History of Computing Videos Hacker News Recommends

lecture#8

AT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition)

AT&T Tech Channel

“By far the best introduction to the subject of waves of any sort.”

12 HN recommenders · 2014–2026

documentary#26

Micro Men - 720p (2009)

gimpymoo

“'Micro Men' is an excellent TV drama”

15 HN recommenders · 2015–2026

lecture#47

Light Years Ahead | The 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer

TNMoC

“The guy is really, really into it and it just makes the presentation amazing.”

11 HN recommenders · 2021–2026

documentary#67

Mechanical Computer (All Parts) - Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers

Excelsior10000

“It illustrates the problems and solutions near perfectly, and I've watched it way too many times.”

13 HN recommenders · 2014–2025

documentary#70

Project Code Rush - The Beginnings of Netscape / Mozilla Documentary

The Documentary Network

“Code Rush, which is an awesome documentary for anyone interested in the history of the Web”

13 HN recommenders · 2015–2026

talk#71

Bret Victor The Future of Programming

Joey Reid

“Take a look and you will be amazed of how good (or revolutionary by our standards) some old technologies were.”

12 HN recommenders · 2017–2026

talk#110

Alan Kay - Normal Considered Harmful

powerfuloutlet

“his talk 'Normal Considered Harmful' in particular is worth a look as it pretty much goes straight to the heart of the issue”

10 HN recommenders · 2012–2026

interview#129

VCF East: Ken Thompson interviewed by Brian Kernighan

Vintage Computer Federation

“Also I found these fascinating”

11 HN recommenders · 2019–2025

tutorial#145

U.S. NAVY BASIC MECHANISMS OF FIRE CONTROL COMPUTERS MECHANICAL COMPUTER INSTRUCTIONAL FILM 27794

PeriscopeFilm

“I especially like the section on differential gears, demonstrating their use as computing units”

11 HN recommenders · 2018–2026

demo#157

Alan Kay's tribute to Ted Nelson at "Intertwingled" Festival

TheTedNelson

“a great example of what's not-even-close to possible on today's systems”

7 HN recommenders · 2016–2025

demo#199

The Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)

Marcel

“If you haven't seen it, it's well worth the hour and forty minutes.”

8 HN recommenders · 2013–2026

documentary#261

AT&T Archives: The UNIX Operating System

AT&T Tech Channel

“The pipelines explanation was incredibly clear.”

10 HN recommenders · 2013–2026

talk#264

34C3 - The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk

media.ccc.de

“This is the best description of AGC I have seen so far, from hardware design to mission software, layer by layer”

9 HN recommenders · 2018–2025

talk#348

Alan Kay, 2015: Power of Simplicity

Kenneth Friedman

“Easily over of the most thought provoking presentations I have seen recently.”

6 HN recommenders · 2015–2025

explainer#385

Unix and Google

FOAM

“A guy on YT [1] simulates in 7 minutes how the two biggest operating systems were built in the sixties”

4 HN recommenders · 2016–2023

documentary#444

Apollo Guidance Computer Part 1: Restoring the computer that put man on the Moon

CuriousMarc

“My new favorite YouTuber, CuriousMarc, has a whole series of videos about restoring the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC).”

8 HN recommenders · 2019–2024

explainer#472

(1/4) Intro/History: Introducing a 100-year-old mechanical computer

engineerguy

“There is a series of four fantastic videos”

6 HN recommenders · 2015–2023

lecture#481

Secret History of Silicon Valley

Computer History Museum

“my favorite introduction to the valleys history was Steve Blanks The Secret History of Silicon Valley. It's well worth the hour”

6 HN recommenders · 2010–2026

lecture#495

How to Invent the Future I - Stanford CS183F: Startup School

Stanford Online

“Alan Kay gave a couple lectures at Stanford on "How to Invent the Future" and went over all the stuff that came out of there.”

3 HN recommenders · 2018–2024

documentary#517

James Burke Connections, Ep. 4 "Faith in Numbers"

DRS_Education

“Every computer engineer, computer scientist and software developer should learn about the Jacquard loom”

4 HN recommenders · 2020–2026

documentary#561

Building The World's First Computer - Greeks, Clocks and Rockets - Antikythera Mechanism Episode 1

Clickspring

“Highly recommend for anyone who is fascinated by the care that goes into handmade mechanical devices.”

7 HN recommenders · 2018–2024

demo#613

Eric Bier Demonstrates Cedar

Computer History Museum

“Be prepared to be amazed with what Xerox PARC and others were doing”

3 HN recommenders · 2020–2025

lecture#615

How to Invent the Future II - Stanford CS183F: Startup School

Stanford Online

“I also recommend Alan Kay's video series on "How To Invent The Future".”

3 HN recommenders · 2017–2024

demo#616

Using a 1930 Teletype as a Linux Terminal

CuriousMarc

“It's one of the best things on the Internet, IMO.”

