visicalc Resources

ZDNet Dictionary Definition

VisiCalc: The first electronic spreadsheet. It was introduced in 1978 for the Apple II. Conceived by Dan Bricklin, a Harvard student, and programmed by a friend, Bob Frankston, it...; Full VisiCalc Definition >>

ZDNet Resources

Mitch Kapor: From Lotus 1-2-3 to Second Life: Mitch Kapor: From Lotus 1-2-3 to Second LifeFirst PC sreadsheet?"From Lotus 1-2-3 to Second Life In this Super Techies video interview, Mitch Kapor discusses his tech career from work on the first PC spreadsheet"First PC spreadsheet, eh? Lotus 1-2-3? As if...RE: Mitch Kapor: From Lotus 1-2-3 to Second...; Tags: PRODUCTIVITY, VisiCalc, Mitch Kapor, Lotus 1-2-3, IBM Corp., spreadsheet, PC spreadsheet, first PC spreadsheet, Second Life, PC; Discussion threads 2008-02-12
Visicalc co-founder offers a modest proposal: Visicalc co-founder offers a modest proposalcommon mistakesSo, you're saying that the simple fact that a service is offered, regulation is justified? Because I sell beef to McDonalds, I should be required by law to sell to Burger King for the same price? There is no such thing as a guaranteed...; Tags: INTERNET, Regulations, Taxes, Telecom & Utilities, Free trade, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, regulation, guaranteed market, modest proposal, Nevermind, VisiCalc; Discussion threads 2006-05-30
Visicalc co-founder offers a modest proposal: Essential to the open source argument is the idea that the basic infrastructure of the information age is just that -- infrastructure -- and the public interest demands it be treated as such. This argument is generally accepted in the software arena. It is at the heart of the Internet,...; Tags: Jonathan Swift, Bells; Blog posts 2006-05-30

Additional Resources

Old DEC code open sourced by HP: Old DEC code open sourced by HPMove on... why botherWow, and if IBM open sources OS/2, we'd have two museum pieces to admire. AdvFS was DOA five years ago, the last thing we need is another retrieval from the grave.DEC started search enginesFew people remember that DEC started search engines....; Tags: INTERNET, Operating systems, Desktops, Olsen, Hewlett-Packard Co., Digital Equipment Corp., AdvFS, VAX, IBM Corp.; Discussion threads 2008-06-23
SocialText unveils new wiki spreadsheet: SocialText just announced its latest addition to SocialText SocialCalc, a multi-user wiki-based spreadsheet. SocialText isn't the first to deliver an online spreadsheet, but it is the first to integrate an online spreadsheet with a leading Wiki and allows linking between sheets. (Click here for our exclusive, SocialCalc screen gallery.) ...; Tags: Socialtext, Spreadsheet, Permissioning, Google Sheet, Wiki, Productivity, Online Communications, Dave Greenfield; Blog posts 2008-06-10

