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Re-Opened Computer History Museum Explored 181

Posted by simoniker from the room-sized-drool-objects dept.
gosand writes "An article over at OSNews gives a nice overview of the recently re-opened Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. There are some good pictures in the article, and also at the Museum's website. They have a lot of very interesting computers, including an Apple I (signed by Woz), an Enigma machine, and Crays 1, 2, and 3 (yes, there was a 3!) Maybe you have something sitting in your basement that you would like to donate?"
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Re-Opened Computer History Museum Explored More

Re-Opened Computer History Museum Explored

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  • Computers (Score:2, Interesting)

    by AyeFly ( 242460 )
    I have a really old DEC Rainbow... if I can find it :-).
    • I have an old Pentium 2. -grin-

      No seriously though, I started on the old Commodores and the Tandys. Anything much before that and I am lost. Personally, I'd love to see one of the old census machines from the 1890's. I read somewhere that its creator said that the world would never need more than three computers. hehehe. Makes Bill Gates' statement about 640k not look so foolish. (Especially since he never actually said it)

      I hope it goes well for them.

      • Re:Computers (Score:5, Insightful)

        by fishbowl ( 7759 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:37PM (#6516335)
        >the world would never need more than three
        >computers.

        Well, that's liberally paraphrased, but the thing to understand is the person who said that was *right*.

        He was making a practical observation about the market, and the market would have been saturated at just a handful of the computers of the day.

        A person making a business plan for the next fiscal year doesn't need to worry about a technological revolution that may take place over the next decade or half century.

  • Let's get this out of the way. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Chess_the_cat ( 653159 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:21PM (#6516181) Homepage
    What the Museum does not look for in a donation: It's difficult for us to turn people away when they have taken the time to contact us about a particular item. Sadly, we must do this when the item in question is something the Museum already has or has decided does not meet our criteria. Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include: IBM PC IBM PC Jr Commodore PET Commodore 64 Commodore VIC-20 Apple II (+/c/e) TI 99/4 Timex Sinclair

    • Re:Let's get this out of the way. (Score:5, Funny)

      by tinrobot ( 314936 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:24PM (#6516206)
      Dang... I was just about to pull the Timex out from under the door it was holding open.

    • Re:Let's get this out of the way. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:30PM (#6516272) Homepage Journal
      Woo hoo! My TRS-80 isn't listed... my wife will *love* the closet space that will free up.

      Oh, shoot, the page goes on to say "nothing mass-produced unless it has a low serial number" -- and they're talking about low as in less-than-or-equal-to 000030 or so. I'll have to take a look...

      On the other hand, even if they would take my TRS-80, I don't think I could part with it. Even though my brilliant assembly-language terminal program (for my 300-baud modem with toggle switch for "answer-off-originate") has likely turned into just so much oxide on a decaying cassette tape.

      On a side note... I was surfing the site [computerhistory.org] when all of a sudden, it stopped responding. Sure enough, the Slashdot story had gone live.

      Slashdot subscription: five bucks [slashdot.org]
      Being able to visit a feature site before it's Slashdotted to death: Priceless

      • Re:Let's get this out of the way. (Score:5, Informative)

        by Computer History Mus ( 691939 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @07:48PM (#6517398)
        Yep. Site went down. Thanks all for the vote of popularity. Server has been reoptimized for the flood and should be able to handle it.

        While we're not running on the Altair, our Apache daemon had all those nice friendly timeouts and keepalives active for the leisurely browser, not for the flood of hits of getting slashdotted.

        To dispell the foreseeable endless debate regarding what the museum is about, and whether or not we're an international museum, you just have to visit in person.
        http://www.computerhistory.org/about/tour/

        We have THE LARGEST collection of computing artifacts in the world. Period. The site doesn't do it justice at the moment, but keep an eye out.. lots to come.

        The collection does include international representative machines, including a great deal from the UK. Only about 10% of our collection is actually on display, and even less is currently available on the web. If you want to help us change that, come volunteer.

