Flowers had to begin building Colossus out of his own pocket. The British government eventually repaid him, but not in full.
The computer that helped win World War II
51–60 of 84 posts
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
The National Museum of Computing (just up the road from Bletchley Park) has a working Colossus
that's what i was describing! :) it's on the bletchley site (they share a parking lot) and was where tony sale and friends rebuilt the colossus. although i just looked. critically they have different ticket offices. it was a long time ago! either way, worth a visit of both and they make up an excellent way to spend a day.
It's on the same site but there is some institutional nonsense that means getting onto the Bletchley site doesn't guarantee access to the NMoC, which is only open on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Don't ask me how I know...
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#53Can anyone recommend a more technical book on the design and operation of the Colossus? I've found Colossus, a collections of essays edited by B. Jack Copeland, but not much else, at least on Amazon. (Also interested in anything on Zuse's computers, as I've mostly studied the Atanasoff-Berry Computer and Eniac).
How about this one, although it covers the context of the times…. https://www.amazon.ca/Colossus-Bletchley-Parks-Greatest-Secr...
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#54Can anyone recommend a more technical book on the design and operation of the Colossus? I've found Colossus, a collections of essays edited by B. Jack Copeland, but not much else, at least on Amazon. (Also interested in anything on Zuse's computers, as I've mostly studied the Atanasoff-Berry Computer and Eniac).
I think the national library (whatever it is called) has the actual operation manual available.
But this should be what you're looking for?
https://publish.fid-media.de/entities/book/f1548ef2-2420-4c9...
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
They weren't all destroyed, some were moved to what became GCHQ (UK's equivalent to the NSA) See Influence and Fate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer It's Tommy Flowers I always felt sorry for, after the war he wanted a loan to build a computer was refused on the grounds that what he wanted to build was impossible. He knew it was possible but couldn't disclose that due to secrecy laws
that's where they computed numberwang, right?
That's wangernumb!
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's important to remember that Nazi Germany was not seen as an enemy at first, and many people admired how Hitler had supposedly lifted Germany out of the economic catastrophe of Weimar. Years passed between the Nazis taking power and the outbreak of war. It was not an uncommon sentiment that democracy was weak and the Nazis showed us a better way. This sentiment was extremely wrong-headed, but it wasn't a matter of…
>Years passed between the Nazis taking power and the outbreak of war. Sure but the rhetoric of hate and disastrously racist things were happening well before the war took place and soon after the party took power. It wasn't some mystery that these were terrible people, the extent of awareness of what they were capable of just got gradually worse. In an age of bigotry they were still extreme but not THAT extreme if th…
My point isn't to defend the Nazi sympathies of Ford et al, but merely that funding and trading with Nazi Germany happened before the war, and doesn't mean that it's some cabal getting rich while the rest of us fight.
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
They weren't all destroyed, some were moved to what became GCHQ (UK's equivalent to the NSA) See Influence and Fate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer It's Tommy Flowers I always felt sorry for, after the war he wanted a loan to build a computer was refused on the grounds that what he wanted to build was impossible. He knew it was possible but couldn't disclose that due to secrecy laws
that's where they computed numberwang, right?
It was a huge advancement. Previously they were computing numberwang on slide rules.
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#58The British also helped with the US Navy attack on Japanese ciphers, didn't they?
The Japanese did not place much time or emphasis on encryption. So, if by help you mean "vacuumed up" all the stuff that was out in the open that was easy to crack, then yes.
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#59Flowers had to begin building Colossus out of his own pocket. The British government eventually repaid him, but not in full.
The amount that humanity as a whole owes to individuals taking on personal risks for the greater good is innumerable.
Re: The computer that helped win World War II
#60i had the opportunity to visit bletchley about sixteen years ago... one interesting detail was that all the colossus machines were destroyed after the war as they were seen as too powerful and dangerous. it wasn't until years later that the retired telephony engineers (this was where ee excellence lived at the time) who had built them began rebuilding them from memory as a sort of hobby/club centered at bletchley. th…
> telephony engineers (this was where ee excellence lived at the time)
Same in the US. It's why computers live in 19-inch racks.