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Re: [89attendees] Side trip to see Colossus at the National Museum of Computing?

Ted Lemon <mellon@fugue.com> Mon, 03 March 2014 09:39 UTC

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From: Ted Lemon <mellon@fugue.com>
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Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 09:39:40 +0000
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To: Rob Pickering <rob@ipcortex.co.uk>
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Subject: Re: [89attendees] Side trip to see Colossus at the National Museum of Computing?
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FWIW, I have been to the museum and highly recommend it.   They may have spruced it up a bit since I was there, but it's very bare-bones and a little bit random in a very fun way.   You get to see the Colossus, the Bombe, the fastest paper tape reader you've ever seen (if it jams, the paper catches fire), lots of old computers, and if you are lucky possibly one or more of the people who built the Colossus that is on display there (not the original Colossus).

The best part of our visit was showing up at the Colossus, asking real geek questions, and seeing the guy's eyes light up when he realized he had someone to talk to who actually could understand any interesting thing he might say.   I suspect they get a lot of people through who have no idea what a NAND gate is.

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