HISTORICAL RESOURCES

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Historical Video Links

In September 1956 IBM
launched the 305 RAMAC,
the first computer with a hard
drive. The hard drive weighed
over a ton and held 5MB of data.

Computer History Museum YouTube

One of the richest collections of video material related to computer history can be found on the YouTube site of the Computer History Museum, where you will find dozens of videos relating to networking, personal computers, and other topics.
http://www.youtube.com/computerhistory

Computer History - A British View

This documentary, made in 1969 by Milbanks Film for Barclays Bank, talks about various uses of computers in the 1960s, the notion of the universal machine, binary representation, switching circuits, functional components of a computer, input and output devices, storage devices, the process of systems analysis and coding, privacy issues, and people's attitudes towards computers. Each part is between 9 and 10 minutes long.

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXFnCD72JpY
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MlD_fEgoCc
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvY5KJEwIdU

Compaq Advertisements with John Cleese

1984 Apple Macintosh Computer

The famous SuperBowl commercial introducing the Apple Macinstosh computer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8&feature=related

David Letterman "Tribute" to Bill Gates and Microsoft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NoGbLI3ePA&feature=related

Computer History

A brief history of computers from a hardware perspective. Lots of good visuals, some questionable statements and pronunciation with background music by Daft Punk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gas2Xi0rW6A

OQO Computer Advertisement

This less than one-minute ad flashes rapidly through many historic examples of computers before introducing the OQO UMPC n 2004. Background music, no voice track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zwwXAJXNUc&feature=related

Grace Hopper on Late Night with David Letterman

A 9-minute clip with the 79-year-old computer software pioneer Grace Hopper (Harvard Mark I, COBOL), telecast on October 2, 1986.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57bfxsiVTd4

Chalk TV

Brief History of Konrad Zuse, Bill Gates, and Paul Allen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-rXWWVmchY&feature=related

You Bet Your Computer?

This is an audio recording of the May 10, 1950 radio program You Bet Your Life, starring Groucho Marx. One of the contestants (appearing about half way through the show) is Dr. Harry Huskey, then a young mathematician building the SWAC computer under the auspices of the National Bureau of Standards. (Thanks to Dag Spicer of the Computer History Museum for bringing this broadcast to our attention.) Groucho quizzes Huskey and jokes about the computer.
http://gizmo.org/crypt/chm/youbetyourlife500510no4932door_otrcat.com_.mp3

Computer Technology Through History

A 9-minute look not at computers but at the importance of computers from antiquity to the present in western society. Most of the video is cartoons. Written by the famous designers Charles and Ray Eames. Prescient in its discussion of the computer as an information machine at such an early date.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVJM_xqi2Nc&feature=related

IBM 1401 computer

A 1-minute clip from the IBM archives about their historic computer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-UaHAWVKU&feature=related

Early Computer History

Stills of early computer technology to an interesting modern hip hop sound track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlgFSV_nCec&feature=related

Grace Hopper on 60 Minutes

First half of 60 Minutes interview of Grace Murray Hopper by Morley Safer done in 1982. At this point in time Capt. Hopper was 76 and she discusses her experiences as one of the first researchers on the Harvard Mark I. She is a very motivational speaker. She speaks about the computer revolution, finding the first bug and qualities of leadership. Mr. Safer does a nice job showing her off and adding documentary video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sUT7gFQEsY&feature=related

1981 Early Computer Graphics

Here is how this video is described on YouTube:"This video was shown to Disney Executives in early 1981; it is what convinced them to go ahead with the leading edge movie "TRON". It was a compilation of different programmers from the company called Triple I (Information International Inc.) This was way ahead of its time in many ways, CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) was still brand new at this level and most people had never imagined computer graphics of this complexity. Even though "TRON" was not a commercial success, it helped CGI enter the film industry in a way that is taken for granted today. Super computers of that era were used to create the graphics (PDP-10, Cray)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK7b7oc7hWI&feature=related

Computer Graphics 1973

This Japanese advertisement for National/Panasonic shows off some of the better graphics available at the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGCvpSzoLR4&feature=related

John Whitney - Arabesque (1975) Early Computer Graphics

From the description on YouTube: "John Whitney is considered by many to be the "Father of Computer Graphics". He started in the 1940s building clockwork mechanisms with lights to draw directly on film. Later, he bought WW2 surplus analog ballistics computers and eventually started using digital computers. I believe this one was rendered using a vector display. Incidentally, his son John Whitney, Jr. owned the company that did graphics for "The Last Starfighter"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7h0ppnUQhE&feature=related

