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How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

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Re: How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

#31

Post by vanderZwan »

bachback wrote: post #13

Time to correct the record: the World's first electronic, programmable computer was build by a German by the name of Konrad Zuse in May 1941 [1] called Z3 [2]. He designed a language for it called Plankalkül [3]. Eniac was announced in 1946. Incidentally Turing wanted to be build one in 1945, called Electronic Brain. His paper "on computable numbers" was published in 1936. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse…

The Germans also came up with the mouse around the same time as Doug Engelbart's team did, technically beating him to the punch:

http://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/misc/telefunken.shtml

I'm kind of curious what other parts of computer history are overlooked because they happened outside of the anglosphere.

Re: How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

#32

Post by Animats »

The ENIAC panels at the Smithsonian were at one time powered up, with a functional counter. There was a little control box on a stand where you could push some buttons and watch it count. But they had to power it down decades ago. For the fiftieth anniversary, they powered it up briefly.

Re: How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

#33

Post by Someone »

hga wrote: post #30
mnw21cam wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is no small source of acrimony in the University of Cambridge that Manchester beat them to the first stored-program computer by one month with the Baby. However, once the Baby had been demonstrated, it was promptly dismantled, leaving Cambridge's EDSAC with the title of the world's first practical stored-program computer. The EDSAC was then used for nine years at the Mathematical Laboratory before being shut down…

The Whirlwind Project seriously considered using a microwave "delay line", a round trip microwave connection a long distance across the state of Massachusetts. Ended up using Williams tubes ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube ) as did the Mark 1 and a number of other early computers (their random access had an advantage over delay lines), and eventually invented 3D magnetic core memory.

It has also been proposed to use a laser and one of the reflectors on the moon. That would give you a 300,000 km storage line. That proposal wasn't serious, though, if only because it is a challenge to keep that reflector in your field of view.

Another impractical delay line, but with variable delay, is the internet. You can hide some bits in a DNS request or in a Google search.

Re: How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

#34

Post by DougMerritt »

vanderZwan wrote: post #31
bachback wrote: post #13

Time to correct the record: the World's first electronic, programmable computer was build by a German by the name of Konrad Zuse in May 1941 [1] called Z3 [2]. He designed a language for it called Plankalkül [3]. Eniac was announced in 1946. Incidentally Turing wanted to be build one in 1945, called Electronic Brain. His paper "on computable numbers" was published in 1936. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse…

The Germans also came up with the mouse around the same time as Doug Engelbart's team did, technically beating him to the punch: http://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/misc/telefunken.shtml I'm kind of curious what other parts of computer history are overlooked because they happened outside of the anglosphere.

Not even close. That same site says that Englebart first constructed a mouse in 1963, 5 years earlier than that demo.

http://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/firstmouse.shtml

Englebart's work wasn't secret; various other people may have constructed their own mice after 1963, and yes, that sort of thing is interesting.

Re: How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

#35

Post by vanderZwan »

DougMerritt wrote: post #34
vanderZwan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Germans also came up with the mouse around the same time as Doug Engelbart's team did, technically beating him to the punch: http://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/misc/telefunken.shtml I'm kind of curious what other parts of computer history are overlooked because they happened outside of the anglosphere.

Not even close. That same site says that Englebart first constructed a mouse in 1963, 5 years earlier than that demo. http://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/firstmouse.shtml Englebart's work wasn't secret; various other people may have constructed their own mice after 1963, and yes, that sort of thing is interesting.

Ah, good catch. I didn't click beyond the site I linked - bit misleading in its wording then.
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