Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2016/06/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Impressive bit of history! Next time I am in the Bay Area, I have to visit this museum. No immediate plans for trans-Atlantic travel, though. Cheers, Nathan Nathan Wajsman Alicante, Spain http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/> http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws <http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ <http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/> Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator <http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator> YNWA > On 27 Jun 2016, at 00:45, Herbert Kanner <kanner at acm.org> wrote: > > My mail program went nuts last week. Twice I sent a rather long piece of > mail describing the circumstances around a Gallery picture and each time > the mail went into a black hole and the text had to be composed again. > This time I'm being smarter and writing and saving it first in a word > processor. > > OK. Don't remember what I last posted re health, but I was in the hospital > for over a week with congestive heart failure. Made a rapid recovery as > soon as I got home, and after a couple of weeks, returned to volunteer > week at the Computer History Museum. > > As a consequence of the loss of the Babbage Difference Engine, I rejoined > the group that gives twice monthly demonstrations of a working PDP1 > computer (vintage 1960), the first ?mini-computer?, in fact, the > manufacturer (Digital Equipment Corporation) coined the term. > > The PDP1 is about the size of three household refrigerators. It's turned > on at the throw of one switch. It sold for $120,000. In the year it came > out, the manufacturer donated one to MIT. One professor permitted > ?hackers? access to it from midnight to morning. This was before ?hackers? > became a pejorative term. One of those hackers was Peter Samson, who > figured out how to make the machine play four-part music, and our demo > inclueds the opening of a Bach fugue. The other, Steve Russell, largely > wrote the code for the world's first video game, Space War, which later > became an arcade game. > > When I arrived at the Museum a week ago Saturday, I found the PDP1 team in > the cafeteria area enjoing a post-lunch bull session. I just had to take a > picture. We were all wearing our uniform red shirts. Note the guy on the > right; that's Steve Russell. > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1000005_001.jpg.html > <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1000005_001.jpg.html> > > Please look ?large?. > > > > Herbert Kanner > kanner at acm.org > > Question Authority and the authorities will question you. > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information