicholas Negroponte, and was the lead inventor and architect of the $100 laptop. She holds a PhD in optical physics and an ScB in electrical engineering both from Brown University as well as an ScM in computational holography from the MIT Media Lab. She is an inventor on over 100 published or issued patents.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102738253
From screen queen to imaging innovator: Openwater CEO Mary Lou Jepsen in conversation with Museum CEO John Hollar

This video explores the origin and development of The Connection Machine’s design. The 1987 Connection Machine CM-1 presented a novel approach to supercomputing: instead of adopting the traditional von Neumann architecture typical of all computers, its lead designer, Danny Hillis, modeled his machine on the human brain. He called this approach, ‘connectionist,’ and it was designed to imitate the switching behavior of biological neurons. The machine was thus massively-parallel, suiting it to specific problems in which this architecture was a good fit. The Connection Machine’s unique hardware solution and distinctive visual appearance was designed by a team of consulting industrial designers, Gordon Bruce (interviewed here) and Alan Hawthorne, Danny Hillis and Tamiko Thiel of Thinking Machines Corporation and Ted Bilodeau, consulting mechanical engineer. The interview was recorded at the MOMA in New York City.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102738744
Connection Machine (CM-2) at the "Thinking Machines" NY MOMA

Robert C. Dobkin (Bob) studied Electrical Engineering at MIT. After early employment at GTE Defense Systems, Philadelphia, PA and analog module manufacturer Philbrick Nexus, Boston, MA in 1969 he joined National Semiconductor, Santa Clara, CA to work for Bob Widlar designing linear (analog) integrated circuits. After rising to Director of Advanced Circuit Development at National, in 1981 he cofounded Linear Technology Inc., Milpitas, CA where he served as Vice President of Engineering and as Chief Technical Officer since 1999. This oral history focuses on Mr. Dobkin’s role in establishing the product design and development capability at Linear Technology and the contribution of this activity to the success of the company.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102739948
Dobkin, Bob (Robert) interview

Ed Roberts played a seminal role in the early development of hobbyist microcomputers and personal computing. In 1974, his company, MITS, created a computer kit—called the Altair 8800—that became the most successful and influential computer of its time. This interview, by historian of computing David Greelish, took place in early 1995 at Roberts’ office in Cochran, Georgia. Roberts describes the founding of MITS as a model rocket electronics company he founded with two USAF friends which began manufacturing electronic calculators and then personal computers, in both kit and assembled form. The interview then covers the challenges in responding to thousands of unforeseen orders as the Altair sold far beyond projections due to a cover-story construction article in the hobbyist magazine Popular Electronics in January 1975. Roberts also describes the Altair 8800 “ecosystem”—that large network of people and companies who created add-on products for the computer. He concludes by discussing the end of MITS as a company and his later accomplishments, including becoming a medical doctor.

Type
Audio
Format
MP3
Catalogue number
102740008

This interview of Tom Mendoza, long-time head of sales for NetApp in Silicon Valley, is conducted by Bill Barnett, a professor in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. NetApp is a multi-billion $ company which has been voted multiple times as one of the best places to work in the country. Barnett explores with Mendoza the company’s culture and how this culture has contributed to both the company’s business success and employee satisfaction. Mendoza notes that the positive culture was set from the beginning and reinforced as the company grew by the company’s founders and early CEO. Tom relates a series of actions and management strategies he has employed throughout his NetApp career to support that positive corporate culture. In the early days of heady growth, a company’s culture is often not strained or tested. However, NetApp had to weather the “dot comm” bust in the 2000 time frame that saw their revenues plunge and they faced their first layoff. The company took some unusual financial risks at that time that they felt would address the crisis while keeping the culture intact. Their strategy paid off and the company weathered the downturn and was positioned for rapid growth while maintaining the support and confidence of the employees. This interview offers some very tangible examples of how to maintain a positive company culture in the face of rapid growth and financial crises. A great tutorial for any manager, whether in a startup or established corporation.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740073
Mendoza, Tom interview : NetApp

In this interview William P. Barnett describes the role of top management in encouraging and rewarding a culture that focused on business results and employee satisfaction. He also describes a number of important inflection points where the company made critical, and correct, business decisions. He points out that a major part of their success was their ability to learn from early failures and redirect their strategies to capitalize on that learning experience.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740075
Barnett, Bill (William P.) interview

