Curated list of inspiring stories from the digital age.
Insider's story on how Java came to be. And a reminder, that Java was initially designed to be a simple platform-agnostic language with a compact runtime to simplify code delivery over the network to various connected devices like Set-Top Boxes, game consoles, and other consumer electronics.
Origin Writes... Bug Stomping in the Pacific by Bill Armintrout
The development story of Pacific Strike from Origin. Reading that as a kid in the mid-90s significantly impacted me. Wow! You can actually play games and make money! :) But also it gave me the feeling of how the software is produced. The Alpha version, the Beta version, the Release, the bug testing... Looking for errors in mission definition files and figuring quirks in AI pilot's behavior, project planning, and working with a bug database.
In the Beginning was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson
Late 90s story on the command line, GUI interfaces, Linux, BeOS, and other things close to my heart. Fascinating read on tech trends of the time.
A fascinating insight into hardware development. How BeBox motherboard prototypes were iterated over to get to the pre-production state. It gives a glimpse of how hardware is evolved. These newsletter articles are pretty short, but one of the best you can find online.
More detailed hardware development and prototyping record can be found in the book Commodore: The Amiga Years by Brian Bagnall. It covers custom chipset development for Amiga in great detail.