Slashdot Mirror
Computer History Museum
nickynicky9doors writes: "New Scientist has an interview with computer historian Michael Williams. Mr. Williams has undertaken to set up a world class computer museum. My favourite was always the Cray 2 which used artificial human blood plasma as a coolant, but the article talks of the 1965 HoneyWell kitchen computer which was built for the Neiman Marcus department store. At a cost of $10,500 it came with 2 programming manuals and a cookbook. Garbage In was by way of flickering binary switches and Garbage Out was by a row of blinking lights. There's more at www.computerhistory.org."
Museums like these help to illustrate just how complex modern computers truly are.
You get to journey back into time and put yourself in the shoes of researchers who were trying to figure out how to solve the most complex problems of the day, all while having a newfangled electronic appliance the size of a room do all of the work for you.
In times such as ours where computing for the every day person involves little more than pointing, clicking, and writing IMs or emails, we should all learn to appreciate and marvel at computers.
There's no better way to learn about the current information technology field than by studying the past.
I applaud people like Michael Williams.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
The non techie :
... instead of just leading questions so the interviewee can press his agenda.
What about this huge contraption with all the vacuum tubes?
The realist
Is it possible the general public doesn't care about these machines?
The pitiful
Isn't there something rather sad about collections of old computers?
It's nice to see some humanity in articles
---
Oregon
35 lousy years.
That's how long ago it was that the 7-segment display seemed like Space:1999 technology.
--Blair
The core memory thing was really interesting. The computer I used to maintin in the Navy ran on Core memory. It weighed a ton, ran slower than molasses uphill in a blizzard, but it NEVER failed. It was a great technology for the time.
Wherever you go, there I am...
Is it possible the public doesn't care? Yes.
Witness "The Computer Museum". Originally Gordon Bell's private collection (as in the VAX guy then Nat'l Science Foundation) it was formalized into "The Digital Computer Museum" - Digital as in DEC.
Later when folks at other companies became leery of donating gifts to their competitor's in-house museum it was spun off into the space built for a transportation museum and became "The Computer Museum". Gordon's wife Gwen took a leadership role, DEC donated lots of support and the place went... nowhere.
It was a good try. Gwen's vision had always been halls of gray boxes through to the movers and shakers of the industry would make pilgrimages, fund through philanthropic impulse, perhaps hold power lunches at a cafe. Instead the bread-and-butter reality of school groups and tourists finally prevailed and more "friendly" exhibits (eg the Walk-Through Computer) were installed as budgets permitted.
However too little too late. The costs of running a museum were high, lots of local computer groups were themselves failing (many of them burning the TCM along the way) and the place never really found its feet. The great hope of the sexy Java-based virtual fish tank teaching all sorts of interesting theories took a few million bucks in donations and produced a pretty but most incomprehensible exhibit that, frankly, tanked the place.
The programs went to Boston's Museum of Science, the collections out to the west coast branch where they were reincarnated as what we see today.
So - do folks care? I doubt it.
Museums cost. Yes I know to folks on the outside they look nice and simple but they're not. What you see on the floor is usually far less then 1/10th of a collection: A collection that requires high-quality (museum-quality) storage if you're to treat it right for the ages. It requires research and documentation and maintenance. It requires insurance and access and continual expansion if it is to keep up. The public facilities themselves need to be maintained and insured and secured and managed. The exhibits must be maintained and updated and replaced on a regular place if you want folks to ever come back. Grants need to be applied for and marketing has to happen to get word out and keep folks coming. Staff needs to be paid for as well as support be given to research programs and visiting scholars. Then there are the daily school groups and tour groups and regular private rentals and public special events etc.
This all takes a lot of money and widespread support, particularly if you're to do a good job and respect the trust your collection represents.
Yes hope springs eternal but we've already been here once. Yes it's Silly Valley and there's a dearth of tourist facilities and lots of folks who did get rich on dotcom and are looking for something they can sponsor. But Boston had it's own computer folks and more students then you can shake a stick at. Six of one, half dozen of the other and it still doesn't add up to enough. I've fond memories of TCM and wish TMHC the best but feel ultimately this sort of project is too big for a stand-alone institution while serving too small a niche; other institutions like the Smithsonian with larger budgets, stronger research programs, their own collections with more facilities & more services would do better.
But hey, the second time is always better.
