Computer History – Pastimespace

Glenn Reid Oral History

Interviewed by Hansen Hsu, on November 09, 2022 in San Jose, California,
© Computer History Museum

Glenn Reid was born in East Lansing, Michigan, 1961, the fifth out of six children. Reid attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, majoring in mechanical engineering but also took a lot of English classes, as well as a calligraphy class. Reid’s oldest brother was a Computer Science professor at Stanford who knew Chuck Geschke and John Warnock. Reid got ahold of the PostScript manual before it was published and wrote a letter to Adobe in PostScript, which got him hired into the font technology group, initially working on making screen fonts for the Macintosh and a program to download PostScript outline fonts from the Mac to a laser printer.

Reid later moved into Developer Support, writing many technical manuals about PostScript, as well as several books (using an alpha version of FrameMaker), which made him famous among PostScript developers. Reid joined NeXT in 1990, working on “Interpersonal Computing,” networking applications such as email and fax. Reid left NeXT in 1991 to develop his own NeXT applications, starting RightBrain Software, and publishing a desktop publishing app, PasteUp. Reid returned to Adobe in 1993, helping to ship Adobe Illustrator 5.5 (creating the plug-in interface and multiple plug-ins) and 6.0. Reid joined Fractal Design in 1995 as VP of Engineering. In 1998, Steve Jobs hired Reid to develop iMovie 1.0. Reid built iMovie in 9 months with only two other engineers, both previous colleagues of his at Adobe or Fractal Design. Reid also led the creation of iPhoto, leading the team through iPhoto 4.0, and became the Director of Engineering for Consumer Applications through 2003, when he left Apple.

After Apple, Reid started Five Across, Inc., making a peer-to-peer file sharing, messaging, blogging, and social networking software. Reid returned to Adobe briefly for a third time in 2006, working in their Advanced Technology Group. In 2016, Reid started Marathon Machines, Inc., making software for smart home appliances.

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792775

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral Histories Collection.

Catalog number: 102792776
Acquisition number: 2022.0157Show More

Glenn Reid Oral History

Interviewed by Hansen Hsu, on November 09, 2022 in San Jose, [...]

Oral History of Richard Oswald

Interviewed by Ron Dennison, on February 29, 2024 in San Jose, [...]

Oral History of Robert Fontana

Interviewed by Roger Wood, on August 14, 2024 in San Jose, California, [...]

Interviewed by Roger Wood, on August 14, 2024 in San Jose, California,
© Computer History Museum

Robert (Bob) Fontana was interviewed by Roger Wood on behalf of the Computer History Museum on August 14th 2024. Over a long career, Bob was responsible for many of the processes that enabled the miniaturization of the read/write heads for magnetic recording. This work provided a foundation for the huge increases in the data storage capacity seen in hard disk drives and digital tape recorders. Bob has received numerous accolades for his work including the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award.

Bob was born in 1947 in Champaign, Illinois. His father was in the US Air Force and consequently Bob’s early education was in various locations around the US. He received BS, MS, and Ph.D degrees all from MIT where he was first introduced to magnetic devices. On graduating, he joined Texas Instruments in Dallas to work on magnetic bubble memory. In 1981, Fontana joined IBM in San Jose, California, to work on thin film magnetic recording heads including inductive heads, magnetoresitive heads, and tunnel-junction heads. Notable colleagues and collaborators included Ta Lin Hsu, Ching Tsang, Christopher Bajorek, Heiner Sussner, Prakash Kasiraj, and Bob Scranton.

Bob Fontana also played an influential role in various professional societies: for example, in 2001-2002, he was president of the IEEE Magnetics Society and received the Distinguished Service Award in 2017.

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102809036

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral Histories Collection.

Catalog number: 102809037
Lot number: 2024.0119Show More

Oral History of Dharmendra Modha

Interviewed by Dag Spicer, on February 20, 2024 in Mountain View, [...]

Interviewed by Dag Spicer, on February 20, 2024 in Mountain View, California,
© Computer History Museum

Dr. Dharmedra Modha is an IBM Fellow and IBM Chief Scientist for Brain-inspired Computing. This interview chronicles his journey from a humble upbringing in India to eventually becoming an IBM Fellow and a world-recognized pioneer in brain-inspired computing — also known as ’neuromorphic’ computing.

Born to a family of modest means, Modha recounts his formative years in India; his family values, academic struggles and successes, and, after moving to the United States, his academic maturation at UC San Diego under influential mentors. In terms of his technical career, the interview covers Modha’s early contributions at IBM, including major advances in caching algorithms and storage systems, before turning to cognitive and brain-inspired computing. Modha details the conception and development of the DARPA SyNAPSE program, leading to the creation of TrueNorth and NorthPole chips, which emulate aspects of neural architecture to achieve efficiency in time, space, and energy.

Finally, Modha reflects on the cultural and organizational strategies that fostered innovation within his team, over several decades, emphasizing the importance of humility, mentorship, and continual re-invention. Modha’s story shows a career bridging neuroscience, mathematics, and engineering that pushed technological boundaries,thanks for collaborators within IBM and the broader scientific community.

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102809024

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral Histories Collection.

Catalog number: 102809025
Lot number: 2024.0074Show More

Oral History of Ned Barnholt

Interviewed by Dag Spicer, on April 1, 2025 in Mountain View, [...]

Bill Atkinson: Polaroids showing the Evolution of the Lisa GUI 📸

Bill Atkinson, known for designing the original MacPaint and helping [...]

Oral History of Lynn Conway

Interviewed by Dag Spicer, on February 24, 2014 in Mountain View, [...]

CHM Live | AI Decodes Ancient History: The Herculaneum Scrolls

[Recorded June 10, 2025] Discover how cutting-edge AI technology is [...]

[Recorded June 10, 2025]
Discover how cutting-edge AI technology is revolutionizing the study of ancient history. Join us for an illuminating discussion about the groundbreaking work that has helped decipher and translate fragile, burnt ancient Greek scrolls—texts once thought lost forever. Learn how advanced machine learning is unlocking secrets from the past and reshaping the future of historical research.

This program was made possible by the generous support of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.

Speakers:
Federica Nicolardi, Assistant Professor of Papyrology at University of Naples Federico II
Federica Nicolardi is assistant professor of papyrology at the University of Naples Federico II and a member of the Centro Internazionale per lo Studio dei Papiri Ercolanesi "M. Gigante." Her research primarily focuses on the Herculaneum papyri, with a special emphasis on critical editions and virtual restoration techniques. Nicolardi collaborates with Brent Seales’ project on digital restoration of Herculaneum papyri at the University of Kentucky, supervising the local team imaging all the opened Herculaneum papyri preserved at the National Library of Naples. She is also the lead papyrologist of the Vesuvius Challenge.

Brent Seales, Stanley and Karen Pigman Chair of Heritage Science and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky.
W. Brent Seales is the Stanley and Karen Pigman Chair of Heritage Science and professor of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky. He is the founder of the Heritage Science research lab (EduceLab) at the University, which applies techniques in machine learning and data science to the digital restoration of damaged materials. Seales also cofounded the Vesuvius Challenge, an international contest with the goal to virtually unwrap Herculaneum scrolls. He has had notable success working with challenging, damaged materials, including the scroll from En-Gedi (Leviticus), the Morgan MS M.910 (The Acts of the Apostles), and PHerc.Paris.3 and 4 (Philodemus / Epicureanism). His breakthrough work on the scroll from En-Gedi received international recognition and was featured in Science Advances, The New York Times, Le Monde, and the Times of London.

Nat Friedman, Investor & Entrepreneur
Nat Friedman is an investor and entrepreneur. In 2023, he launched the Vesuvius Challenge with Daniel Gross and Brent Seales to encourage the community of scientists to decipher the Herculaneum papyri from high-resolution CT scans of the scrolls.

Moderator:
Russell Ihrig, Senior Producer and Manager of Programming, Computer History Museum
Russell Ihrig is a senior producer and manager of programming at CHM. He is the host and producer of the Museum's Decoding Tech podcast. Prior to joining CHM, he worked for the Cincinnati Art Museum for nine years, where he also produced the Art Palace Podcast.

Catalog Number: 300000095
Acquisition Number: 2025.0080Show More

Oral History of Peter Samson

Interviewed by Dag Spicer on 2024-10-01 in Mountain View, CA © [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Mike Berners-Lee

[Recorded on August 12, 2024] Environmental impact researcher Mike [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Pat Murphy

[Recorded on July 18, 2024] Sci-fi and fantasy author Pat Murphy, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Arvind Narayanan

[Recorded on December 19, 2023] Computer scientist Arvind Narayanan, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Lauren Kunze

{recorded on January 16, 2024] Pandorabots CEO Lauren Kunze, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Thomas Wolf

[Recorded on January 11, 2024] Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Manu Chopra

[Recorded on February 2, 2024] Karya equitable clickwork founder Manu [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Zoya Khare

[Recorded on May 3, 2024] Student and Khanmigo user Zoya Khare, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Bernard Widrow demonstrates ADALINE

Neural networks trailblazer Bernard Widrow demonstrates his ADALINE [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Rodney Brooks

[Recorded on December 11, 2023] Robotics trailblazer Rodney Brooks, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Jakob Uszkoreit

[Recorded on April 24, 2024] Transformers co-inventor Jakob Uszkoreit, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Timothy Kay

[Recorded on November 21, 2023] SmarterChild co-creator Timothy Kay, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Harry Shum

[Recorded on January 22, 2024] Computer scientist and chatbot [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Eric Horvitz

[Recorded on March 18, 2024] Microsoft Chief Scientific Officer Eric [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Bernard Widrow

[Recorded on December 7, 2023] Neural networks trailblazer Bernard [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Lucy Suchman

[Recorded on December 8, 2023] Anthropologist and HCI researcher Lucy [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Eduardo Bunge

[Recorded on July 26, 2024] Psychologist and AI therapy entrepreneur [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Scott Densmore

[Recorded on August 1, 2024] GitHub CoPilot engineering VP Scott [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Victor Lee

[Recorded on August 1, 2024] AI-in-education researcher Victor Lee, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Daniel Ambrosi

[Recorded on June 25, 2024] Artist Daniel Ambrosi, interviewed in [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Daniel H. Wilson

[Recorded on May 16, 2024] Science fiction author and robotics [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Dan Hendrycks

[Recorded on March 28, 2024] Director of the Center for AI Safety Dan [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Brewster Kahle

[Recorded on March 4, 2024] Internet Archive founder and AI [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Sal Khan

[Recorded on February 29, 2024] Khan Academy founder Sal Khan, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Cindy Cohn

[Recorded on February 21, 2024] Electronic Frontier Foundation [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Sridhar Ramaswamy

[Recorded on February 1, 2024] Former head of Google Ads and search [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Matthew Kirschenbaum

[Recorded on January 26, 2024] English professor Matthew Kirschenbaum, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Baby Rajaram Bokale

[Recorded on April 30, 2024] Karya clickworker Baby Rajaram Bokale, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Adam Cheyer

[Recorded on April 5, 2024] Siri co-inventor Adam Cheyer, interviewed [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Emily Bender

[Recorded on February 7, 2024] Computational linguist Emily Bender, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Gary Marcus

[Recorded on January 5, 2024] AI researcher and critic Gary Marcus, [...]

Chatbots Decoded Interview: Shawn Carolan

[Recorded on January 23, 2024] Venture investor Shawn Carolan, [...]

Oral History: Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton transformed software engineering as we know it — [...]

Oral History of Bill Yeager

Oral History of Bill Krause

Interviewed by Doug Fairbairn on 2025-02-04 in Mountain View, CA
© Computer History Museum

In this insightful interview, Bill Krause charts his unconventional path from an unfocused young man, candidly recalling his "four B's" era, to a pioneering Silicon Valley CEO and dedicated philanthropist. He was born in Philadelphia to a military family in 1942. As he grew, his family moved to Japan, Germany and other locations. He described his early years as those of a “misspent youth” with no hobbies or other activities which might give an indication of his future success. He said his focus at the time was four “B’s”….baseball, basketball, beer, and broads!

