Dan Bricklin
@DanB
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One of the VisiCalc guys, CTO @AlphaSoftware , DBDemo, blogger, podcaster, iPad app: NoteTakerHD, president of Software Garden, Inc. (SGI) Also: @danb @qoto .org
Massachusetts, USA
Joined July 2007
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@SteveBellovin
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From about Fred Brooks: "The most important single decision I ever made was to change the IBM 360 series from a 6-bit byte to an 8-bit byte, thereby enabling the use of lowercase letters. That change propagated everywhere." May his memory be a blessing.
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Was on a 2.25 hour Zoom call w/another couple. We had a MacBook Air M1, they had a plain 3-mo old MacBook Air. By the end, theirs was very hot, and the fan was going on and off wheezing away, making it hard for them to hear. Ours was not warm in the slightest. They may upgrade.
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Today is the 38th anniversary of the announcement of the IBM PC. Here's the video of our staff meeting from that day where I read press releases, etc., to the VisiCalc developers (excerpt appeared in PBS' Triumph of the Nerds): (Of historical interest.)
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Thanks, Joe, for reminding me it’s 40 years since my first VisiCalc prototype! I’ll tweet a photo of my notes from that day.
VisiCalc, the world's first spreadsheet, was prototyped on this day 40 years ago
@DanB
@BobFrankston
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At Harvard Business School reunion. They still use blackboards and chalk, not whiteboards. They saw the future: Dark Mode! (Prof is Lynda Applegate)
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I received a spreadsheet history question from Prof. Fernando Arellano of UofDallas. Thought I'd share my response: Excel computes NPV differently than it computes IRR, that is, excluding the cash flow in year 0 and requiring an adjustment. Was it the same in VisiCalc? 1/9
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Quite a challenge condensing my 45 minute talk about the creation of VisiCalc into 12 minutes for
@TEDxBeaconSt
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My
@TEDxBeaconSt
talk (the VisiCalc story) is up on YouTube! They called it "A Problem That Changed the World"
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42 years ago today, Dan Fylstra of Personal Software told me that he had in hand the first complete, manufactured copy of VisiCalc, the pioneering spreadsheet for the Apple II. Here's the notes I took that day. He Fedex's me a copy that I got that next day (Saturday delivery).
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Great article by
@harrymccracken
in
@FastCompany
about Apple //e and Lisa, and the
@ComputerHistory
/ BCS video of their introduction. //e "...company’s most underappreciated computer" saving it despite later failures.
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Just found out & ordered: Charles Mann released 134 recordings of Jobs, Woz, Kotok (Spacewar), Alvy Ray Smith, etc. (200 hrs audio, 16 video) from Boston Computer Society, Computer Museum, & more on 64GB flash from Amazon. Every CS dept should have this.
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20 years ago Bill Gates and Andy Grove hosted a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the IBM PC announcement (August 8, 2001). I was a panelist and posted photos and comments about it back then:
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Finally got to see the Four Centuries of Innovation display at Boston's Logan Airport near gate C9. Pretty amazing and humbling.
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Talking to some elderly friends, they've heard of multiple instances where Apple Watches detected real falls and were helpful. And it works where their normal alarm bands don't (outside the house/retirement community).
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.
@marcoarment
Some sure do - there are some old-timers (or kids of oldtimers) who work there. Having fun programming w/WatchKit.
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This is not something I want to debate. However, I'm sure others in the world of finance wondered about it and the photo of my notes is historical data from a decision made almost 40 years ago that still affects us today, so I decided to share it.
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Been 50+ years programming for me. Still love it. Still a high when it works or track down a bug.
Been 20+ years on/off for me, and while I spend more time on people problems now, getting code to do the thing I intend is still my favorite high. A couple times a week, I see new libraries or techniques and go "WOW that is so cool!" with no irony.
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.
@remoorejr
IBM Simon smartphone: 1994, Handspring Treo 180: 2002, iPhone 2007. Still early in VR in Apple timing.
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.
@angusdav
@heyjudesue
@pmarca
When I was at Harvard Business School (and conceived VisiCalc) the student newsletter was "The Spread Sheet".
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My experience w/
#AirPodsPro
: I have high-frequency hearing loss & wear hearing aids. I need to minimize loud music to avoid more damage. Last night at a wedding turned off aids & used AirPodsPro w/noise reduction. Worked better than previous use of earplugs. Helping justify cost.
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On Zoom w/friends last night they asked (& we discussed) why I use Twitter. I tweeted about their heat issues with Intel MBAir vs our M1 MBAir. Sure enough,
@benedictevans
tweeted back that Zoom issued a revised version to address. Emailed friends. Twitter came through yet again!
