Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Machines That Sparked the Beginning of the Computer Age

Posted by samzenpus on from the in-the-beginning dept.

jjp9999 writes "A war of spies and electromechanical machines that took place beneath the wires during World War II not only played a crucial role in the Allies' victory, but also helped spark the beginning of the computer age. Among the devices was the Enigma, a cipher capable of producing 150,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible code combinations, and a hulking machine, the Colossus, the first programmable electronic computer, capable of decoding the Enigma."

5 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Allies were the villians in WWII by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: -1, Troll

    Seriously, look it up. Britain declared war on Germany on behalf of an "ally" (Poland) that she had no intention of helping. Bomber Harris proceeded to intentionally target "enemy" civilians, hiding the fact from the air crews, thus proving that he knew it was a war crime and against international law. America unleashed an unprecedented series of provocations, leading to Japan declaring war. America followed this up by a war of aggression, putting Americans that looked like Japanese into concentration camps. White Americans invented new weapons of mass destruction and used them against nonwhites. The Onion put it best: "Nagasaki bombed 'for the hell of it': second bomb would have just 'sat around anyway'.

    What, unfamiliar with this narrative? Have you attended a university history course in the last twenty years? My guess is: not.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:Allies were the villians in WWII by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      America followed this up by a war of aggression, putting Americans that looked like Japanese into concentration camps.

      Uhm??? At no point in history has the United States of America run a concentration camp. EVER.

      If I wasn't completely sure that you are a lying troll, I would correct your mistake and say you probably meant internment camps. However, it's obvious we lousy Americans are *exactly* like the Schutzstaffel... Fucker.

      CAPTCHA: faction

  2. The 4004!!! by slashpotter · · Score: -1, Troll

    First calculator based on a microprocessor, the intel 4004 comes to mind. I am very lucky to own one of these!

  3. The 4004!!! by slashpoter · · Score: -1, Troll

    Its first microprocessor, and has a calculator based on it. It has its schematics published! and emulator I am very very lucky to own one of original calculators based on this processor.

  4. Re:Good bye and thanks for all troll food... by slashpoter · · Score: -1, Troll

    Well, you can find out details on my blog