The author was involved at the setting up of Computer Place at Boston's Museum of Science. Later I became a manager at The Computer Museum. Afterwards I went back to school and from there into industry though I've always kept up with much of The Computer Museum news from a distance. If we met there drop a line.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
One interesting exhibit which I believe used to be in the Computer Museum in Boston was the Tinkertoy Computer, built by Danny Hillis (of Thinking Machines Corp.). It was a computer made of tinkertoys, capable of playing tic tac toe. I suppose some slashdot folks will say he should have used Lego blocks...
I couldn't find any photos of it; just a tiny little blurb here. I think A.K. Dewdney's Scientific American column in October 1989 also talked about it. Dewdney also used it as the title of one of his books collecting his columns.
Today I went out "garage saleing" - and managed to find a couple of "interesting" books:
The Secret Guide to Computers - Vol 1
and
The Secret Guide to Computers - Vol 2: Deep Secrets
Both are of the 11th edition, written and published by Russ Walter - no ISBN, because in Russ' own words: "Ha ha ha! You think this book is standard?"
These books are weird, and wonderful at the same time - they have strange "rainbow" colored covers, and the introduction in the first volume starts out with the line "Computers are like drugs: you begin by spending just a little money on them, but then you get so excited by the experience-and so hooked-that you wind up spending more and more money, to feed your habit."
It takes the reader through introduction to programming, microcomputers, a bit of computer history, language history (listing some languages and origins I didn't even know about - and I collect this kind of info!) - you name the topic, and if it is from the early-80's and prior, it is in there. There is a wonderful section on computer "art", with crude black-and-white "photos" of early computer line drawings - including a series of Ivan Sutherland's "Aircraft Carrier Landing Simulator" - 3D graphics from the late 60's - early 70's!!!
What is even more strange about the books is the amount of background info they give on the histories of various companies involved in microcomputers - plus info on the micros themselves (once again, if it existed, it is in the book - CP/M even features pretty prominantly). It gets even more strange - vague and not-so-vague references to sex, etc - about throughout the book: In the section on Russ' version of assembly language (his own creation), the opening section title is "SEXY ASS" - I kid you NOT (watch the lameness filter catch that). That section details what he terms "Simple EXcellent-for-You ASSembler" - then goes on to "teach" how to use this variant of assembler...
He has another language called "EASY"...
How rare (or common?) was this set of books - I have never seen another copy (as opposed to David Ahl's BASIC Games series, of which I have seen numerous copies)? Has anyone else come across it?
I couldn't resist buying it - and at a quarter per book (oooh, a whole 50 cents!) - it was MINE...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
As to a software museum, actually there is a bit of a collection of that. I recall at TCM loading up SpaceWar from paper-tape (one of my job-skills was being able to read papertape - it's not difficult once one gets the hang and has the symbols committed to memory) onto the PDP-1, there were other like choice bits.
However there's more issue then just putting the code out there for folks to look at. First off much of it is encumbered by license/copyright so that would need to be resolved. Next is simply getting it off of any medium it is on - the loss of readers is well known in the field. Then of course are the format and OS version questions ("what *is* this string of binary?") Documentation is typically either a storage/indexing issue or simply non-existant, or in it's own difficult-to-decypher format.
It's a great idea, and it would be wonderful to approach many of the pioneers in the field still extant and ask them for material regarding their discoveries and first applications along with examples. However to simply put out for the world material of unclear provinance would be unethical and the sort of tarpit any museum would steer well-clear of (the nightmare of war-treasure and stolen artifacts is a well recognized one.)
Posting "orphanware" Atari-cartridges on semi-legit websites is far different then a scholarly presentation of code evolution and diversity.
However it is more then likely TCHM or others are doing something of the sort, or would welcome support in such a project. While I listed a number of issues they're no more then museums of say Television or Rock & Roll have faced, certianly they're surmountable and I agree, they're going to be important.
It would be interesting to have a CDROM with a complete history of every computing device, and a simulation, or emulation of each one. Complete with pictures of the machines, the design team and full technical specifications.
The people who did all the design work would all be talked about too. And any publically available writings would be there too.
How cool would it be to browse a history book on computer and actually be able to bring up an emulator of the machine in question? Aren't there emulators for most of these things anyway?
Use a very general purpose emulator that uses a specification file that fully describes the complete machine. The specification file could be in XML so that other programs can mine the config files for data, like a program that will tell you the code for the letter A on every computer ever made. Or tell you every computer ever made that used ascii.
-- Never make a general statement.