        We have a great volunteer pool and are always looking for people excited about computing to come and help out.

        Director of IT and Webmaster
        webmaster@computerhistory.org

    • Atari 400 (Score:2, Interesting)

      by boomerny ( 670029 )
      I was cleaning out the cellar recently and found my old Atari 400, I missed the old dog! I also have a couple 800xl's and an XT(a rebranded and recased 800xl basically, marketed as a game system). I almost have my own Atari museum going here.

    • Re:Let's get this out of the way. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ptbarnett ( 159784 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:45PM (#6516403)
      Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include:

      No Compaq in the list.

      I have one of the original Compaq "luggable" computers (serial #1555) when they were still limited to two 5-1/4" floppy drives.

      I subsequently upgraded it to an XT-clone, with a giant (at the time) 10 megabyte drive. It was one of the first 3-1/2" hard drives, shock-mounted (with big rubber "feet") within a 5-1/4" enclosure.

      I still have it, complete with the nylon carrying case. I dig it out once in a while and boot up DOS 3.3, just to boggle the mind of people who have never seen one.

      I can now build a complete near-top-of-the-line computer for about 15% of what I paid for that thing, and that's not even accounting for inflation since the early 80's.

      I've been wondering if Intel or AMD will release a 4.77 GHz processor, to commemorate how far we have progressed since the original 4.77 MHz 8088 processor in the first IBM PC.


    • How about a Commodore 16? Relatively rare, compared to the C-64.

  • What a Coincidence! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The previous article was an "Ask Slashdot" article from an individual who wanted to see things that geeks would want to see in North America. I guess he can add THIS to his list.
    • The previous article was an "Ask Slashdot" article from an individual who wanted to see things that geeks would want to see in North America. I guess he can add THIS to his list.

      Heh. I had already submitted this story before that one was posted. I was going to reply and suggest that, but then I wouldn't have wanted the editors to post a story that duped a comment. :-)

  • Who needs electronic parts recycling centers... (Score:5, Funny)

    by double-oh three ( 688874 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:23PM (#6516191)
    ... when you can send all your old junk/I mean treasured old computers to a museum?

  • Old (Score:5, Funny)

    by mindshadow ( 240798 ) * on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:23PM (#6516192) Homepage Journal
    I don't want to see anything created after I was born be in something called a "museum" ... it makes me feel old...

    • Re:Old (Score:2, Funny)

      by BadSpellar ( 691016 )
      I know what you mean. You were talking about the book by Charles Babbage, right?
    • I haven't used many some of the computers in there, but when you look fondly back on some of them, and remember them as being your first computer, it does make you realize how old/far you/we've are/come.

      But maybe we shouldn't think of it as being old. I would rather know what these computers are, and have programmed on some of them, than think of them as just relics. I am glad I was "there" when the personal computer was born, and learned to program on a TRS-80 in BASIC.

  • Stuff they don't accept... (Score:5, Informative)

    by calebb ( 685461 ) * on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:23PM (#6516195) Homepage Journal

    Hahah, they have a section on their site for donations:

    It's difficult for us to turn people away when ... Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include:

    • IBM PC
    • Commodore 64

    I guess they put this section on their website for a reason, right? Do people really think a C64 is that old? Speaking of Commodores, a nice C64 emulator [clickgamer.com] for Pocket PC's was recently released. (It runs great on an h5555 iPAQ - It's been providing me with hours of entertainment... oh yeah, Archon II: Adept) /nostalgia

    There was a useful link in this section on finding local PC recyclers [microweb.com]: There's even one in Seattle that recycles, repairs & redistributes old computers to local nonprofit organizations. Very cool! Sites like this need more publicity.

    • It's odd that people could even get the idea that something like a C64 has any kind of scarcity even, much less, "museum value."

