* [TUHS] OT: Happy birthday, Tommy Flowers!
@ 2017-12-22 7:03 Noel Chiappa
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Noel Chiappa @ 2017-12-22 7:03 UTC (permalink / raw)
> From: Dave Horsfall
> Colossus, arguably the world's first electronic computer
Well, it all depends on your definition of "computer"... :-)
I myself prefer to reserve that term for things that are programmable,
and Turing-complete. (YMMV... :-)
So I call things like Colossus and ABC "digital electronic calculating
devices" (or something similar).
None of which is to take anything away from the incredible job done by Flowers
and his cohorts. It was an amazing device, and had a major effect on history.
Noel
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] OT: Happy birthday, Tommy Flowers!
2017-12-22 0:42 Dave Horsfall
@ 2017-12-22 1:43 ` Lyndon Nerenberg
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Lyndon Nerenberg @ 2017-12-22 1:43 UTC (permalink / raw)
> On Dec 21, 2017, at 4:42 PM, Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote:
>
> Tommy Flowers MBE was born on this day in 1905; an electrical and mechanical engineer, he designed Colossus, arguably the world's first electronic computer, which was used to break the German "Lorenz" high-level cipher (not Enigma, as some think).
And if you find yourself in the UK with a day to spare, by all means make the trip to Bletchley Park and see the beast (okay, a replica) live in action! I say "a day" because you need at least that to even begin to see everything there.
The Colossus and Tunny working replicas are hosted in the National Museum of Computing (http://www.tnmoc.org/), located inside Bletchley Park, but not part of it per se (it's a long sad stupid story). The museum holds an amazing collection of retro computer hardware, from Kaypro-IIs to at least a couple models of (pre-SGI!) Crays. The resident grey-beards will happily demonstrate working mercury delay lines for you :-)
Next time I'm there, I plan to devote at least two full days just for the museum.
--lyndon
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] OT: Happy birthday, Tommy Flowers!
@ 2017-12-22 0:42 Dave Horsfall
2017-12-22 1:43 ` Lyndon Nerenberg
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Dave Horsfall @ 2017-12-22 0:42 UTC (permalink / raw)
Tommy Flowers MBE was born on this day in 1905; an electrical and
mechanical engineer, he designed Colossus, arguably the world's first
electronic computer, which was used to break the German "Lorenz"
high-level cipher (not Enigma, as some think).
--
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will suffer."
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
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2017-12-22 7:03 [TUHS] OT: Happy birthday, Tommy Flowers! Noel Chiappa
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2017-12-22 0:42 Dave Horsfall
2017-12-22 1:43 ` Lyndon Nerenberg
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