Bill Gates and the PDP1 Computer at the 'Computer History Museum'

[@andybaldman]

Maybe just ask people to follow the rules, and don’t take no for an answer.

[@bryede]

I want to know more about the ROM-less display.

[@Thebasicmaker]

With the right timing and signal you can draw characters using a circuit designed for that pourpose but that must be a lot of tubes or transistors I guess

[@lbickley]

I answered that question in the "So how does the special version of the Type 30 display show characters!?" below.

[@herrbonk3635]

@@Thebasicmaker Yes, but only transistors in this machine.

[@KevinInPhoenix]

Ah the "little people" and their rules. You should have let Bill Gates break something. He would have felt bad and made a big donation.

[@lcfgroup]

Bill Gates did make several large donations to the Museum. Thank you for your comment. David kk4ww.com

[@Adrianitataddey]

I´m the only one who finds really weird that they photoshopped an historical photo in a history museum?

[@lcfgroup]

Hi - Not sure why they did the photo shop. Here is a photo and look at the information with the photo for little update. David photos.app.goo.gl/2E8tMTwTDeatVrZS7

[@perguto]

literally worse than Stalin smh

[@DavidGalloway]

So how does the special version of the Type 30 display show characters!?

[@membrane5565]

Yah I want to know as well. I'm guessing the character set was stored in some sorta core rope or transformer memory. Some early computers such as the SAGE system used what's known as a charactron where the crt had a stencil of every character.

[@msgcheckout]

+David Galloway Is it Possibly using loads of LEDs or alphanumeric display of some kind?

[@TheMovieCreator]

+samdomding LEDs weren't in production before the 60's.

[@djmips]

+samdomding The Type 30 display is a cathode ray tube that was a point based display that displayed dots on a potential canvas of 1024 x 1024 addressable points. I'm just curious to see the hardware that encoded and displayed characters on this system. The guy in the video just glosses over the details described only as 'this real technical explanation'

[@lbickley]

The Type 33 automatically generates a 5 by 7 matrix of some predetermined size with the lower left corner at a predetermined starting location. It moves the position of the electron beam in sequential increments from 0 to 34, with 2 microseconds required for each move. A symbol is generated by intensifying the electron beam for 3 microseconds when it is located at the desired position. This requires two l8-bit words per symbol from the computer, with a 1 in each bit for an intensified location and a 0 in each bit for a blanked location. The extra bit i 17 in the first half of the symbol word, is not displayed but is used as a control level to select normal or subscript locations for the matrix. If you want more detail, download the manual at: bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/graphics/Type_33_Digital_Symbol_Generator_1964.pdf

[@-roejogan-]

Wow that was an incredible story! I hate that the video had to end I could listen to that guy tell stories all day.

[@lcfgroup]

Hi Roe - I sure did enjoy my visit the museum and the stories the Bixley was able to tell me. David KK4WW www.bugbookcomputermuseum.com

[@gpowerdragon9852]

I'm glad I was no wine spill on the magnificent PDP 1

[@Thebasicmaker]

Who knows what a drunken pdp could do?! Take over the world maybe!

[@SellamAbraham]

Let's just say his security detail was right for being nervous about letting him into the lab.

[@peterm1984]

Nice! But what's with the non sequitur banjo music at the end?

[@movdqa]

I hope he dropped a $10 million contribution.

[@lcfgroup]

Hi Michael - I have no documentation but I do understand he did give the museum something in that range. Thank you for comment. David

[@jj74qformerlyjailbreak3]

He’s still evil.

[@18000rpm]

Nice video but the music was really unnecessary and made it hard to hear the talking

[@Paretozen]

This was an entertaining talk! Thanks for uploading.

[@lcfgroup]

+Paretozen Glad you liked it - it sure was fun to be there and do the video. Dave www.kk4ww.com bugbookmuseum.blogspot.com/2016/01/bugbook-computer-museum-is-moving-to.html

[@BartechTV]

Very good. I'm still waiting for one of these to pop up on Ebay

[@ralphups7782]

just goes to show as you said,what bill wants. bill gets.

[@freemanz4051]

...And that's a shame. Bill would have benefitted spiritually by surrendering his glass of disrespect at the door. This is the age of Trump. See how we got here? Gates was lucky and Blue sharted. He's not only "only human"... he's totally unqualified for the social engineering he's practicing. His life of extreme power is an unhappy accident of crapitalism. Bill Gates FAILED another human test. SYSTEM ERROR. Olsen's ethic was the better for humanity. Speaking of ethics... I worked at a store near Maynard. Found Ken's charge template in the rolodex..... knowing that he'll never be denied.... with or without wine in hand..... in power-bowing Ameriker..... I lifted that charge template and placed it into a collection.... MINE. An Wang also had an account. His chauffer would buy lotto tix. Last sighted, he was seeking a prescription we did not stock. He was directed elsewhere. Doc Wang left us soon after. Since we used that card I let it be, so it's safely in the landfill by now. Wanfg and Olsen... and Gates!? WTF... the WORST ethics of the bunch. The most naive and inexperienced dweeb imaginible... an appropriator on the order of Edison... though to Bill's credit he has not, so far, executed dogs and elephants to "prove" alternating current's no good and we need to wire for DC... because that's what HE understood. I k=ew so many WISE folks from comp world... THIS is what dribbles out the Pachinko machine of competition? Can we run that again? I don't think it was a bug... I think it was a glitch ...in the Matrix. -My First (FREE of any charge!) comping: 1977, thermal printing terminal and Baud Box and copper pots to BBN's network of 6 PDP-11/70's, located somewhere at... "...an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door..."

