Two-Bit History

A Jekyll blog about the history of computing
https://twobithistory.org/feed.xml (RSS)
visit blog
How the ARPANET Protocols Worked
8 Mar 2021 | original ↗

An ascent through the four levels of the ARPANET protocol hierarchy.

The Real Novelty of the ARPANET
7 Feb 2021 | original ↗

The ARPANET made its splashy public debut in 1972. Why exactly was it such a big deal?

Roy Fielding’s Misappropriated REST Dissertation
28 Jun 2020 | original ↗

Can history help us make sense of the term 'RESTful API'?

How to Use a Differential Analyzer (to Murder People)
6 Apr 2020 | original ↗

Solving differential equations with an analog computer for dummies.

Bulletin Board Systems: The VICE Exposé
2 Feb 2020 | original ↗

These underground digital meetinghouses have been operating since the '80s. Who uses them and why?

Friend of a Friend: The Facebook That Could Have Been
5 Jan 2020 | original ↗

Why didn't the FOAF standard give us distributed social networking in the 2000s?

How Much of a Genius-Level Move Was Using Binary Space Partitioning in Doom?
6 Nov 2019 | original ↗

A short history of the data structure that powered the classic first-person shooter.

Things You Didn’t Know About GNU Readline
22 Aug 2019 | original ↗

What is GNU Readline and where did it come from?

Codecademy vs. The BBC Micro
31 Mar 2019 | original ↗

In 1981, the BBC set out to educate Great Britain about computers. It did a really good job.

OOP Before OOP with Simula
31 Jan 2019 | original ↗

Early versions of Simula experimented with an entirely different kind of object-oriented programming.

↑ These items are from RSS. Visit the blog itself at https://twobithistory.org/feed.xml to find everything else and to appreciate author's digital home.