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Wow. 40 years ago today. Here's me reading IBM's PR material for the first IBM PC to the developers who put VisiCalc on it. A piece of this ended up on PBS' Triumph of the Nerds. For more, see: and
@IBM
@Computerland
@Sears
📼
@VisiCalc
's developers,
@SoftwareArts
, held a staff meeting today to review the release of
@IBM
's personal computer. It was videotaped for employees to watch later. Thanks to
@DanB
, VisiCalc's co-creator, for the footage.
#TheIBMPC
#OnThisDay
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@rikerjoe
@BobFrankston
Here’s my notes from 40 years ago about first prototype on an Apple II of VisiCalc. (First on any computer was months before at Harvard Business School on DEC PDP-10.)
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As I remember it, Space Invaders was extremely popular on the Apple II in 1978-79. You wanted it, so justified computer purchase by buying VisiCalc in 1980 "for work". 😁 Our dev Apple II's "fire" button broke from overuse, so we replaced it with an industrial push button.
Tomohiro Nishikado's concept art for the 1978 video game "Space Invaders".
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In honor of
#spreadsheetday
(one of several milestone dates in the final process of getting shrink-wrapped copies of VisiCalc to purchasers 40 years ago) here's a link to my talk on about VisiCalc:
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I'm excited to give a talk about VisiCalc in the 10:15am EST block of
#TEDxBeaconSt
today! may have a stream link.
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Why see an actor? Real Steve Jobs in 1980 about personal computers & where Apple going. VisiCalc @ 7:15 is example.
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1978: Reason for personal computer: Recipe storage. 1979: Spreadsheet. 2014: Recipe sharing. :)
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How far we've come! Mosaic 1.0 was released Nov 11, 1993. Here's a video of Mosaic in action made about 6 months later by me of
@BobFrankston
using it that includes the LCS (now CSAIL) website: (we both had worked at LCS, where we met) HT
@danbri
#otd
in 1993 the first major web browser was released: Mosaic 1.0.
(v/
@NCSAatIllinois
)
#todayintech
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Saw this RT by
@ross
. Wow! Bell Labs in 1967 assumed dual screens in the home office by 2020, with pen-tablet on the desk beside the keyboard for drawing. Not much UI shown, & no mouse (just being invented a bit before). Zoom-like interactions w/children using it socially.
This 1967 educational film was deemed “impossible” and “fantastical” by many observers at the time.
With the input from scientists at Bell Labs it painted a future of 2020.
It predicted elements of the technologies: e-commerce to social networks:
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I didn't upgrade from my trusty used-daily series 0 Apple Watch until battery life dropped too much and new software wouldn't run on it (cost: $102/yr). Got a series 4. Very happy - love Infograph face, and larger screen for random Photos of family face.
Two of the fascinating datapoints from the
#AppleWatch
study was that 30% of our early tech panel still used an original Apple Watch and their user satisfaction was 93! This is a 4 year old product!
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If you are a developer or mobile architect, have an Apple Watch, and know JavaScript, you might like my new app:
http://t.co/pCYmeHI7O8
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Remember when we first got laser printers with fonts? Took a while to learn to use appropriately. Smartwatch apps & usage will be the same.
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I interviewed
@AdamBosworth
about the creation of HTML5, Ajax, MSAccess, Quattro, CSS, XML vs JSON, & much more:
http://t.co/gbzgE2bOlH
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@bcantrill
@codinghorror
I was pronouncing it EEniac in the mid-1960’s when I took an NSF summer course at Penn down the hall from where it was built. That’s how I heard it from people there.
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Ali crossed paths w/personal computing pioneers (from my post about his photographer: )
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I wonder if calculations done in spreadsheets are likely to have FEWER errors than w/traditional code, counter to the "Errors because using Excel" essays: "...multiple steps that show intermediate results [in cells]...ensure...calculations are correct...even loops are 'unwound'".
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I am incredibly happy w/my Apple Watch, even if not perfect. Removes friction in my life I already wanted to remove, & just started using it
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38th Anniversary of the announcement of the IBM PC today. Transcript of video of me reading the press releases and more to developers who ported VisiCalc to it: (Excerpt appeared in PBS' Triumph of the Nerds). See also my 2001 post:
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The iPad introduuction was so important to the computing world, and me personally. 10 years...wow! I got one as soon as it was available. Here’s what I wrote a little later: and
Ten years ago today, I attended Apple’s original iPad launch. I knew it was impressive. But revisiting it made me appreciate it even more.