[@hockley91]

What a great story!

[@infinitecanadian]

This and other computer videos earned you a subscribe.

[@lcfgroup]

Hi Thank you for the subscribe

[@infinitecanadian]

lcfgroup You're welcome, sir.

[@Drforbin941]

Yep...If your rich you get everything

[@3a146]

why not just tell Bill no food, he might be even happier eventually.

[@lcfgroup]

Haoyan - Good point - Bill was a big contributor to the museum - maybe they just did not think of a simple solution. Thank you for the comment. David www.kk4ww.com

[@lcfgroup]

Hi Dave - thanks

[@slitor]

Thanks for the story!

[@ShazzPotz]

What year did Bill Gates visit the PDP-1 ? Frankly, everything Bill Gates does is now important and historic to a lot of people around the world. Lyle Bickley told a good story, but it's incomplete without a date. You're in the History museum, after all. You could add this date to the title of this vid, or add it to the description. I would do both. Also would be nice to know exactly when you shot this video of Lyle. A bit before the upload date of 2 Nov 2013? I can't tell for sure. I always wonder about all the exact dates while I am viewing a historical vid like this. In the shooting of this video itself, you have created a significant bit of history, with your camera and Lyle at the Museum. 38,000 people around the world have enjoyed your vid, so don't underestimate the interest in and importance of the historical nature of your work. Thank you for making this vid and sharing it with everybody for free. I love this kind of anecdote. The description you wrote for this vid is great and detailed. It's just lean on dates. But the topics of your video are hugely important to modern world history: 1) the PDP-1, the world's first "personal" computer 2) Bill Gates 3) wine

[@lcfgroup]

Hi Shazzam - Great point you make. The video was made near the time I published it however I will contact Lyle Beckley and see if I can get the date of the event. Thank you for nice complement. David your amateur videographer. www.kk4ww.com

[@ShazzPotz]

@@lcfgroup Thank you for answering, David. Don't forget to add the year Bill Gates visited the PDP-1 and almost spilled wine on it? That date is of primary importance.

[@lcfgroup]

@@ShazzPotz Hi I did send the request to Lyle and hope to post a good reply here and on the video story as well. Thank You - David Here is some of my current museum work kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKjMg4qDmteFars

[@lcfgroup]

Hi Here is the photo - look at the info with photo as well for more update. David photos.app.goo.gl/2E8tMTwTDeatVrZS7

[@ShazzPotz]

@@lcfgroup You made a great update to this video, David. The group photo with Bill Gates and Lyle at the PDP-1 is great. Including the entire email from Lyle is great. You have added way more cool detail to this video, than just the dates. But you added the dates too. Now you have covered everything I can think of asking about the video. Thank you very much indeed, David. BTW, when I watched this video for the first time, I guessed Bill Gates must have visited the PDP-1 in 2011 or so - say, a couple years before the upload date of your video (2013). But that kind of guess was way off, by 7 years - a lot of time in the time scales of computer history. So thank you for finding out the true date of Gates's visit was 2004.

[@kerryedavis]

The really glorious systems are the PDP-9, original -10, -12, and -15.

[@reducedfaticecreamisjustde1447]

mid 20th century, when even a term like "digital" sounded cutting edge.

[@cpcnw]

"We just looked at each other" - and thought 'Get the feck out of here' - who do these people think they are? They think money buys 'anything' - No, that's not how it works!

[@ltrzepalko]

Or maybe just simply 'Should we notify him of the rules or not"?

[@KevinInPhoenix]

Actually, money does buy anything. Rules, outside of the laws of physics, are for little people. Always remember the Golden Rule: Whoever has the gold makes the rules.

[@McSepplens]

Bill gates should go (call a) function ( for) himself

[@nunca789]

"The only people allowed in there, the restoration lab, ..." honestly, this is not a matter of national security ... "we can only show it to you through the glass ..." and "we have strict rules in the restoration lab, no food, no drink" ... give me a break. If the PDP-1 were restored in a lab that once had somebody in it who was not allowed, the earth shattering result would have been ... uh ... um ... well, uh ...

[@michaelricketson1365]

Possible damage to the computer?

[@lbickley]

Museums have very strict rules regarding the handling of rare artifacts. There is only ONE working PDP-1 in the world. Food and/or drinks can seriously damage artifacts (if you don't believe this, talk to a professional Museum Collections manager). Since we were restoring such a rare object, it was very important for us to protect it from potential damage.

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Happy DEC 20

[@lcfgroup]

Thank you and a Happy New Year to you. David kk4ww.com

[@jhoughjr1]

Lol old people and their strict no good rules. Used many computers s for nearly 40 years. Not seen a single case of food ruining a computer.

[@michaelheinrich44]

never spilled wine into your keyboard?

[@jhoughjr1]

@@michaelheinrich44 never on a laptop. they keyboard is not a computer. And it was coffee.

[@howisyourpeterbilt754]

Oh Boy! We turned down Bill Gates, aren't We special !

[@Bongo2k]

but they didn't, are you slow?

[@FLMKane]

@@Bongo2k maybe he was on ie6?

[@2right4words]

yawn...

[@hongkongcantonese501]

What a charming story!

[@2right4words]

yawn...

[@lcfgroup]

+2right4words Hi - I did my best with this - Have a good day. Dave