HT de Beer
March 2008 (Last changed: 24 March 2008)
Welcome at HeerdeBeer.org, the place on the internet I can call my own. It is just a simple personal website where I present of my work and interests.
My main areas of interest are History and Computer Science, especially the combination of these two fields. I studied both History and Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at a Dutch university. I ended my Historical education in 2006 with my Bachelors thesis on Itinerant Kingship in 10th Century Ottonian Empire. Although this thesis was the end of my formal historical education, it was far from the end of my historical career.
Meanwhile I also completed my education in CSE by writing a Masters thesis on the History of the ALGOL Effort. I was able to combine history and computer science by doing historical research into the beginning of computer science as a field on its own. The ALGOL Effort was more than just an effort to create a programming language, it became the vehicle for the establishment of a new field: computer science.
After my graduation I was asked to participate in the project Computerpioniers, pionierscomputers to write the history of the Dutch computer pioneers in the 1950s and early 1960s. Early 2008 my participation in the project ended. In the course of just more than one year I learned more about the art of history than during the five years of my formal historical education. This truly was a year well spend.
In the menu on the right you will find some links to sub pages where I elaborate on some topics or present some of my papers.