Slashdot Mirror
Old Computers Resurrected As Instruments At Bletchley Park
arcticstoat writes with a snippet from bit-tech.com; musician Matthew Applegate "plans on assembling a virtual orchestra of 20 retired relics of computing at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The choice of venue will even allow Applegate to feature the infamous Colossus Mark 2 computer in the event, which was used for code-breaking in World War II and was recently reconstructed at Bletchley Park in 2007. ... A wide selection of computing fossils be used in Applegate's final musical presentation, which is called 'Obsolete?' This includes the Elliot 803 (a 1960s machine with 4KB of memory), the aforementioned Colossus Mark 2, a Bunsviga adding machine (pictured) and a punch card machine. As well as this, there are also some machines that will look nostalgically familiar to kids who grew up with the home computer generation, including a BBC Micro, an Atari 800XL, a Dragon 32 and an Amstrad CPC464." The article's list of the members of this "orchestra" makes an interesting checklist of computer hardware history.
I fully approve. It's definitely time to rethink what obsolescence means, and this musical presentation seems like it will be amazing from an angle of reimagining what old computers are really for.
I will take my kids to see it and tell them that when I'm old, I want them to arrange me in a formation with other old people and make us all make beautiful coincidental sounds that could be construed as music.
Poor Forbin! He will be locked up alnight with that sex female computer scientist.
Why is the Colossus "infamous"? It's famous, and it's use saved thousands of lives and shortened the war.
Brett
Possibly the submitter is German.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
It's infamous. You know, -more- than famous.
Like how inflammable is more than... flammable?
node-def: a tactical hacking sim. Now in open beta.
Why is the Colossus "infamous"? It's famous, and it's use saved thousands of lives and shortened the war.
Because of that one time it took over the world.
Sheesh, kids these days. No knowledge of history.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I'm guessing this won't be a progressive rock thing....
I watched that movie *when it came out*, and before that chick was married to Mongo ...
I don't know what you are talking about. You kids are making me feel old.
Movies? Sheesh! In my day, we only had Projecting Kinetoscopes for entertainment.
This includes the Elliot 803 (a 1960s machine with 4KB of memory), the aforementioned Colossus Mark 2, a Bunsviga adding machine (pictured) and a punch card machine.
I read the slashdot summary and I have to say, the Bunsviga adding machine looks a lot like a grounding plug.
Do you Gentoo!?