Category Archives: History of Computing!

Virtual and Augmented Reality for Space Science and Exploration

Posted on February 16, 2018 by astrocompute

This is the title of a Symposium held at the Keck Institute for Space Studies on January 30 2018 in Pasadena.  According to the website, the goals of the meeting were: “The emerging technologies of Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) … Continue reading →

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My Favorite Computing Videos on YouTube

Posted on March 31, 2017 by astrocompute

I have often been asked what are my favorite computing videos on YouTube. There are so many, it’s hard to give a definitive answer and I keep discovering more, some posted several years ago. As of today only, here are … Continue reading →

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Astronomy Software (1986)

Posted on April 5, 2016 by astrocompute

I admit that I have soft spot for these old videos. This one is from 1986. Now, the interfaces may seem primitive, yet the calculations are quite sophisticated – these types of programs are just as useful today.  

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The Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)

Posted on March 1, 2016 by astrocompute

If you have never seen this, I recommend it.  Douglas Engelbart’s December 9, 1968, extraordinarily prescient demonstration of experimental computer technologies that are now ubiquitous. The live demonstration featured the introduction of the computer mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word … Continue reading →

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How Should Astronomy Pay For Software?

Posted on October 20, 2014 by astrocompute

So asked Frossie Enonomou at ADASS XXIV in Calgary, October 2014.  She gave her view of the answer to this question. It’s not of course about paying for software, but about paying people to write software.  Generally speaking, it’s not … Continue reading →

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Astroinformatics 2013 – Day Three, December 11 2013

Posted on December 10, 2013 by astrocompute

Day Three  of Astroinformatics 2013, hosted  by CSIRO, is well underway. We are discussing advances in data processing, manipulation and management – crucial topics in modern astronomy. You can see the agenda here, along with a growing list of presentations, … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, astronomy surveys, Cloud computing, computer modeling, computer videos, Computing, computing videos, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data Management, Data mining, High performance computing, History of Computing!, image mosaics, informatics, information sharing, Open Access, Operations, Parallelization, Scientific computing, social media, social networking, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability, Virtual Observatory, visualization, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Astroinformatics 2013 – Day One Morning, December 9

Posted on December 8, 2013 by astrocompute

I am in Marsfield, near Sydney, Australia for the Astroinformatics 2013 meeting, hosted  by CSIRO. This annual meeting discusses advances in data processing, manipulation and management – crucial topics in modern astronomy given the acceleration in the growth of data … Continue reading →

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Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2 – A History Lesson

Posted on November 26, 2013 by astrocompute

This week’s post is a bit of the beaten track, but by accident I came across this article by Jeremy Reimer in arstechnica.   I started reading and ended up reading the entire article. It documents the battle between IBM … Continue reading →

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Crowdsourced Astronomy – A Talk By Carolina Ödman-Govender

Posted on May 8, 2013 by astrocompute

This is a talk given by Carolina Ödman-Govender, given at the re:publica 13 meeting, on May 8 2013.  She gives a fine general introduction to the value of crowdsourcing in astronomy, and invites people to get in touch with her … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, Astronomy, citzen science, crowdsourcing, education, History of Computing!, HST, information sharing, social media, social networking | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The known and unknown pioneers of modern computing

Posted on June 27, 2012 by astrocompute

This topic is perhaps a little outside the normal scope of my blog, but I read a very good article last week in the International Science Grid This Week (ISGTW). The article honored the June birthdays of two computer science … Continue reading →

Posted in astroinformatics, computer videos, cyberinfrastructure, High performance computing, History of Computing!, information sharing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments