Software History

Have you been looking for the definitive review of Windows Phone 7? Well, look no further.

When it comes to webOS 2.0 (now actually called HP webOS), it almost felt like we'd never see the version number, let alone get to review it.

The web's history is vast, fascinating, and not at all what you think. It's been full of twists and turns, luck and happenstance, a pure mix of serendipity and ingenuity. If you love the web, then come with me as we explore the history of the web, and finally answer that question: Where did we come from, and how did we get here?

Picture this: it’s WWDC keynote day and you’re following the event. You want to live tweet as the event unfolds. What do you do? The answer is that, so far, Twitter the company has mostly failed to provide users with ways to rapidly tweet commentary and have tweets intelligently grouped together once an event is

Frank Herbert on his Boeing, Stephen King on his Wang, and Philip Roth worrying that writing would become too easy … Matthew Kirschenbaum’s account of literature in the digital age

Francis Russell returns to the HKRB to review a literary history of word processing, discussing what it means to be a writer in the technological age.  Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Track Changes: A Lit…

CHM Live The Process: Track Changes Author Matthew Kirschenbaum in Conversation with Science Fiction Author David Gerrold The advent of word processing in the 20th century revolutionized the tools available to writers, but less clear are the effects it has had on the actual writing process. How many writers embraced the new technology? Did it affect their process? How did it change our understanding of writing? In Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing, Matthew Kirschenbaum, professor in the University of Maryland’s English department, examines how the interests and ideals of creative authorship came to coexist with the computer revolution. He will be joined onstage by famed science fiction screenwriter and novelist David Gerrold, perhaps best known for writing the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” the science fiction novel When HARLIE Was One, and his Hugo and Nebula award winning novelette The Martian Child. Gerrold built his first computer in 1978 and has many tech and computer columns and articles to his credit. Join us as Kirschenbaum and Gerrold discuss the evolution and history of word processing, the early adopters of the technology, and discuss the impact it has had on the creative process. We are very pleased that Books, Inc. will be selling copies of Track Changes before and after the program.

In 1967, Henson was contracted by IBM to make a film extolling the virtues of their new technology, the MT/ST, a primitive word processor. The film would explore how the MT/ST would help control the massive amount of documents generated by a typical business office. Paperwork Explosion, produced in October 1967, is a quick-cut montage of images and words illustrating the intensity and pace of modern business. Henson collaborated with Raymond Scott on the electronic sound track.

Virtually every new technology is a product of human ingenuity, designed to expand human capabilities and ease labor. Many, perhaps most, new technologies repre

Anyone interested in the impact of technology on our work as scholars and writers should read Matthew Kirschenbaum’s Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing (2016), and check out some …

SF History blogger Andrew Liptak chronicles the influence of Jerry Pournelle and the evolution of the personal computer.

This review was commissioned by John Wilson and meant for Books and Culture. Alas, it will not be published there. “Each of us remembers our own first time,” Matthew Kirschenbaum writes near the beginning of his literary history of word processing — but he rightly adds, “at least … those of us of a certain age.” If, like me, you grew up writing things by hand and then at some point acquired a typewriter, then yes, your first writing on a computer may well have felt like a pretty big deal. The heart of the matter was mistakes. When typing...

From the earliest typewriters to Google Docs, writing devices have never been built for novelists. Instead, they are designed for office use, with

Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.

Welcome to the Internet Archive Books collection! Some books can be freely read and downloaded. Others can be borrowed and read in our online book reader.

EasyWriter was a word processor first written for the Apple II series computer in 1979, the first word processor for that platform. It was written by John...

A Susan Solomon book.

One of the most popular WordPerfect Office users groups on the Web. Active, friendly discussion forums for getting help, especially with using macros, and for keeping up with the latest news affecting WordPerfect Office. Large collection of links to downloadable macros and other resources on the web.