In the years leading up to its 7 April 1964 launch, however, the 360 was one of the scariest dramas in American business. It took a nearly fanatical commitment at all levels of IBM to bring forth this remarkable collection of machines and software. While the technological innovations that went into the S/360 were important, how they were created and deployed bordered on disaster. The company experienced what science policy expert Keith Pavitt called “tribal warfare”: people clashing and collaborating in a rapidly growing company with unstable, and in some instances unknown, technologies, as uncertainty and ambiguity dogged all the protagonists.

source: HN

The IBM engineer’s hashing algorithm gave computers a way to quickly search documents, DNA, and databases

source: L

Indeed, some who know the history assert that the Intel 8088 was the worst among several possible 16-bit microprocessors of the day. It was not. There was a serious alternative that was worse. I know because I was in charge of the organization within Texas Instruments that developed it: the TMS9900.

source: L

I can testify that nothing strange happened. Until it did.

This is a good read, even for someone not particularly interested in zcash.

Blog: https://z.cash/technology/paramgen.html

Another insider account: https://petertodd.org/2016/cypherpunk-desert-bus-zcash-trusted-setup-ceremony