{"id":5020,"date":"2014-08-24T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T06:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=5020"},"modified":"2014-08-24T07:00:07","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T06:00:07","slug":"a-fright-at-the-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/history\/a-fright-at-the-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"A fright at the museum\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Here's<\/a>
Here’s a wonderful old computer they call the witch – yes with a W. Although…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I love museums \u2013 they\u2019re fascinating places full of really really old and interesting things.<\/p>\n

They house ancient statues and primitive tools \u2013 the riches of long dead Kings \u2013 that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n

Imagine then, the double take I did when I saw something all too familiar in a museum… something I had used in real life not all that long ago (or what I like to think was not all that long ago)\u2026<\/p>\n

I am a bit of a geek \u2013 and I wear my geek-girl hat with pride.<\/p>\n

I like computers. I like playing with them. I find them incredibly useful \u2013 not to mention the fact that I pay most of my bills by working as a computer consultant.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s therefore not surprising that I should visit The Museum of Computing <\/a>in Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small but fascinating place \u2013 and puts into perspective the amazing leaps of technology since the 1940\u2019s \u2013 when the first electronic computers were invented.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a>
These huge discs are – well – discs. The larger one is more than three feet across and could store an amazing 4 mb on each side. Compare that with your mobile phone…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fact \u2013 there is dispute over who was actually first. Two machines claim that title and both were driven by World War 2.<\/p>\n

One was the American\u2019s ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) built by the US Army and announced to the world in 1946.<\/p>\n

The second was the Collossus \u2013 invented by the Enigma machine codebreakers at Bletchley Park. It was working in 1943 \u2013 but destroyed after the war and kept secret for many years after.<\/p>\n

To resolve this vexing dispute, they have added extra details in the \u2018first\u2019 claim – the first programmable or the first general purpose\u2026 important distinctions that allow each to be number 1.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a replica of Collossus in the museum. As you can guess from the name, it\u2019s huge. None of your tiny back boxes here \u2013 there are values and diodes and flashing lights… That\u2019s \u2018real\u2019 computing that is.<\/p>\n

\"Can<\/a>
The replica Collossus. Can you imagine needing something this size just to send an e-mail – except of course, this was well before the Internet. E-mail wasn’t even a dream back then.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s also a selection of computing bits and pieces \u2013 the sort of things that gather dust on shelves in engineering departments for years before being reluctantly thrown out.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The gubbins inside the Collossus – that’s what I call electronics! The dust, of course is vitally important to the whole process.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And there I saw it\u2026 something far too familiar to be in a museum. Something that I had once thought was the height of cool!<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This is a VT220 terminal. The advanced model. I had one on my desk at my first job. It even had the same green cursor on a black screen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were two really scary things about seeing this in a museum.<\/p>\n

First \u2013 I think I may still own one \u2013 it\u2019s gathering dust in a shed in Australia\u2026<\/p>\n

And secondly \u2013 this museum piece was not my first computer. It was my second. Eeek!<\/p>\n

I have decided that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m old. It just means I started at this computer thing really really REALLY young. I was a child \u2013 honestly I was.<\/p>\n

Looking around me now as I write this \u2013 I see four computers and two printers in my office. Oh dear. I wonder how long I have to wait before I can offer some of them to a museum \u2013 it would be one way of getting them (and the dust they collect) out of here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I love museums \u2013 they\u2019re fascinating places full of really really old and interesting things. They house ancient statues and primitive tools \u2013 the riches of long dead Kings \u2013 that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-my-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}