Top all-time · #4046
Creatures of Thought
Personal blog · technicshistory.wordpress.comhistorysystemshardware
Creatures of Thought is a personal blog at technicshistory.wordpress.com about history, systems and hardware. Since 2016, 18 different Hacker News readers have linked it 45 times, most often “The Unraveling – AT&T, the Government, and AntiTrust”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- The Unraveling – AT&T, the Government, and AntiTrust4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-09-19
- The Transistor, Part 3: Endless Reinvention4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-04-01
- The Transistor, Part 1: Groping in the Dark3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-01-23
- Arpanet, Part 1: The Inception3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-05-08
- Arpanet, Part 2: The Packet2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-06-03
- Only Connect: on the automated telephone exchange2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-04-10
- The Transistor, Part 2: Out Of The Crucible2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-03-01
- An Expeditious Method of Conveying Intelligence2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-11-28
- History of Computing: Extending Interactivity2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-01-24
- One System, Universal Service?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-07-26
What Hacker News says?
Here's the start of the series: https://technicshistory.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/the-transis...
Comment linking /2018/01/20/the-transistor-part-1-groping-in-the-dark/
on “Silicon die analysis: inside an op amp with interesting “butterfly” transistors”Submitted Lost Generation: The Relay Computers as a story · 185 points
HN discussionOr, part 3:Endless Reinvention https://technicshistory.wordpress.com/2018/03/31/the-transis...
Comment linking /2018/03/31/the-transistor-part-3-endless-reinvention/
on “The Transistor, Part 2: Out Of The Crucible”Submitted The Transistor, Part 1: Groping in the Dark as a story · 175 points
HN discussionGreat read. For those who want to start at Part 1: https://technicshistory.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/the-transis... Related: a modern day teen who makes low transistor count ICs in his garage: https://interestingengineering.com/this-teen-is-building-diy... AmpHour Podcast episode on the teen: https://theamphour.com/390-an-interview-with-sam-zeloof/
Comment linking /2018/01/20/the-transistor-part-1-groping-in-the-dark/
on “The Transistor, Part 2: Out Of The Crucible”Submitted The Transistor, Part 3: Endless Reinvention as a story · 155 points
HN discussionhttps://technicshistory.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/the-unravel...
Comment linking /2018/09/19/the-unraveling-part-1/
on “The Unraveling of AT&T, Part 2”Submitted The Transistor, Part 2: Out Of The Crucible as a story · 82 points
HN discussionThe sequel, https://technicshistory.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/the-unravel... , is pretty interesting too. I wonder to what extent the U.S. dominance of information technology is a result of the fact that even when we had a monopoly telecommunications provider, it was a private — rather than a state — monopoly, and how much is the result of us breaking the monopoly fairly early compared to other states.
Comment linking /2018/09/19/the-unraveling-part-1/
on “One System, Universal Service?”Submitted Arpanet, Part 3: The Subnet as a story · 77 points
HN discussionStart from the beginning of the story to get all the context. It's an interesting read: https://technicshistory.wordpress.com/2016/11/25/an-expediti... And if you like this, I recommend The Victorian Internet : https://tomstandage.wordpress.com/books/the-victorian-intern... https://www.amazon.com/dp/162040592X
Comment linking /2016/11/25/an-expeditious-method-of-conveying-intelligence/
on “Only Connect: on the automated telephone exchange”Submitted The Electronic Computers, Part 2: Colossus as a story · 60 points
HN discussionThis is by the author of "The Switch"[0], a history of the electronic switch. I found the series fascinating and am looking forward to this new series on the Internet. [0] https://technicshistory.wordpress.com/2018/05/06/the-switch-...
Comment linking /2018/05/06/the-switch-introduction/
on “The Backbone: Introduction – History of the Internet”Submitted The Electronic Computers, Part 4: The Electronic Revolution as a story · 54 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Unraveling of AT&T, Part 2 as a story · 51 points
HN discussionSubmitted Arpanet, Part 2: The Packet as a story · 47 points
HN discussionSubmitted Galvanism and the Telegraph as a story · 36 points
HN discussionSubmitted One System, Universal Service? as a story · 35 points
HN discussionSubmitted History of Computing: Discovering Interactivity as a story · 30 points
HN discussionSubmitted Only Connect: on the automated telephone exchange as a story · 19 points
HN discussionSubmitted History of Computing: Extending Interactivity as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted Arpanet, Part 2: The Packet as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Relay as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Arpanet, Part 1: The Inception as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Unraveling – AT&T, the Government, and AntiTrust as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Backbone: Introduction – History of the Internet as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Transistor, Part 3: Endless Reinvention as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Electronic Computers, Part 3: ENIAC as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Extending Interactivity as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Discovering Interactivity as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