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@axpence
@amcafee
@HarvardHBS
@amcafee
was right. That classroom was important and inspired many of us in many ways before I studied there.
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39 years ago (in Sports time) we were 6 hours from the Apple Macintosh 1984 commercial. It signaled that the world was about to change.
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Overcast from
@marcoarment
is 1.4%! Pretty good for an indie developer vs Apple, Google, Spotify!
Spotify now accounts for 19% of podcast listening.
We're sharing this insight and more about consumption across Anchor's entire catalogue so that independent creators can be better informed about our podcasting landscape—now and in the future.
READ MORE:
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Jonathan and Mitch created Lotus 1-2-3, Bob and I did VisiCalc, Ray did Lotus Notes and part of Lotus Symphony, Marv was a VP at Lotus. Nice to see each other.
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Ali crossed paths w/computing pioneers (from my post about photographer Howard Bingham: )
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@BenedictEvans
Think of all the small businesses & non-profits that can now afford to do better planning because of Excel.
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@SwiftOnSecurity
I remember a VC in '90s asking the then common "Who are the dogs & will they eat the food?" So: If even your co. doesn't why others?
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Walking up stairs with a bag, child, & dog seeing who it is, tapping 'Answer' with your nose is, well, a superpower:
http://t.co/OpfOyZnwWm
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OMG! Never thought someone would try (and succeed) to make a spreadsheet do this... What a versatile hammer Excel is in the right hands! (A pretty full digital audio workstation, running in real-time.)
I am now quietly removing Excel from my resume because I can’t do it like this
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46 years ago this weekend I slept in the mud 200' or so from the stage at Woodstock.
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May my close friend Howie's memory be a blessing.
Today marks a year without my amazing, kind, and joyful dad. We will never be the same, but we are learning to adapt.
Eat some lemon pound cake for Howie today, would ya?
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MT
@codepo8
: moon hoax not:
http://t.co/n1VlPg4a4S
proof that ... you couldn't have faked the footage. [Love this video]
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Today is
@BobFrankston
's birthday. On this day in 1979 we were @ the National Computer Conference in NYC demoing the just announced VisiCalc
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Wow. My brother knocked over a box in his basement closet by mistake today, and some stuff fell out. He noticed when he put it back that it was our late father's dog tag and other WWII army stuff. On Veterans Day.
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So many comments re bare feet in the IBM PC video. Note: I was wearing sandals (between the toes type). One of the few ppl shown always went barefoot even in winter & was known for it. Others had normal shoes. It was hot in the office in the summer. Twitter is strange.
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Great, detailed essay about machine learning and AI in general, understandable even if you aren't technical.
It turns out the Google Photos incident labeling Black people as “gorillas” was NOT due to homogeneous training data.
Fascinating discussion from
@yonatanzunger
about the issues that caused it:
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Happy
#NationalSpreadsheetDay
!Meet the creators of the first spreadsheet
@DanB
and
@BobFrankston
! With
@samrega
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Here’s me with my copy of Computer Lib. Great to see Alan Kay with one.
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Seems Apple on-line systems of various sorts are down, but error msgs (if any) imply incorrect passwords. Scares you for no reason.
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If you are science-oriented, this is an incredible tweet-thread to understand why hand-washing kills conrona virus, and how transmission works in physical terms. So many experts are helping us all do remote learning on Twitter!
1/25 Part 1 - Why does soap work so well on the SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus and indeed most viruses? Because it is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. A two part thread about soap, viruses and supramolecular chemistry
#COVID19
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My wife and I led a very successful Zoom party for New Year's Eve. I thought I'd share details and tips in case it helps others. We had about 15 squares worth of people on the screen. The two main activities were charades and singing songs related to time. 1/14
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Zoom is not FaceTime. Finally realized that, in a meeting, the laptop camera is WATCHING YOU WATCH the meeting, not talking to an audience. Thinking point of view as a 3rd party observer, no need to use AI to make eyes look like they are watching camera. Like an interview on TV.
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@angusdav
@heyjudesue
@pmarca
The word "spreadsheet" existed (I knew it well: Some of my sketches were on ss paper) but was not well known.
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@alexjgoldstein
Howie was a mentor and the best of friends to so many, including me. He will be so sorely missed. Zecher tzadik livracha - May the memory of the righteous be for a blessing.
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For us old-timers (started in '66) something like X for a loop variable looks strange. Explicit type dcls came in mid-'60s in some FORTRANs.
S3 asked why we use i & j for loop variables. I had to think for a bit then I remembered:
#fortran77
integer vars started with i-n.
