Thread by @KevinSavetz

Scanned a massive pile of computer history, coming soon to an Internet Archive near you.

Going to dig into some amazing history of time-sharing computers and minicomputers, 1974-1982. In January 2018 I interviewed Hal Segal, founder and president of the Association of Time-Sharing Users, a non-profit org. for people who used timesharing computer systems.

Later he founded the Association of Small Computer Users, then later the two were folded into the Association of Computer Users. (Interview here: ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-intervie…)

Hal, under these three orgs, created a mass of material documenting that time in computing. After our interview, Hal sent me a pile of binders, containing everything that the orgs ever published: Journals. Benchmark reports, hardware directories, literature from other cos.

I scanned some of it myself, paid to have the rest of it scanned, and have uploaded it all in 600 DPI glory to @internetarchive. There's 2,625 pages total. Let's see what's in there.

There's Interactive Computing, the journal of the ATSA. In-the-trenches news and ideas about computing beginning in 1979.
They're at archive.org/details/Intera… and archive.org/details/Associ…

Another binder collects 200+ pages of brochures/literature from computer companies circa 1979, many long gone or long forgotten. Telenet, Scientific Time Sharing Corporation, United Computing Systems, Votrax, Trandata, CompuServe, Rapidata, ADP-Cyphernetics, Minicomputer Modeling

On-Line Systems, Citibank, Ten Time, Zeta Research, TSR, CallData, Microcom, Western Union Data Services, Multiple Access NY, INSCO, Honeywell Datanetwork, University Computing Company. archive.org/details/Associ…

Next, Interactive Computing Directories, 940 pages of information related to computer time-sharing services, September 1979. Detailed descriptions of financial modeling languages, database systems, statistical packages, graphics programs.
archive.org/details/Associ…

The carefully cataloged directories of terminals and displays are amazing: impact printing, thermal printing, video display, printers, graphics terminals, remote batch terminals, are amazing. I guarantee there's information about hardware here that isn't available anywhere else.

Now, the Benchmark Reports from the Association Of Computer Users, essential information when companies were moving away from shared time-sharing servies to owning their own computers. Here are three stuffed binders of detailed reports about minicomputers and very early PCs.

There are machines described here in detail that NOTHING is known about. Really, the SD Systems SD-200 had NINE Google results. The Randal RDS-100 had TWO. Now we have photos, prices, benchmark data, package info. archive.org/details/Associ…

Benchmark reports are available for other rare machines like Smoke Signal Chieftain, Northern Telecom/Sycor 405, Burroughs B91. Various boxes from Altos, HP, TI, Wang, and DEC. Also more well-known machines like Commodore CBM 8032 and IBM PC.
archive.org/details/Associ…

Hal is also author of the books How to Select Your Small Computer Without Frustration (1982) and How to Manage Your Small Computer Without Frustration (1983) published by Prentice-Hall, both available online now.
archive.org/details/HowToS…
archive.org/details/HowToM…

Thanks to Hal for trusting me with this material and allowing it to be shared. Now that I'm done with it all, Hal has donated all of this literature to @ComputerHistory Museum, where it will have a permanent, safe home.

And thanks to @InternetArchive for providing the permanent online home for the scans. Hosting this material will not be cheap. You should donate to them. archive.org/donate/