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Interview with One of ENIACs Inventors
deeptrace writes "On the 60th anniversary of the ENIAC an old family friend of 'Pres' Eckert transcribed some interviews recorded before his death. Very interesting reading. They dispel a few myths, such as the lights didn't really dim when they turned it on, and the military officers did not salute ENIAC."
So, if you popped the clutch, your constants may jump in value?
Ok, Ok, I'm leaving!
The mouse cage was pretty funny. We knew mice would eat the insulation off the wires, so we got samples of all the wires that were available and put them in a cage with a bunch of mice to see which insulation they did not like. We only used wire that passed the mouse test.
This should be taken to heart by forward-thinking engineers everywhere.I'm looking to overclock my ENIAC. Any tips?
Also, does anyone have a copy of Gentoo on punch cards I can borrow?
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
General: This is the ENIAC 3000. It launches missiles automatically, and it has three distinct varieties of orders.
[presses a button]
ENIAC: Men, take that hill.
War is hell.
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes.
Colonel 1: Man, that thing's great!
Colonel 2: Don't salute the machine!
During the summer of 2004, my girlfriend at the time had a job taking care of an old guy at his beach house on Long Beach Island, NJ. The old guy grew up in Philly society back in the 30's and 40's and was part of the Doan family, owners of a prominent Chevrolet dealership. I was living at the house too and got to talking to the guy one day and told him I was involved with computers. Then he starts telling me all about how his wife (who had died recently) had dated a guy named Pres Eckert who had invented "some computer". I told him it was the ENIAC and pressed him for details. He told me his wife had dumped Pres because he was always taking her to see the machine and would make her sit around waiting for him to fix some problems before they went on dates. So, this could probably be the first instance of a guy being dumped for being a computer geek.
Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
We built ENIAC in a room that was 30 feet by 50 feet, at the Moore School in West Philadelphia on the first floor.
And on the second floor, we have a room 10 feet by 15 feet where we built the ENIAC Mini, which of course since it doesn't have a teletype, punch card reader or mouse, is more affordable.
Looking back at ENIAC we can now say that the first version of Scorched Earth was born.
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This space for rent. Call 1-800-SIGADVT to place your ad.
Wikipedia is a peer-reviewed encyclopedia based on independantly verifiable sources. If it's in Wikipedia, it will usually have its source cited elsewhere.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
I hate those big wooden/metal/ivory pixels sliding around on wires, and all you can manage to create is a single desktop icon before you run out of them.
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
"They had a process by which you had to review any functions that were going into the computer before you put them in... if only we still did that.
Yes
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun