5 ms·

Oral History of Brian L. Halla [pdf] (2013)

30 points by lproven 3y ago

cs702 3y ago
Wow. The same Gary Kildall who was first approached by IBM for a PC operating system[a] helped write Pixar's first 3-D renderer. At a minimum, Kildall's Wikipedia page should be updated with his contribution to Pixar! --- [a] Bill Gates was IBM's second choice, because at the time Microsoft didn't have a PC OS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall#IBM_dealings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall#IBM_dealings
- magic_man 3y ago
  Interesting how he was also born in seattle. Seems like how a lot of pioneers of the PC are from there.
  - cs702 3y ago
    Maybe there was something on the water they drank as kids? (I'm joking, in case it's not obvious!)
    - BirAdam 3y ago
      It’s weird because there are several hotspots like that: Seattle, SLC, Akron, and so on. Each one pumps out greatness for a time, and then things move again.
      - jdougan 3y ago
        It works internationally too. eg. von Neumann, Teller, Wigner etc. All Hungarians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)
        rurban 3y ago
        But they came from Mars obviously
z0r 3y ago
The retitling of this submission removes the submitter's intent in sharing the article. It was something like: Gary Kildall wrote Pixar's first renderer - before the renaming.
- gwern 3y ago
  Direct link: https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2013/09/102746664-05-01-acc.pdf#page=31 https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...
- dang 3y ago
  The submitted title was "Gary Killdall, creator of CP/M, wrote Pixar's original 3D renderer". Submitters: If you want to say what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22level%20playing%20field%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... (From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.")
spit2wind 3y ago
It says "Oral History". Is there an audio recording? The Computer History Museum has recordings for other people. I can't find one for this.

30 points by lproven 3y ago

Wow. The same Gary Kildall who was first approached by IBM for a PC operating system[a] helped write Pixar's first 3-D renderer. At a minimum, Kildall's Wikipedia page should be updated with his contribution to Pixar! --- [a] Bill Gates was IBM's second choice, because at the time Microsoft didn't have a PC OS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall#IBM_dealings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall#IBM_dealings

magic_man 3y ago
Interesting how he was also born in seattle. Seems like how a lot of pioneers of the PC are from there.
- cs702 3y ago
  Maybe there was something on the water they drank as kids? (I'm joking, in case it's not obvious!)
  - BirAdam 3y ago
    It’s weird because there are several hotspots like that: Seattle, SLC, Akron, and so on. Each one pumps out greatness for a time, and then things move again.
    - jdougan 3y ago
      It works internationally too. eg. von Neumann, Teller, Wigner etc. All Hungarians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)
      - rurban 3y ago
        But they came from Mars obviously

z0r 3y ago

The retitling of this submission removes the submitter's intent in sharing the article. It was something like: Gary Kildall wrote Pixar's first renderer - before the renaming.

gwern 3y ago
Direct link: https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2013/09/102746664-05-01-acc.pdf#page=31 https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...
dang 3y ago
The submitted title was "Gary Killdall, creator of CP/M, wrote Pixar's original 3D renderer". Submitters: If you want to say what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22level%20playing%20field%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... (From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.")

spit2wind 3y ago

It says "Oral History". Is there an audio recording? The Computer History Museum has recordings for other people. I can't find one for this.