Dan Bricklin @danb@qoto.org
One of the VisiCalc guys, CTO Alpha Software, DBDemo, Trellix, blogger, podcaster, SocialCalc, iPad app: Note Taker HD, president of Software Garden, Inc.
Joined Nov 2022
Dan Bricklin
boosted
The Intel 8086 was released in 1978, starting the x86 line that still dominates computing. I'm reverse-engineering the chip by studying the silicon die, and I think I've spotted a bug fix in the silicon. They didn't have microcode updates then so they patched the silicon. 🧵
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Brooks 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.
Dan Bricklin
boosted
Sad news from UNC Chapel Hill Computer Science — Fred P. Brooks, the founder and long-time chair of the department (and a major influence on my professional outlook) passed away a few hours ago.
One of the VisiCalc guys, CTO Alpha Software, DBDemo, Trellix, blogger, podcaster, SocialCalc, iPad app: Note Taker HD, president of Software Garden, Inc.
Joined Nov 2022