Bruce Gilchrist PhD.
Aired 5-31-07

From the YouTube description: "Bruce Gilchrist received his doctorate in meteorology at the University of London, and then joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1952. He became director of the computer center at the University of Syracuse, then joined IBM in 1959 where he became director of planning with the Service Bureau Corporation (1963-1965) and manager in the Data Processing Division (1965-1968). In the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) he served as secretary (1960-1962) and vice president (1962-1964). In 1966 he was elected president of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) and was the organization's executive director from 1968 to 1973, after which he became director of computing activities at Columbia University."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob1HorZFmcg

The Death of Alan Turing

From the YouTube description: "Rare documentary excerpt traces the decline and subsequent death of the mathematical genius and one of the founders of the modern computer. Turing was also one of the leading codebreakers at Bletchley Park during World War Two, and played a leading role in the breaking of the German Enigma codes."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7_WzNzHwJY

The Incomputable Alan Turing

A documentary on Alan Turing's life and works written and narrated by students at the Humboldt University in Berlin, presented in 2005. In German, with a wealth of historical images.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX0VxiPp2eo

Alan Turing

A 34-second clip with some historical footage on Alan Turing and his code-breaking machines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ1VdE5tTVg

Gregory Chaitan Lecture Malardalen University, Sweden 2005

Death By Train
Campus Loop

A comedy mystery written and conducted by college students from the University of Texas. Limited artistic value but a novelty for historians of computing. YouTube description: "The Campus Loop joins the USO and visits the troops behind enemy lines during WWII. On the train, they discover Alan Turing and his secret to the Enigma Machine. When he shows up dead, they have to find the killer...with hilarious consequences! From the "Campus Loop", a nationally syndicated sketch comedy program that aired on KVR-TV, UT Austin's student TV channel. Feature film. Air date: Apr 15, 2000."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUih3a8jDws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUACFuM0FzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN31V8zDL3g

Short Outline of Computing in Cambridge

YouTube description: "In the old Cavendish Laboratory, Simon Schaffer [the well-known historian of science] outlines some of the developments of Cambridge computing. For the background and other films, please see www.alanmacfarlane.com" Main topics are Charles Babbage and Alan Turing, and their work in a "Cambridge style" that mixes high-level theory and high-level engineering.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4-rHqziA7M

The Baby, World's First Computer With an Electric Memory

This is a set of vignettes showing the early experimental Manchester computer (the "Baby") first operated in 1948, demonstrated at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zjfJe6sNwk

To Tell the Truth

This was a grade school project about Ada Lovelace. It is so bad that it is at points hilarious. YouTube description: "My little sister had to do this as a math project. I did all the filming and editing, but she wrote the script and acted everything out. I saved her sorry little butt. It features Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, some english mathemetician."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umYvr-1sAYU

ENIAC. A Time in Computer History

A short (under 2 minute) school project with a number of good still images. YouTube description:"This is a school project for Yr 11 Ipt, it is about the metal giant ENIAC, and its place in computing history."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN7tIAkUZmU

From One John V. Atanasoff (The History of Computers)

A partisan account claiming that Atanasoff was the inventor of the computer, prepared by the Iowa State University Research Foundation. Useful for including an interview with Atanasoff and Arthur Burks. Professional production value. YouTube description: "A portrait of a Midwest math and physics professor and his long-forgotten role in computer history. In the late 1930s, years before ENIAC would be heralded as the world's first large-scale, general- purpose digital computer, the University of Iowa's [sic, Iowa State University's] John Vincent Atanasoff conceived and built the first electronic digital computer. His formidable accomplishment has gone largely unrecognized, despite a 1972 ruling by a federal judge that established Atanasoff's original contribution to the computer age. Atanasoff has been described as being equal in creative stature to Bell, Edison, Morse, Faraday, Pascal, and Marconi. 29 minutes, color."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MtVR1fms6s

Reinventing the Media Businesses

John Warnock, the co-founder and for many years CEO of Adobe Systems, discusses some episodes in the recent history of the media businesses as they react to the Internet, based on his board experiences with several media industries: newspapers (Knight Ridder), film (American Film Institute), magazines (Salon.com), and information providers (ebrary). This is part of the PARC Forum. October 31, 2007.
mms://216.93.180.194/parc_forum/v1199.wmv

Inventing the Ink Jet Printer

Edmond L. Kyser, the co-inventor in 1968 with Steve Sears of the drop-on-demand technology that drives ink-jet printers, discusses his invention, the patent process, and the evolution of his design. This is part of the PARC Forum. Delivered on October 24, 2007.
mms://216.93.180.194/parc_forum/v1198.wmv

The Fog of Data: Long Term Cyberinfrastructure

In this lecture at the PARC Forum, Geoffrey Bowker, executive director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, gives a historical lecture on memory and technical mediation of memory in science. Delivered February 8, 2006.
mms://216.93.180.194/parc_forum/v1125.wmv