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Cyhist Dec. 16 1997 A
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========================================================================= Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 09:18:10 -0500
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security"
<PADGETT@HOBBES.ORL.LMCO.COM>
Subject: Re: Your chance to program the world's first stored-program
computer.
X-To: alr@AUTOPRT.CO.UK
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>As part of the 50th anniversary of the building of the world's first stored-program computer...
This is getting as bad as all of the "centennial of the automobile" sellabrations.
1948 eh ? and I suppose Colossus doesn't count - but it says "stored-program computer". What about early 1900's music boxes and player pianos ? Jacquard looms even further back ? Or any pin/tumbler lock. All digital devices just not "electronic" or do you require branching and an output in which case there are Napier's bones or Hollerith's 1899 tabulator. If you want "electronic" then how about the Bletchley Bombes ? (and before I hear an outcry of "mechanical" let me point out the latching relays, the banks of minature tubes (intro'd in 1938), and the electronic output display on top of the one at the NSA museum).
Now if you wanted to say "50th anniversary of the first *electronically*- stored-program *digital* computer then maybe (and using storage oscilloscopes for storage media was a good trick), but please be precise.
Warmly,
Padgett
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security"
<PADGETT@HOBBES.ORL.LMCO.COM>
Subject: Re: Your chance to program the world's first stored-program
computer.
X-To: alr@AUTOPRT.CO.UK
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>As part of the 50th anniversary of the building of the world's first stored-program computer...
This is getting as bad as all of the "centennial of the automobile" sellabrations.
1948 eh ? and I suppose Colossus doesn't count - but it says "stored-program computer". What about early 1900's music boxes and player pianos ? Jacquard looms even further back ? Or any pin/tumbler lock. All digital devices just not "electronic" or do you require branching and an output in which case there are Napier's bones or Hollerith's 1899 tabulator. If you want "electronic" then how about the Bletchley Bombes ? (and before I hear an outcry of "mechanical" let me point out the latching relays, the banks of minature tubes (intro'd in 1938), and the electronic output display on top of the one at the NSA museum).
Now if you wanted to say "50th anniversary of the first *electronically*- stored-program *digital* computer then maybe (and using storage oscilloscopes for storage media was a good trick), but please be precise.
Warmly,
Padgett
______________________________________________________________________