      I went looking for ONE c64, and easily acquired more c64 stuff than I have room to store. I have boxes of c64 accessories that I haven't even looked through thoroughly! I have 2 128's. A whole stack of breadboxes. Several 1702's, 1902A's, 1541's, 1571's, and box after box after box of diskettes. I have adventure games where people carefully kept all their notes. I have at le
    • It's not that C64's etc. are old or rare, they just have a crapflood of them. Almost everyone has one (or more) sitting in the bottom of an old closet) and thinks it's gonna be (or already is) a valuable old piece someday. They have enough, already!

      I have a PDP-8, 3 NEXT's and a TRS-80 Model I in my collection of really old and wierd stuff. And, I know my TRS-80 ain't worth diddly, but it's what I learned assembler on, so I'm keeping it for _my_ museum of computer history...
    • who needs an ipaq when you can emulate c64 on your phone? [mbnet.fi]

      now since the rick dangerous for c64 from c64.com had cheats i finally saw the ending screen.. the levels felt much more longer on pc though, maybe because of not having those cheats and playing again and again drove you insane.
    • It's difficult for us to turn people away when ... Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include:

      * IBM PC

      OK, if you have an IBM PC 5150 (first 5-slot PC, released in 1981) and live in Los Angeles, and you are itching to get rid of it, please contact me. My email address is msgeek93 at yahoo dot com. That was my first computer, in 1987.

  • Donation? (Score:5, Funny)

    by nacturation ( 646836 ) <nacturation@gmai l . c om> on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:24PM (#6516207) Journal
    Maybe you have something sitting in your basement that you would like to donate?

    I have a really old computer from thousands of years ago. The name brand is "Abacus" and I believe they had many patents on the technology. The computer works by having the operator move beads based upon the calculation being performed. This is known as programming. Once the program has been written, the answer is immediately available. Execution time from programming it to getting the answer is zero, meaning that this Abacus brand computer is infinitely fast.

  • Uh oh (Score:5, Funny)

    by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:24PM (#6516215) Journal
    Quick, somebody donate a new webserver!

    =Smidge=

  • I crave my first computer... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Kickstart70 ( 531316 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:25PM (#6516219) Homepage
    How I loved the sprite graphics on my TI99/4A. A friend and I each had one...he went on to code for idSoft, and I went on to be a lowly sysadmin :)

    I'm curious...how did your first computer affect your life? (assuming you aren't 13 years old and your 1Ghz PC is still affecting you).
    • how did your first computer affect your life?

      It ran win95 and fucked up a lot. It taught me (by necessity if i wanted to do anything) the basics of fixing computers. It now is my webserver running FreeBSD.
    • I'm curious...how did your first computer affect your life? (assuming you aren't 13 years old and your 1Ghz PC is still affecting you).

      My first computer had a tape drive. I used to play some game that had source that came with a magazine, in BASIC. I loved that thing, and didn't know how to do anything with it. I was pretty young. I then got a 286 with a 20MB hard drive and started playing with BASIC myself, doing really horrible adventure games. I also had a TRS-80 to play with, but that was just fo
    • It introduced me to games, hacking(traditional sense) and progrmming. It was an old Acorn/bbc basic computer, got it when I was about 8. At that age all I did was play crap games but later on I started hacking the code and finally writing my own extremely crappy games.
    • The first computer I ever used was a Gould computer. My mom wrote a grant for her school to get it. She got it at the end of the school year so she had it at home all summer to learn how to use. I got to program on it.

      Then, we got an Atari 400 and a cassette drive. That was something. That summer I just stayed home and learned to program in BASIC out of books. The next year, I learned Forth and then C. Later we got an Atari 800XL and a disk drive. That first Atari 400 was awesome. Within the next couple of

    • Sinclair ZX-80 (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Usquebaugh ( 230216 )
      Z80 1kb Rom/ 1Kb Ram no expansion.

      I went to a computer fair in 1980 more out of curiosity then anything else. Saw these and wanted one. Simple as that, parents waited until the next year and got me the ZX-81. I learnt basic and Z80 assembly. Upgraded to the ZX-Spectrum, then the BBC Micro (6502).

