Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Advent of Computing
HistoryTechnology

Advent of Computing

Sean Haas

Welcome to Advent of Computing, the show that talks about the shocking, intriguing, and all too often relevant history of computing. A lot of little things we take for granted today have rich stories behind their creation, in each episode we will learn how older tech has lead to our modern world.

Play
Open in
  • 22 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 1 hr
  • English

Episodes 22

NewestOldestLongest
All2Unplayed2In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • #172
    Dec 15, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min

    Episode 172 - Analog/Hybrid

    In 1945 the first electronic digital computers sparked to life. Number crunching was instantly changed forever! The perfect technology had arrived, and there was never even a competition, right? Well, not so much. The simple fact is that computers sucked for decades. Digital machines have all kinds of inherent pitfalls. There was another entire lineage of computers that existed in the shadow of digital machines: the analogs. Eventually the two technologies would merge in an attempt to create the truly perfect machine: one with the flexibility and accuracy of a digital computer, and the speed and interactivity of an analog computer. The result were hybrids!

  • #171
    Nov 24, 2025 · 54 min

    Episode 171 - What Is a 4GL?

    Last episode I said that Fourth Generation Languages were a topic for another time. Well... this counts as another time. Today we are trying to figure out what exactly makes a language 4th Generation. Along the way we will see why the term bugs me so much, why 4GLs seem so strange, and how a programmer can increase their productivity by 2,000% (some restrictions apply).

Showing 21–22 of 22 episodes