How did the MIT demo go?

Whit Turner

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Apr 2, 2024, 1:16:43 PM4/2/24

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Hi Oscar and Lars. Wondering how the demo at MIT went on Monday?

oscarv

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Apr 3, 2024, 2:50:27 PM4/3/24

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It went great!

At least, we thought so.

About 50 people turned up, and I suspect some 30 or so knew a lot more about the system than I ever will. It was very nice to suddenly see the people behind the names I've knows since I read Hackers, oh, 35 years ago. Turns out they are actually Real People, not just fictional characters from my favourite books. Nor were they named after PDP-10 hardware devices ! :-)

I'm bit careful with posting pictures of people without their approval, but the great Richard Greenblatt said he doesn't mind - so: Lars & Richard Greenblatt!

We also visited the Rhode Island Computer Museum, RICM, and made some shots of PDP-vs-PiDP. The PiDP is scale 2:3, but on pictures it just depend how you do the perspective:

RICM is very much worth a visit, one of the few places in the world where you can boot up a PDP-12 and play spacewar on it. And first time in years that I got to see a working PDP-8/I again!

Kind regards,

Oscar.

Bill Wenrich

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Apr 3, 2024, 4:29:39 PM4/3/24

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Hi Oscar-

Thanks for the update. I was considering going to the MIT event also but decided it's too far to travel right now.

In the past few years I've also been going to RICM on & off - I'm sure you were talking to Mike then. But it's also quite far to go all the time

-Bill

Gary Grebus

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Apr 4, 2024, 1:42:15 PM4/4/24

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I totally agree with Oscar ... it was a great event. It was amazing to be in the same room with some of the folks who pioneered the interactive and networked computing we take for granted today.

-- Gary

Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein

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Apr 4, 2024, 5:34:21 PM4/4/24

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The presence of these VIPs must have added a bit of stress to get the demo exactly right, I guess:-). Or did they show up as a surprise?

Cheers

HB

Lars Brinkhoff

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Apr 5, 2024, 7:59:47 AM4/5/24

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HB wrote::

The presence of these VIPs must have added a bit of stress to get the demo exactly right, I guess:-). Or did they show up as a surprise?

I had specifically invited some of them, and some more also showed up. I very much hoped they would come, and everyone did so it was amazing.

The audience was very appreciative and most were a bit floored how much of the AI lab was available in the emulator.

Henry Minsky

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Nov 15, 2024, 5:27:19 PM11/15/24

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Does anyone have a video of that talk at MIT Museum?

Lars Brinkhoff

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Nov 16, 2024, 4:49:14 AM11/16/24

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Henry Minsky wrote:
> Does anyone have a video of that talk at MIT Museum?

Yes, there is a recording. I haven't seen it myself, but apparently
the audio isn't good. Still, I'm supposed to receive a copy and I
might put it on YouTube then.

oscarv

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Nov 16, 2024, 2:15:50 PM11/16/24

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Otto Oosterwijk recorded the MIT event, but indeed the audio is pretty bad.

I'm not sure if it is OK to put that on Youtube, people in the audience are visible and some might not like it on privacy grounds? But Lars, I'll ask Otto to send it to you.