      Before the fair I was thinking about being an architect, after the fair all I wanted was to work with computers. I started programming for a living at 17 and have done nothing else for close on 20 years, incl
    • My first computer wasn't really mine...I used a TI Silent 700 paper terminal to dial up a VAX a Bell Labs (where my parents worked) and play Adventure, Zork and and Trek compusively. I actually didn't get my own computer until 1987, at which point my interest in those UNIX games had led me down the path of C programming...and fuming that the C compilers for the Mac were so lame :-) ah Consulair C, Aztec C...

      (and yes, we replaced our terminal every year, so I did have a cursor adressable CRT terminal to p
      • Those Silent 700's were cool, but the paper was damned expensive. Particularly if you logged onto BBSes with long, long login sequences. Let's see... uh... cool ASCII graphic sequence, but it just used up four feet of paper!

        heh

    • I can't even remember my first computer... I've been using them since I was born. It was some kind of IBM, I think, but that could just as easily be completely wrong. This year I'll graduate with a degree in computer science.

      More I remember playing SimCity 2000, King's Quest V and VI on my first "multimedia" system, though I could just as easily be wrong there. Those might have been two different systems.

      This might make an interesting "Ask Slashdot" article. It's not advice, but it's part of the si
    • My first computer...This recollection is circa very late 1980s in Ukraine, part of former USSR.

      I think I actually had my first experience with a Neiron 5 (a 8088 clone I believe, translates as Neuron). It did have a 10mb hard drive and a 5.25" floppy. The ones I actually used were ES1040, ES1041, and Poisk. The ES systems (Edinaya Sistema) stood for Unified System. The ES were 8088 clones without hard disks. The Poisk (the act of search is the translation) was I believe an 8088 clone as well but with very
    • I think my first computer was either a 286 or BBC Micro. Then again, as I was 1 or something at the time, I don't really know how it affected me ;).

      (ObDisclaimer: I'm not 13, and I don't have a [running] 1Ghz PC [or faster] ;)

  • For Canadians (Score:3, Informative)

    by TerryAtWork ( 598364 ) <research@aceretail.com> on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:25PM (#6516221)
    There's Kevin Stumpf's place in Waterloo

    http://www.unusual.on.ca/nostalgictechnophile/in de x.htm

  • Good sign for the tech economy? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rkz ( 667993 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:26PM (#6516231) Homepage Journal
    When the museum closed it was at the lows of the dot-bomb, now it is finally re-opeining could this mean that tech industry is improving? Maybe.
    • It's also worth mentioning that Intel's and AMD's sales are reported to have gone up significantly in volume this quarter, and Apple's profits (though not volume) have increased. Those are all hardware companies, and I'm no economist, and even their predictions are wrong as often as not, but I don't consider the possibility unlikely.

  • Repair, Clean, Repeat (Score:5, Interesting)

    by waldoiverson ( 608278 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:27PM (#6516238) Homepage
    this organization seems to count on donations for their displays. does anyone know what sort of process they use for cleaning, repairing and sorting the different devices that arrive at their doorstep? also, what happens to those computers that are donated but not used for display purposes? curiously yours.

    • Re:Repair, Clean, Repeat (Score:5, Interesting)

      by taped2thedesk ( 614051 ) * on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:34PM (#6516317)
      I am currently working on restoring a piece of the ENIAC at the University of Michigan - I know that when the piece was prepared for display, they literally put the computer in the back of a pickup truck and took it to the local do-it-yourself high-pressure car wash. Can't exactly do that with today's computers, eh?
      • Clarify this: are they looking at making ENIAC functional again?

        If you were careful, there's not really much reason you couldn't give your home PC a good hosing down. Water doesn't kill computers... water+electricity does, so just give it a long dry-off session afterwards, and beware of areas prone to pooling.

        Still, a good loving application of compressed air and hand-scrubbing the case is just fine in itself.
        • Clarify this: are they looking at making ENIAC functional again?