@JOJIB0Y
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But how do you use with HiFi, PA system, or non-Bluetooth speakers & not drain battery? They don't sell that dongle.
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A pioneer who pointed the way to so many of us. May his memory be an inspiration.
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On the 10th anniversary of the iPad announcement: After 3 days of use: "My Early Thoughts About the iPad": , and 6 months later: "Is the Apple iPad really 'magical'?" (I wrote one of the first productivity apps for it, NoteTakerHD.)
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So sad. A key giant of the early days. May Chuck Peddle’s memory be a blessing.
R.I.P. Chuck Peddle, absolute American engineering legend: designer of MOS Tech 6502 microprocessor, designer of PET. Died Dec 15, 2019. His Legacy shall live on. His brilliance touched so many lives.
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@PocketJoshua
@adafruit
@stevesi
Mrs. Lynn??? Thank her for remembering. She must have done a great job -- I grew to be one of top 2 in class for math and got into MIT (where, while very good w/computers, was lower-end in math). I did VisiCalc because I was too lazy and error-prone to do arithmetic in B-school.
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"Ink" note taking is still the better way (for reasons that were found in the past, too). I recently released an upgrade to my NoteTakerHD iPad app that (according to Apple analytics I get) got rid of an annoying crash some people got. Nice to know my app is still relevant.
Taking Notes By Hand May Be Better Than Digitally, Researchers Say.
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My sister, who teaches K-2 (also some 3-8) has been forced to teach w/Microsoft Teams without much training nor support. Anybody (at Microsoft?) w/experience using it in such a situation (e.g., 6 year olds don't know how to self unmute) who could mentor her would be appreciated.
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I released a simple iOS app for decimal/hex/RGB/RGBA/char values, image viewing to the pixel w/color info & cropping, hex dumps of files, URL encode/decode, pasteboard info, and more. Garden Utils for Programmers:
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If 30%+ of Apple Watch users like it w/3rd party apps barely tested on early SDK, imagine what months w/fuller SDK & hw in hand will bring.
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I'm honored to get an award tomorrow from the
@MassTLC
. Other awards will be announced at the event. Looking forward to seeing what they will be. Categories include: Tech of the Year in Advanced Mfg, CleanTech, Cyber Security, Robotics, and more:
Join
#MassTLC
to network & celebrate all of the innovations in the MA tech ecosystem on October 11th!
Celebrate industry luminary Dan Bricklin & cheer on the region's
#TechTop50
!
Register here➡
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Apple
#VisionPro
: What happens when you watch something that literally brings tears to your eyes? Are the internals waterproof? Would tears get on cameras or affect eye-tracking? Easy take off/put back on w/pause/repeat-last-10-sec to wipe eyes? (Asking for a friend...)
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Found this: Masks on beards seem pretty good (5mm long:95%, 30mm:98%(!)) with an N95 (3M
#8210
) vs 99-100% no beard. See Table 1 of: Most lengths are as good as or better than KN95/KF94 with no beard (85%?) and much better than procedure mask -- see Fig. 3
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.
@BenedictEvans
With personal tech, it comes down to "I continue to use it" vs "great demo, show me another".
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9/11/01 was a major milestone in blogging, as
@davewiner
's page of that day reminds us: Now online taken for granted
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Sign of getting older (besides black hair going gray): Glasses frames from this 1985 photo of me in the BBC article are now repurposed frames for my "computer glasses" (special reading glasses set to screen distance commonly used by some of us older folks)
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Almost done w/my app that allows anyone who knows JavaScript to prototype working apps for the Apple Watch using just their iPhone & watch.
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Funny you should mention
#APL
: I implemented it twice for Multics.
@WardCunningham
used it to my surprise. See also:
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A link to my hour and 10 minute full talk at the
@bosconference
in 2010. Exactly 40 years ago last week (on
@BobFrankston
's birthday in 1979) VisiCalc was announced and shown to the public in NYC.
It's the 40th anniversary of Visicalc. Steve Jobs, “If VisiCalc had been written for some other computer, you’d be interviewing somebody else right now.”
Inventor
@DanB
tells the story
@bosconference
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I recorded a podcast w/
@BenBajarin
on Friday that should be out this wk. Discussed Apple Watch & use in the enterprise. He's had 1 for 2wks.
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has going back to 1999. I just donated to them to help keep all that information around. The manner of the shutdown ("a limited period after...[April 2023]": ) is a reminder of how important doing that is.
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2nd recommendation of Petrosky’s book “To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design”:
Picture of Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsing & Challenger flying on cover, discusses several well-known engineering failures, how they were analyzed & what we learn from them.
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