He went to college at The Citadel, a military school in South Carolina, which he described as a “godsend”, because it taught him discipline, perseverance, and that in order to succeed in life you needed to have goals to aspire to. He decided to major in Electrical Engineering because the dean of the school recommended it because Bill was good in math and there weren’t many students in the department.

Upon graduation in 1983, he began his two years of military service. He describes the experience there as being fundamental to his future career success. As he entered the workforce, he had a very clear plan as to how to approach his career. He figured he had 45 years of work ahead, so he broke it into three phases: learning about business, building a business, and finally giving back in some form.

His first two first significant employers were General Electric and Hewlett-Packard, both of which served a fertile ground for learning the many dimensions of business from manufacturing to sales. In addition, his time at HP served to build a rich and extensive network of executives which would serve him well in the future.

In 1980, he was introduced to Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, who was looking for a CEO to join him in founding a company to market this exciting new communications technology. Krause was very impressed with Bob and excited about the opportunity to embark on the second phase of his career plan, that of building a company. Krause and Metcalfe were extremely successful, taking the company public in 1984 and exceeding $400M in revenue by the time he stepped down as CEO in 1993.

Now it was time for the third phase of his career, which has lasted over 30 years. He and his wife decided to focus their philanthropy on education. They are the largest donors to the College of Education at Penn State and among the top three donors at The Citadel. At the latter, he has spearheaded the founding of the Krause Center for Leadership and Ethics. Krause has also served on the boards of 16 public companies and 20 private ones. He loves working with entrepreneurs and helping them build their businesses.

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102809064

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.

Collection number: 102809065
Acquisition number: 2025.0003Show More

Oral History of Cristina Morgan

Interviewed by Doug Fairbairn and Steve Smith on 2025-03-25 in [...]

Interviewed by Doug Fairbairn and Steve Smith on 2025-03-25 in Mountain View, CA
© Computer History Museum

Cristina was born in 1952 in Italy and raised in a military family. As a result, she moved frequently and mastered the challenge of being the “new kid” in school and learning how to integrate herself quicky into a new environment. She attended Arizona State University, initially as a psychology major. However, a wise counselor advised her to change her major to business, as that was much more likely to lead to a job. She took the advice and stayed at ASU long enough to earn not only a bachelor’s but an MBA as well.

Upon graduation in December 1976, she looked for jobs locally but found the opportunities unattractive. Fortunately, a recruiter referred her to an opportunity in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she eventually landed a job at Memorex in finance. Although the company was going through hard times and downsizing, it was a valuable experience as more and more work fell on her shoulders as others were leaving. She moved on to Itel in 1978, and then on to Qume, a printer company.

She took a break with her husband to go to Italy and when she returned, she was recruited for a job at Hambrecht & Quist, an investment banking and venture capital company, in October 1982. She joined as a research/analyst, but after learning the business, she moved up the management ladder very quickly. She eventually assumed the role of head of high tech banking in 1992. She stayed with H&Q as it was later purchased by Chase and then JPMorgan, where she retired as Vice-Chairman of JPMorganChase in 2023. For 40 years she made a major impact on the investment banking industry, taking hundreds of companies public, and working out of the same offices through all these transitions. Quite a record of achievement and stability in an ever-changing industry

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/300000012

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.

Collection number: 300000013
Acquisition number: 2025.0035Show More

Oral History of Saydean Zeldin

Bert Monroy: MacPaint

In 1984, Bert Monroy first used MacPaint on the Macintosh 128, marking [...]

CHM Live | Character Building: Bridging Code and Culture through Unicode

[Recorded May 13, 2025] While many of us can seamlessly text and type [...]