          I hope so, I finally got all the bugs out of my program and I want to run it one more time.

        • Clarify this: are they looking at making ENIAC functional again?

          I don't think this is possible. Not only are the parts of the ENIAC spread out over the country (world?), but I believe there are also a few parts that are no longer in existence. I remember something from the ENIAC book I read a few years ago that the machine spent a lot of the 50's and 60's away in musty warehouses, unused. I think some of the parts made it to the scrap yard, until people saved a few of them.

          Then again, I could be mist

          • The only reason I could think of that somebody would want to run ENIAC is the same reason that they would want to display it: historical properties, nostalgia, etc.

            If they do run it, I recommend placing it beside a Ti-83 calculator so people can do a comparison :-)
  • because that sucker is now history!
  • Sometime between 1981 and 1983, a group of us from the NYIT Computer Graphics Lab visited DEC for a day. At that time, DEC had its own helicopter fleet that they used to promote face-to-face meetings of employees across the company. We took the air shuttle to Boston, and then they picked us up in a DEC helicopter.

    After an aerial tour of the DEC facilities, we landed and Ken Olsen, then president of DEC, greeted us.

    The high point of that day for me was the private dinner with Gordon and Gwen bell on the floor of the Computer Museum, then located at DEC, after hours. That day, Gordon had caught the fish that they served us for dinner.

    I wasn't even supposed to be on that trip, being just a junior systems programmer at the time. One of the senior scientists had to cancel, and I got his place. I don't think I ever met Gordon or Gwen again, but I won't ever forget that day.

    Bruce

  • The picture of the Alto has a three button mouse displayed. I guess this is the part of the system that Apple didn't incorporate and Microsoft decided to use. NOTE: I am a long-time user of Apples and a short-time user of their mice.

  • Whatis History? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Eberlin ( 570874 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:39PM (#6516354) Homepage
    I'll give the crays and enigma machines as a concession. Other than that, what would computer history be made of? I've got a 486SX somewhere that I call Nessie (I figured it was ancient and half the people I talk to don't believe it could actually exist). Would that be history?

    Parallel ports, 300 baud modems, an "Internet In A Box" package with Mosaic, a directory of BBS phone numbers, a "pre-tables" website. Does that count as history too?

    "you've had your desktop for over a week?
    throw that junk away, man, it's an antique!"

    -- Yankovic (It's All About The Pentiums)

  • Obligatory (Score:1, Redundant)

    by OECD ( 639690 )

    They have a lot of very interesting computers, including an Apple I (signed by Woz), an Enigma machine, and Crays 1, 2, and 3 (yes, there was a 3!)

    Imagine a Beowolf cluster of...

    • You know what? For the first time I didn't imagine a Beowulf cluster of anything. I was imagining how those old military computers looked really cool and how I'd like to build a case that looks like that...complete with ashtray :P

  • The whole internet, on a single piece of 8.5x11 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by robindmorris ( 682328 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:43PM (#6516386)
    The computer history museum used to be housed in an old warehouse on Moffett Field [nasa.gov] (which also has a huge hangar that was used for airships). I visited there a while ago, and they have a great collection of stuff.

    One of the more interesting things was the internet (or arpanet) router. A six-foot high cabinet. And stuck on the side, was a hand-drawn map of the entire internet. On one piece of 8.5x11. With about 15 nodes. I hope it didn't fall off when they moved it to the new museum.

  • Whoa! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rhinobird ( 151521 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:44PM (#6516394) Homepage
    I think we blew the tubes out of the ENIAC that was hosting thier site...
    *ahem*

    A couple of years ago there was a university project somewhere that implimented an ENIAC on a modern chip. I wonder if the museum has that. Maybe sitting besides the original to demonstrate the rapid pace of development or something.

    • Re:Whoa! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @06:03PM (#6516533) Journal
      A couple of years ago there was a university project somewhere that implimented an ENIAC on a modern chip. I wonder if the museum has that. Maybe sitting besides the original to demonstrate the rapid pace of development or something.