4 HN recommenders · 2020–2025

demo#620

Ivan Sutherland Sketchpad Demo 1963

Interface Studies

“It blows me away that this kind of UI was even conceived in the 1960s.”

5 HN recommenders · 2016–2025

explainer#657

Mouse Cursor History (and why I made my own)

Posy

“It is one of those amazing videos that make the internet worthwhile, is short”

4 HN recommenders · 2022–2026

talk#727

The Web That Never Was - Dylan Beattie

NDC Conferences

“Edit 2: finished, it is definitely worth watching.”

3 HN recommenders · 2023–2026

lecture#730

Admiral Grace Hopper Explains the Nanosecond

funbury

“Admiral Grace Hopper Explains the Nanosecond" is a good illustration of this (segment is only 2m)”

5 HN recommenders · 2020–2025

demo#741

Ted Nelson demonstrates Xanadu Space

photonhunter

“Too many great talks to mention, but if I had to pick one it would be Ted Nelson's few minutes of demonstration of Xanadu.”

5 HN recommenders · 2011–2022

talk#742

2 1 1 Jason Scott Rescuing The Prince of Persia from the sands of time

Adrian Crenshaw

“My favourite example of digital archaeology from recent years”

3 HN recommenders · 2014–2026

explainer#752

The Most Powerful Computers You've Never Heard Of

Veritasium

“His video before this one[1] goes into detail on that, and it was incredible.”

6 HN recommenders · 2021–2025

documentary#782

UNIX: Making Computers Easier To Use -- AT&T Archives film from 1982, Bell Laboratories

AT&T Tech Channel

“both are really excellent demonstrations and eludications of the Unix philosophy and mindset”

6 HN recommenders · 2015–2024

explainer#789

IBM Selectric Typewriter & its digital to analogue converter

engineerguy

“I highly recommend watching”

4 HN recommenders · 2016–2025

documentary#808

MiniDisc - An Appreciation

Techmoan

“Wonderful video about the format”

5 HN recommenders · 2019–2023

demo#817

Symbolics Lisp Machine demo Jan 2013

Kalman Reti

“It makes working on VSCode today look like banging rocks together”

5 HN recommenders · 2014–2024

interview#838

Avie Tevanian: CMU math whiz goes from Mach to NeXT to Apple Software Chief | Oral History Part 1

Computer History Museum

“Must watch recollection of the history of Mach and NeXT and Apple by Avie Tevanian.”

3 HN recommenders · 2017–2024

documentary#900

GET LAMP: The Text Adventure Documentary

Google TechTalks

“Recommend watching “Get lamp” documentary to fans of MUDs, text adventures”

5 HN recommenders · 2014–2026

documentary#915

Doomed: The Embers of Amiga FPS

Ahoy

“go watch Stuart Brown (aka XboxAhoy)'s excellent documentary on FPS on the Amiga”

4 HN recommenders · 2015–2017

explainer#942

How an Atomic Clock Really Works: Inside the HP 5061A Cesium Clock

CuriousMarc

“I've yet to see a description better than in CuriousMarc's HP 5061A series”

4 HN recommenders · 2020–2026

documentary#1033

BBS The Documentary: Episode 1 of 8: BAUD (The Beginning)

Jason Scott

“He also gave us the brilliant BBS: The Documentary”

4 HN recommenders · 2019–2025

documentary#1072

James Burke Legend Connections 1 The Trigger Effect

Tim Callinan

“You may enjoy the first episode of James Burke's Connections ("The Trigger Effect"), if you've not seen it.”

4 HN recommenders · 2022–2026

talk#1121

"A Political History of X" - Keith Packard (LCA 2020)

linux.conf.au

“I invite anyone interested by the subject to watch Keith Packard's amazing presentation on this at LCA 2020”

4 HN recommenders · 2020–2025

demo#1130

SYMBOLICS S-PACKAGES 3D GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION DEMO

Red Martian

“I really enjoyed the Symbolics graphics and animations demo[0] linked in the article.”

4 HN recommenders · 2014–2026

demo#1166

Alto System Project: Dan Ingalls demonstrates Smalltalk

Computer History Museum

“have really been enjoying this two hour long interview / demo with Dan Ingalls on Smalltalk and the Alto”

3 HN recommenders · 2020–2025

talk#1182

Joe Armstrong - Keynote: The Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science - Code BEAM SF 2018

Code Sync

“Ted has a knack for reframing things in ways that make the arbitrariness of certain historical decisions clear”

4 HN recommenders · 2018–2022

talk#1207

Keynote: Begin...End?

David Beazley

“I recommend one of the recent videos by Dave Beazly”

3 HN recommenders · 2021–2024

explainer#1316

Flaw in the Enigma Code - Numberphile

Numberphile

“Numberphile gives a nice, succinct explanation”

4 HN recommenders · 2013–2025

demo#1343

APL demonstration 1975

Imperial College London

“I think this is a good youtube video for someone starting from zero”

5 HN recommenders · 2014–2021