The spreadsheet love affair: The spreadsheet love affairThat's obviousbecuase it's not the "most elementary of tools", it's far, far more versatile then you want to give it credit for.SantayanaFor those who weren't around at the beginning of the personal computer era, it's worth remembering that it all began because a PC was cheap enough...; Tags: PRODUCTIVITY, spreadsheet, robustness; Discussion threads 2008-06-03
(Photos: Cracking open the Atari 2600): (Photos: Cracking open the Atari 2600)The Atari 2600 VCS and Atari 800 Computer - Hooray!I still love to play from time to time. Some of the games still hold up well. They take no time to understand and there is nothing you need to unlock to experience the...; Tags: Games, Atari Inc., Atari 2600, game, Cracking Open, photograph; Discussion threads 2008-05-16
Super Techies: Dan Bricklin: In this Super Techies interview, software inventor Dan Bricklin shares with CNET News.com's Dan Farber his thoughts on software innovation past and present. Bricklin discusses how he dreamed up the first electronic spreadsheet, VisiCalc; developing handwriting applications for the tablet PC; and his current role as the inventor of Wikicalc,...; Tags: Personal Technology; Videos 2008-03-27
SlySoft cracks Blu-ray BD encryption: SlySoft cracks Blu-ray BD encryption"BD+ won't be breached for 10 years"Nothing like a challenge to get people moving. I wonder how those studios who went with Sony instead of Toshiba because of their "better" security feel now.Couldn't happen to a better standard.By Better I mean absolutely ridiculous in...; Tags: Digital rights management (DRM), SECURITY, Digital media, SlySoft, encryption, disc, movie; Discussion threads 2008-03-19
Microsoft's real game: Open interoperability protects its stack: Microsoft's real game: Open interoperability protects its stackInteroperability works both ways.If you want to rip out that Linux server, the fact that it works with Microsoft products as Microsoft intends helps assure that you won't (what?) miss a beat by eliminating the foreign element.You have many Microsoft products already and...; Tags: game, Microsoft Corp., real game, interoperability; Discussion threads 2008-02-21
Mitch Kapor: From Lotus 1-2-3 to Second Life: In this Super Techies video interview, Mitch Kapor discusses his career as a tech entrepreneur. He discusses his early experiences working on the first PC spreadsheet, Visicalc, and his subsequent founding of Lotus Development, creating the most ubiquitous business tool of its time. He also talks about competing with tech...; Tags: Second Life, Mitch Kapor, IBM Corp., Productivity, Wiki, Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, Professional Development, Corporate Communications, Online Communications, Business Operations, Corporate Law, Management, Career, Marketing, Dan Farber; Blog posts 2008-02-12
Obama+a+Mac%2C+Clinton+a+PC%2C+but+what+is+McCain%3F: Obama+a+Mac%2C+Clinton+a+PC%2C+but+what+is+McCain%3FSpeaking as an ArizonanMcCain is a 4.77 Mhz IBM PC with 256K of RAM emulating an Apple ][ running VisiCalc.RE: Obama a Mac, Clinton a PC, but what is McCain?Hillary = trojan horseObama = virusA Trojan Horse is full of as much trickery as the mythological Trojan Horse it was...; Tags: Mainframes, Spyware, Spyware, adware & malware, Linux, PRODUCTIVITY, Microsoft Windows, Default OS, computer virus, McCain, Obama, Obama+a+Mac%2C+Clinton+a+PC%2C+but+what+is+McCain%3F; Discussion threads 2008-02-04
Net neutrality debate re-ignites: The recent blocking of BitTorrent by Comcast has re-ignited the network neutrality debate. Rep. Rick Boucher has called Comcast on the carpet, but AT&T has responded forcefully. They not only deny the need for network neutrality, they call it a positive harm, adding there is no...; Tags: Phone, Network, Comcast Corp., Duopoly, Net Neutrality, MuniWireless, Telecom & Utilities, Wi-Fi, Networking, Wireless, Dana Blankenhorn; Blog posts 2007-10-25
Unresponsive iPhone touch screens: Unresponsive iPhone touch screensHow many more Apple hardware failures will we see...It isn't five minutes since the Mac battery recall, and already we are seeing the iPhone is now iPhailed.With Apple, are the users paying the extra premium for better quality products, or rather is it just Appletalk for shiny...; Tags: Keyboards, Monitors & displays, Desktops, Touch-Screen Technology, Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., touch screen; Discussion threads 2007-10-16
A First Look at Numbers: A First Look at NumbersAs usual MS's contibution was negligible"I was discussing Numbers with a few of my students yesterday and commented that Apple had the luxury of starting with a blank slate and picking the things they liked from Excel while innovating where they saw the opportunity."Let get our...; Tags: PRODUCTIVITY, spreadsheet, Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel; Discussion threads 2007-08-09
YouTube, EMI sign breakthrough licensing pact: YouTube, EMI sign breakthrough licensing pactEMI ahead of the curveGood to see one company actually trying to adapt to new technologies and take advantage of them. The others will eventually catch up.U-Tube unites EMISir. The whole world is a small village as per Thomas Friedman who wrote the...; Tags: EMI Group Plc., U-Tube, YouTube Inc.; Discussion threads 2007-05-31
2.5 TERABYTE hot-swap storage for $730!: 2.5 TERABYTE hot-swap storage for $730!FreeNASIf you want to build a simple NAS system and you have a spare PC hanging about... check out FreeNAS.Decimal vs. binary"Tera" is an SI unit, defined in decimal. So is "Giga", "Mega", "Kilo", etc.Only an old pedantic fart would still go on and on...; Tags: Network-attached storage (NAS), Taxes, Free trade, way thing, storage, NAS; Discussion threads 2007-04-30
Another nail in the coffin for xBase? Microsoft ends Foxpro's commercial run: While Im glad to hear that Microsoft is turning portions of its codebase over to the open source community, the news thanks Slashdot from Microsoft that Foxpro has seen its last commercial version marks a sad day for me. Foxpro was to dBase what Excel was to Lotus 1-2-3. If...; Tags: Desktops, Mainframes, Servers, Databases, Programming languages, Microsoft Corp., dBase, PC; Blog posts 2007-03-23
Vista? No thanks, school says, converts Windows boxes to Linux: Vista? No thanks, school says, converts Windows boxes to Linuxas long as you don't need more than 256 colors and no programmable accessto hardware, citrix is fine. although a little hard on the network bandwidthcouldn't run a game server with it.:).All right!Three cheers for Heather Carver and the Windsor, CA...; Tags: Operating systems, Linux, thin client, Citrix Systems Inc., Microsoft Windows, One Laptop Per Child project, operating system, Microsoft Windows Vista; Discussion threads 2007-03-12
Enterprise mashups get ready for prime-time: Last year we witnessed the rise of consumer mashups on the Web, with hundreds of individual mashup-based Web applications being released in 2006 alone. I covered this phenomenon in detail in my year-end mashup wrap-up, but now this innovation in software development is gearing up to move inside the...; Tags: Web 2.0, Mashups, Rich Internet Applications (RIA), Small Pieces, Loosely Joined, Lightweight Service Models, SOA, Governance, Collaboration, Convergence, Right To Remix, Network Effects, Products, Enterprise Web 2.0, Global SOA, Web services, Ajax, Enterprise Mashups, Enterprise 2.0, Open APIs, Widgets, mashup; Blog posts 2007-01-19