      That was at the University of Pennsylvania. The Moore School of Electrical Engineering. They've got the schematics of the chip up on the wall next to the little Eniac museum. Their project page is here [upenn.edu]. While it was obviously a challenging and interesting project, the schematics for the chip make it look pretty simple to eyes used to Pentiums, Athlons, etc.

      They also had some of the programmers for the ENIAC on hand for a few celebrations of some 50th anniversary. I really regretted not meeting them. [about.com]
  • No.

    I would rather use my Apple Lisa as a paper weight to prevent my old 1960's magazine porn collection from blowing around from gusts in the basement.

  • Don't forget the software! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mainframes ROCK! ( 644130 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .viftaw.> on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @05:50PM (#6516444) Homepage
    Hello, also don't forget that a huge amount of historic software has become lost; a partial list that comes to mind for the IBM 360/370 is Algol-W, PLUTO, the source code for PL/C, York APL, and many many others. Two of the first time shared operating systems, CTSS and JOSS appear to be gone too. These systems could live on through emulation if they could be found again.

    If you have old (non-copyrighted) software for the IBM 360/370 please contact the good folks at http://cbttape.org/

    If you have any code post 1967 for Dartmouth Basic please check out http://dtss.org/

    And if you have any influence with the University of Waterloo, ask them to open source or at least again market their old 370 products!

    Thanks!

  • Sweet (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That kitchen computer [osnews.com] is a work of art.
    Does anyone have more info on that?

  • It's a shame... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gklinger ( 571901 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @06:08PM (#6516572)
    It's great that all these old (and not so old, I guess it's relative) computers are being collected but I was struck by a thought when reading the article and looking at the pictures.

    None of these computers are running.

    It's nice to have the hardware on display but I think an important part of showing the history is having them operational with their original operating systems. I've been to aviation and automotive museums and a large part of what they do is restore the aircraft and cars to their original working state. They may not fly/drive them often but if it doesn't fly/drive, well, you may as well have a photograph. I feel the same way about these old computers.

    I'm reminded of a line I saw in Usenet once:

    It isn't a computer if all it does is reactive passively to the Earth's magnetic pull and displace its own weight when submerged in water.

    I patiently await the suggestion that all those comptuers be turned into a Beowful cluster...

    • None of these computers are running.

      The Science Museum [sciencemuseum.org.uk] in London has what they claim is the only vaccum-tube (valve, for the English reading) computer that is still running.

      They also have a cool collection of other hardware, including part of Babbage's Difference Engine [sciencemuseum.org.uk], the worlds first mechanical computer.

    • Re:It's a shame... (Score:2, Informative)

      by TomPJFan ( 149424 )
      There is actually at least one running machine there. My dad is one of the key volunteers and led the project to restore the IBM 1620. They have it running in a little room off the main visible storage area.
      • Yep. The 1620 was lovingly restored by some of our dedicated volunteers.

        While there are some machines that will get this treatment, there are too many that are too costly to run or repair to ever try to plug in again.

        Certainly most of the PC era systems would still boot, but in an attempt to preserve them, we aren't going to try.

        There are a few places where more contemporary machines can be seen in their fully pixelated splendor (running) that you can visit.. Get it while the getting is good.. it onl

  • Somewhere, I have a TRS-80 and an Osborne that has its original modem and CP/M disks. I think I have Wordstar for it too.

  • ... and in related news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by cr@ckwhore ( 165454 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @06:20PM (#6516652) Homepage
    In related news ...

    "The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA became the first in the world to run an http server on a vintage Altair 8800. The exhibit was promptly destroyed when millions of crazed fanatics of the website "slashdot" tried to access the Altair at the same moment."

  • I've visited and it's great! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Voivod ( 27332 ) <cryptic@g m a il.com> on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @06:36PM (#6516816)

    I visited this place a few years ago when it was a bit harder to get into and it was fantastic! Back then you had to call ahead and get an escort through the guarded gate onto the base. The museum was a few ancient warehouses in the shadow of this monstrous dirigile hanger [nasa.gov] which is also an amazing sight.