RAMAC Restoration Panel

Interviewed by Bruno Marchon on 2024-04-11 in Mountain View, CA
© Computer History Museum

The RAMAC was the very first disk drive ever made. It was invented, fabricated, and commercialized in San Jose by a team of fifty or so IBM engineers in the mid-1950s. It allowed for the first real-time record transactions of large data sets, enabling computerized banking, airline reservation, inventory management, and many other applications. This RAMAC was a great commercial success for IBM, and it spurred a multibillion-dollar hard disk-drive industry that is powering today's internet and cloud storage. In 2001, Dr. Al Hoagland, then Electrical Engineering professor at Santa Clara University, and himself a former IBM RAMAC engineer, undertook an ambitious project to bring back to life one of the few still existing RAMACs. He lobbied IBM to procure one from their archives, and he put together a team of students and former IBM engineers. In less than ten years, the team was able to mechanically restore this RAMAC, read and decode all the still-existing data off the disks, build a controller and write the software to operate the read/write arm assembly and simulate read operations. This RAMAC has now been on display at the Computer History Museum for over 14 years, with weekly live demonstrations for the public to enjoy. In this interview panel are four of the key people that made this possible: Patrick Connolly, who was one of Dr. Hoagland's former students, with David Bennet, John Best, and Joe Feng, all IBM retirees and former engineers who dedicated a lot of their time to this project.

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102808985

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.

Collection number: 102808986
Acquisition number: 2024.0054Show More

Oral History of Chuck Geschke, part 2 of 2

Interviewed by David C. Brock on 2018-10-26 in Mountain View, CA
© Computer History Museum

This oral history captures the life and career of Charles “Chuck” Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, as recorded by the Computer History Museum in 2018. Born in Cleveland in 1939, Geschke grew up in a working-class Catholic family where education, religion, and politics were central. Originally aspiring to become a Jesuit priest, he spent three years in seminary before realizing his path lay elsewhere. He returned to Cleveland, worked briefly in a valve factory, and pursued higher education, earning a bachelor’s in Latin and a master’s in mathematics from Xavier University.

His fascination with problem-solving and abstract thinking led him to begin a Ph.D. in mathematics at Case Western Reserve while teaching at John Carroll University. A chance encounter with a former student introduced him to computer programming in FORTRAN, sparking a passion that led him to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science at Carnegie Mellon. There, under the mentorship of Bill Wulf, Geschke helped develop the BLISS programming language and an optimizing compiler, setting the stage for his groundbreaking work in software systems.

He later joined Xerox PARC, where he played a key role in systems programming and the development of the Mesa language. Recognized for his leadership, he was tasked with creating the Imaging Sciences Laboratory, where he hired John Warnock. Their partnership led to the founding of Adobe Systems, a company rooted in values of innovation, diversity, and collaboration. Geschke’s journey reveals a blend of rigorous education, technical excellence, and a deep commitment to building meaningful, human-centered technology. Adobe products have since become global standards for graphics, text, website design, and photography.

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102740447

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.

Collection number: 102740448
Acquisition number: X8568.2018Show More

Oral History of Chuck Geschke, part 1 of 2

Interviewed by David C. Brock on 2018-04-04 in Mountain View, CA
© Computer History Museum

This oral history captures the life and career of Charles “Chuck” Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, as recorded by the Computer History Museum in 2018. Born in Cleveland in 1939, Geschke grew up in a working-class Catholic family where education, religion, and politics were central. Originally aspiring to become a Jesuit priest, he spent three years in seminary before realizing his path lay elsewhere. He returned to Cleveland, worked briefly in a valve factory, and pursued higher education, earning a bachelor’s in Latin and a master’s in mathematics from Xavier University.

His fascination with problem-solving and abstract thinking led him to begin a Ph.D. in mathematics at Case Western Reserve while teaching at John Carroll University. A chance encounter with a former student introduced him to computer programming in FORTRAN, sparking a passion that led him to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science at Carnegie Mellon. There, under the mentorship of Bill Wulf, Geschke helped develop the BLISS programming language and an optimizing compiler, setting the stage for his groundbreaking work in software systems.

He later joined Xerox PARC, where he played a key role in systems programming and the development of the Mesa language. Recognized for his leadership, he was tasked with creating the Imaging Sciences Laboratory, where he hired John Warnock. Their partnership led to the founding of Adobe Systems, a company rooted in values of innovation, diversity, and collaboration. Geschke’s journey reveals a blend of rigorous education, technical excellence, and a deep commitment to building meaningful, human-centered technology. Adobe products have since become global standards for graphics, text, website design, and photography.

* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102740311

Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.

Collection number: 102740312
Acquisition number: X8568.2018Show More

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