The Race to Win Staten Island

The Race to Win Staten Island

If you’re not familiar with the Wu Tang Clan, they are a rap group originating in the oft forgotten part of New York City called Staten Island.

My father grew up in the same Stapleton neighborhood as the founding members of the Wu Tang Clan.

There was a “throw-away” line of dialogue in the Hulu series “Wu Tang: An American Saga” that goes something like:

If it hadn’t been for winning that race, the island (Staten Island) would have gone to New Jersey and all those [offensive term for Irish American] would have moved here instead of Bayonne”

Having spent much of my formative years in Bayonne and being of half Irish American descent myself, the phrase piqued my curiosity.

Eerily enough, the YouTube algorithm must have also known as they recommended this video, which details the race.

The Weird History of JavaScript

The Weird History of JavaScript

I still remember the first time I saw JavaScript, although at the time it was known as LiveScript and it was part of a beta release of Netscape Navigator. The language has evolved over the years, but it never really lost the “anarchistic feel” of a language that still feels like it’s in beta some 25 years later.

A Retro Look at UNIX Operating System

A Retro Look at UNIX Operating System

Today, UNIX is everywhere and, through various distributions of Linux, sits on top of the technology world. Unix, however, goes back a long time – a really long time.

In this video from the AT&T archives, take a look at UNIX when it was brand new. Take note of how the challenges of software development haven’t really changed all that much and how familiar concepts like the shell, pipes, etc. have changed very little throughout the decades.

Calculating Ada

Calculating Ada

Here’s a riveting documentary from the BBC about Ada Lovelace, the “Countess of Computing.” It’s a fascinating look at the contradicting world views of her parents and how their subsequent separation helped form a young Ada into a mathematical superstar. It’s also offers a glimpse of the Victorian Computer Age (SteamPunk?) we almost got.