Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Computing/Early computers task force

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This page was nominated for deletion on 2008-02-20. The result of the discussion was Merge to Wikipedia:WikiProject Computing as a Task Force.

Article requests

I'd like to see an article on the Harris/6. The one I used was purchased new in 1977. Its had a card reader, a printer, two or three 9600 bpi tape drives, and 7 or 8 CRT terminals and some sort of interactive operating system. OS/6 maybe. I remember that operating system upgrades also required work with a soldering iron. The CPU+memory+tape drives occupied four refridgertor-sized cabinets.

Also, something on the Cyber Data Systems ((maybe, I forget the name now??)) that it replaced (which was later renamed/acquired by Scientific Data Systems. I think its was a CDS/1 or SDS/1 something like that. This machine had been purchased in 1959, had 32KBytes of true core memory, with 16KB each in a refridgertor-sized cabinet. (These were actually heavily insulated ovens, since the core was heat to near the Curie temperature to improve memory access time. It had a big control panel of switches and lights, and an IBM selectric specially wired in as a terminal. It had four full-size tape drives (i.e. 5 foot high, 3 foot wide). Typical operation: load source code on reel on drive at far left. Load tape containing compiler in the middle. Load blank tape for object code on right. Flips switches, IPL. wait for compile to finish. (progress is output on the selectric). Next, move object tape from right-most to left-most drive, replace compiler tape with linker tape. A new blank tape for the executable on the far right. Do the link step. Then to run the executable ... you get the idea. linas 02:51, 27 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 00:03, 26 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Software

Hello and best of luck with your project. Looking at the related projects for a place for T-Square (software) and some other early programs, WikiProject Early Computers or Computer science seemed all right. In some cases though, these programs could be "firsts" related to software engineering in general. Is there a WikiProject Software or another spot that would be better? Thank you in advance. --Susanlesch 08:32, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In case this helps and so I can visualize it I added a sketch of a banner to T-Square's talk page. If you think it is confusing I will be happy to remove it. Thank you. --Susanlesch 09:15, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Removed my sketches. -Susanlesch 08:35, 2 January 2007 (UTC). They looked like this:[reply]

Draft Proposed: This article is within the scope of WikiProject Early Computers (discussion). This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the Project's quality scale. See comments.

I tagged these programs merge. Your advice on whether to proceed with that would be most helpful. Thank you. --Susanlesch 12:18, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I will remove the merge tags since there is no support. If you should have comments later feel free to leave them on my talk page. Best wishes. -Susanlesch 05:56, 2 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:46, 30 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Celebrity endorsements of 80s computers article

I found an article about celebrity endorsements of 80s computers which might interest this task force. Some of the celebrities mentioned at William Shatner, Alan Alda, Bill Bixby, Bill Cosby, and even Bill Gates (for a Radio Shack Tandy!). - LA @ 23:39, 17 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If It's Good Enough for Shatner... on the PC World web site. - LA @ 23:39, 17 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Off-site HCI encyclopedia

I am currently creating a Wikia (http://bushytree.wikia.com) about the evolution and history of the Human Computer Interface based on an early paper and an oft-referenced diagram that I've done on the Xerox Star. I would love to get in touch with collaborators to help hammer it into shape. 68.58.255.234 (talk) 22:31, 15 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Early computers?

Can someone explain how these computers could possibly be classified as early?

ASC Purple - Processor: IBM POWER5 (circa 2005)
ASCI Blue Pacific - Processor: IBM PowerPC 604e (circa 1997)
ASCI Red - Processor: Intel Pentium Pro (circa 1995)
ASCI Thor's Hammer - Processor: AMD Opteron (circa 2004)
IBM Roadrunner - Do I need to give a date for this one? The latest and greatest supercomputer?

This editor seems to be responsible for classifying these systems: Tinucherian. I have placed a message at his talk page enquiring as to why these systems were classified as early computers, but there was no response. Two of the computers incorrectly tagged as early have been reverted by me, but when I discovered that there was a large number of systems incorrectly tagged, I have decided to get a response first before removing the tags. Rilak (talk) 06:22, 31 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My mistake. I overlooked the Category:One-of-a-kind computers ( as given in the project page ) as containing only early computers. Reverted the false postives ... Thanks for bringing this to our attention -- Tinu Cherian - 07:17, 31 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

active?

Is this project still active? --mikeu ^talk 12:27, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Atleast I am ! -- Tinu Cherian - 15:56, 27 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

images anyone?

If anyone is looking for images of older computer hardware to illustrate articles, feel free to drop me a note with requests. I am a member of the Retro-Computing Society of RI and have access to a variety of mini-computers and other machines. We've started uploading some shots, for example: Image:PDP-10 1090.jpg Image:Linc-8.jpg Image:Ibm-tube.jpg Image:9-track-drive-open.jpg Image:X-document.gif Just leave a reply in this thread. --mikeu ^talk 12:51, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Analog-to-Digital Timeline

User:Bob the Wikipedian/Analog-to-Digital Timeline Can anyone add to this list? I started it when I realized I couldn't think of a single analog device which has gone digital since the mid-80's. Thanks! Bob the Wikipedian ^{(talk • contribs)} 06:10, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]