    I forget his name, but the person who ran the museum was very cool and took an hour just guiding me and a friend through the museum chatting about all the computers they had. Back then everything was in a huge dark warehouse on big dusty shelves. It felt like walking into the government warehouse at the end of the Raiders of the Lost Arc. Every time you turned a corner you were facing a lost treasure.

    Crazy old LISP OS machines in wooden cabinets. One of the original Internet routers the size of a refrigerator with a hand drawn network map of the Internet from 1979 still taped to the side. An amazing old Cray that looked like an art deco couch from the movie 2001. Computers that look like telephone switches from 1901. The kitchen computer! Oh my GOD they actually built this thing! [old-computers.com] See it and believe it. :-)

  • ...is an extinct species known as the "Programmerus Americanus"
  • i heard a rumor that they have one or more CMs. i actually know how to maintain them, does anyone know if they are looking to restore one? it would be fun.
  • Classic computers are really starting to be a collector's market. I remember just a few years ago you could pick up all the old 8-bit home machines you could ever want at flea markets and Salvation Army stores for $5-$10. Now it seems they've all been snatched up for sale on ebay for $50-$100, or more.

  • I wont be impressed until they have a working difference engine [ed-thelen.org] like the British Science museum.

    (I'm sure that there is a "back in my day the computers had cogwheels" joke to be had)

  • that Engima machine (Score:5, Informative)

    by chongo ( 113839 ) * on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @09:04PM (#6517812) Homepage Journal
    As one of the people who helped restore the Enigma machine at the History Center, I can attest to the fact that it is genuine. A few years ago, the donated Enigma machine was not in working order. It took a several work sessions to get it operational (cleaning, wire repair, replacement bulbs (of the same type and era), switch repair, etc...) The machine lacked 2 of the 5 rotor types, so another member did a lot of hard leg work to get a loan of some authentic rotors from a TLA.

    The Enigma is a bit cranky. The mechanical contact switches in the keyboard need to be cleaned more often and one might guess. The Enigma is not very ergonomic either ... :-)

    We used that Enigma machine to encrypt a real message that was known to have been broken by the folks at Bletchley Park. Some 60 years ago, their code cracking machine took ~2h 45m to search about 1/2 the key space (during which several false positives turned up) before the real key was found. Turing's algorithm, ported to a stock Cray 1, took 30 seconds to find the same key.

    The Cray 1, designed in the mid 70's, was only 330 times faster than the special purpose Bletchley Park code cracking complex. That 1940's technology used at Bletchley Park was truly amazing for its time.

    p.s. Not only does the Computer History museum have a Cray 1, 2 and 3; it has one of every major model that Cray designed going way back to his early CDC days and his special Navy machine.

  • Colossus [picotech.com]
    Baby [computer50.org]

  • until recently, I had a working Gould 32/67 (circa 1982) in my garage.

    It was only the size of a fridge, but weighed around 900 lbs. Too bad that my wife insisted that I get rid of it. She didn't see the value in a huge, energy gulping, heat pumping, two MIP machine :)

    I wonder if the museum would have been interested in such a beast.

  • Building (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sulli ( 195030 ) * on Thursday July 24, 2003 @01:05AM (#6518939) Journal
    Wasn't this a super-fancy SGI building [computerhistory.org] not long ago? How the mighty have fallen.
  • I doubt they have one of these, as it was only sold in the UK in 1982-83 (it was heavily based on a Tandy TRS-80). Mine still works.

    Brief techie details: the Dragon and TRS-80 had a Motorola 6809E processor running at a couple of MHz, which was a hybrid 8/16 bit affair (for some operations such as MUL, the result was a 16-bit number which was placed in the combined A and B accumulators). It had X and Y general purpose registers, and S and U stacks which (at a pinch) you could use as extra registers. The

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