<p>Geoff Ralston describes his road of discovery from the early days of the web, quitting his job at HP when he discovered the MOSAIC browser. He formed an email startup, which was bought by Yahoo where he used NetApp&rsquo;s products to help deal with its rapidly growing business. A tight relationship was essential for both companies when dealing with system crashes under meteoric growth. He has a number of other important observations, which are valuable to entrepreneurs in any business.</p>

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740090
Ralston, Geoff interview : NetApp

This interview with Helen Bradley is one of a series of interviews with key managers and engineers at NetApp. The goal of all of the interviews was to highlight the key elements of the positive culture which permeated the company and made it one of the nation’s “best places to work”. In this interview, describes her own learning curve coming into the organization from Sun Microsystems, her early failures, and how she refocused herself to be extremely successful in the long run. Helen provides a number of examples of how the culture of NetApp contributed to its business success. She talks about her pride in the fact that women occupied many senior positions within the company and emphasizes the importance of diversity amongst the employees as an important contributor to any organization’s long-term success.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740092
Bradley, Helen interview : NetApp

Recording of the interview with Lee Felsenstein, moderated by John Markoff. "White Rabbit" was the tentative title of a film documentary Ann Duvall, Bill English and John Markoff worked on. According to John, they "soon learned that none of us knew enough about filmmaking and we gave up." He carried on the project as a book and few years later he published "What the Dormouse Said: How the 60's counterculture shaped the personal computer industry."

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740480
White Rabbit: interview with Lee Felsenstein

Recording of the interview with Bob Taylor, moderated by John Markoff. "White Rabbit" was the tentative title of a film documentary Ann Duvall, Bill English and John Markoff worked on. According to John, they "soon learned that none of us knew enough about filmmaking and we gave up." He carried on the project as a book and few years later he published "What the Dormouse Said: How the 60's counterculture shaped the personal computer industry."

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740481
White Rabbit: interview with Bob Taylor

Recording of the interview with Bill English and Doug Engelbart, moderated by Bill Duvall and John Markoff. "White Rabbit" was the tentative title of a film documentary Ann Duvall, Bill English and John Markoff worked on. According to John, they "soon learned that none of us knew enough about filmmaking and we gave up." He carried on the project as a book and few years later he published "What the Dormouse Said: How the 60's counterculture shaped the personal computer industry."

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740482
White Rabbit: interview with Bill English and Doug Engelbart

Recording of the interview with Bill Duvall, Doug Engelbart, and Bill English, moderated by John Markoff. "White Rabbit" was the tentative title of a film documentary Ann Duvall, Bill English and John Markoff worked on. According to John, they "soon learned that none of us knew enough about filmmaking and we gave up." He carried on the project as a book and few years later he published "What the Dormouse Said: How the 60's counterculture shaped the personal computer industry."

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740483
White Rabbit: Interview with Bill Duvall, Doug Engelbart and Bill English

Winners and advisors from the first state-wide West Virginia Innovation and Business Model Competition hear stories and lessons learned from Intuit executive chairman and West Virginian Brad Smith. Smith spoke in conversation with Intuit VP of Corporate Responsibility Eileen Fagan during a workshop for the aspiring entrepreneurs at the Exponential Center @CHM.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102740532
Intuit’s Brad Smith advises student entrepreneurs

Douglas Carl Engelbart was an American engineer and an early computer and Internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on founding the filed of human-computer interaction, particularly while at his Augmentation Research Center Lab in SRI International, which resulted in the invention of the computer mouse, and the development of hypertext, networked computers, and precursors to graphical user interfaces. For all these reasons, the Computer History Museum honored Dougals Engelbart with the Fellow Award in 2005.

Type
Moving Image
Format
DVCAM
Catalogue number
102746502
Engelbart, Doug (Douglas Carl) interview : 2005 fellow

A video running eight minutes and a second where Kathy relates some of her experiences developing CP/M 2.2 (at Digital Research).

Type
Moving Image
Catalogue number
102762824
Video : Kathy Strutynski on CP/M 2.2 project