techhistory

Sad news: The Living Computer Museum in Seattle won't reopen and the collection, including the historic PDP-10, pivotal to the origins of #Emacs and #FreeSoftware, is set to be auctioned. One of their PDP-10, the second to be named AI, still has MIT's "Deactivated Property" sticker prominently displayed on the front panel. What will become of these technological treasures? It's a moment for reflection on how we preserve our digital heritage. https://www.geekwire.com/2024/seattles-living-computers-museum-logs-off-for-good-as-paul-allen-estate-will-auction-vintage-items/ #TechHistory #SoftwareFreedom

Netscape Navigator brought the web to millions 🌐 It was the first browser to reach mass adoption & introduce bookmarks, cookies, & JavaScript, features that shaped the modern web.

It also sparked early software-bundling debates & set the stage for the browser wars.

Its website is preserved on the #WaybackMachine. 1 in a Trillion pages saved ➡️
https://web.archive.org/web/19961101000000*/netscape.com

#Wayback1T #InternetHistory #Innovation #TechHistory

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_West
"Before GPS became an everyday utility, it was a hard mathematical problem.
In 1950s–70s, Gladys West - mathematician @ U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA - worked on one of the most difficult challenges in satellite navigation: accurately modeling the Earth itself.
Modern GPS accuracy depends on:
• Precise satellite ephemerides
• Accurate gravitational field modeling
• Correct Earth reference frames
West’s work directly advanced all three
Her contributions weren’t widely recognized; it wasn’t until 2018 that she was inducted into the USAF Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame - decades after GPS reshaped global navigation, logistics, finance, defense & mobile computing...
Before GPS could tell us where we are, someone had to define what the Earth actually looks like mathematically…”
#Engineering #GPS #Geodesy #STEM #TechHistory #WomenInTech #DataScience #Infrastructure #WomenInGeoSpatial
H/T Evan Kirstel [despite their puerile AI-generated image of Ms. West]

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