Sponsor a Valve On Colossus

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Posted by timothy on Thursday February 9, 2012 @05:01AM from the don't-worry-they-have-tubes-too dept.

mikejuk writes "The UK's National Museum of Computing has come up with a novel idea to raise funds for its new gallery for its rebuilt Colossus computer — you can sponsor a valve. All you have to do is buy a small area in a picture of Colossus (at £0.1 per pixel — min £10), upload a picture to occupy the space, set a URL and pay using PayPal."

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Novel? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 05:03 · Score: 5, Informative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Million_Dollar_Homepage
1. Re:Novel? by SJHillman · 2012-02-09 05:08 · Score: 1
  
  That was my first thought after reading the summary. Maybe it's novel because they're using currency other than the dollar?
2. Re:Novel? by pinfall · 2012-02-09 05:16 · Score: 1
  
  That was my first thought after reading the summary. Maybe it's novel because they're using currency other than the dollar?
  I for one welcome our old computer overlords.
3. Re:Novel? by jemtallon · 2012-02-09 05:20 · Score: 2
  
  [hat type="SEO"]
  It's novel in the sense that the links you buy come from a now-prominent .org and don't have "nofollow" on them
  [/hat]
4. Re:Novel? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 05:35 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  i can top that: St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna:
  after WW2 there was not enough money to recreate the roof, so the people of vienna were asked to buy shingles (I hope leo translated that correctly for me) for 1 Schilling ... the thing was a success as you might expect ;)
5. Re:Novel? by Sechr+Nibw · 2012-02-09 05:38 · Score: 1
  
  And that it's only £100,000, not a million? 1,000 x 1,000 pixels, at £0.1 per pixel...they're doing it wrong!
6. Re:Novel? by RandLS · 2012-02-09 06:16 · Score: 1
  
  I wonder when Alex will sue for copyright infringement and theft of IP. ;P
7. Re:Novel? by rpopescu · 2012-02-10 02:46 · Score: 1
  
  Why would it need to be novel?! This is about repairing a historically significant computer, not cheap internet publicity stunts. What sort of ignorant voted that comment "informative"?
8. Re:Novel? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-11 04:05 · Score: 0
  
  They're most likely commenting simply on the use of the word "novel" in the summary, which does seem a bit of a stretch to be fair
Has anybody contacted Dr. Forbin about this? by mmell · 2012-02-09 05:11 · Score: 5, Funny

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project
Not what I thought by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 05:13 · Score: 0

I saw Valve and Colossus and was hoping Shadow of the Colossus was coming to Steam
Time for depression.
Knowing the internet... by JustAnotherIdiot · 2012-02-09 05:19 · Score: 5, Funny

Half of it is just going to be dicks.

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What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
1. Re:Knowing the internet... by virgnarus · 2012-02-09 05:57 · Score: 2
  
  Half of it is just going to be dicks.
  That would be too obvious and I'm sure they have regulations that would stop that short. Instead, you will have people posting by purchasing larger ranges of pixels and upload various images/colors to construct a fitting representation of said genitalia.
Only a virtual valve by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 05:21 · Score: 0

The original post isn't very clear but you're only sponsoring a "valve" in a virtual Colossus. You're not sponsoring any physical valves in the rebuild. As the AC said, this is just variant of the million dollar homepage.
1. Re:Only a virtual valve by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 05:34 · Score: 0
  
  It seems even worse than that. It would appear you can sponsor a "valve" on a really low resolution picture of a small part of the Colossus. I don't really understand why anyone would actually do this, I'd personally be more inclined to just give a direct donation.
Can I pay NOT using Paypal? by Blakey+Rat · 2012-02-09 05:26 · Score: 1

Because, seriously, I'm not giving those assholes business. But I'd like to donate.

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Comment of the year
1. Re:Can I pay NOT using Paypal? by X0563511 · 2012-02-09 06:06 · Score: 1
  
  Contact them. I'm sure they'll take donations in a variety of means.
  
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  For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
2. Re:Can I pay NOT using Paypal? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-10 05:54 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, The National Museum of Computing will take donations through all sorts of channels -- please email info@tnmoc.org saying how you would like to donate. many thanks.
This is the voice of World Control by reluctantjoiner · 2012-02-09 05:29 · Score: 3, Insightful

I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied dead....Except for mmell who paid for this shiny new valve, and in return has been allocated an additional martini per week.

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Plan My Week for iPhone
Valves? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 05:45 · Score: 0

Valves? Is this a Babbage engine or something?
1. Re:Valves? by treeves · 2012-02-09 08:26 · Score: 1
  
  Valve is the British term for [vacuum] tubes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube
  
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  ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
2. Re:Valves? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 09:07 · Score: 0
  
  Slashdot doesn't publish stories in German or Japanese. Why wasn't this one translated to the local language?
Hardley news by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 06:03 · Score: 0

The oldest pixel purchase is dated 2009-01-07.
HL3 by masteva · 2012-02-09 06:22 · Score: 1

Am I the only one that thought this was a ploy by Valve to get your name in Half Life 3 when reading the title???

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Practice Static Safety - Hack Naked
Valve = vacuum tube by IcyHando'Death · 2012-02-09 07:30 · Score: 2

For those of you who've never hung out with an engineer from the UK (and aren't one yourself), a valve in this context is a vacuum tube.
Not a real valve by chaim79 · 2012-02-09 09:09 · Score: 2

The name is somewhat missleading, you aren't sponsoring a 'valve' but instead your logo covering portion of an image of the valves used... I would much rather be part of it if the sponsorship was tied to an actual valve, however I understand how that would be less for them.
What they are currently 'selling' is 1,000,000 pixels at 0.1£ per pixel, minimum donation of 100 pixels (10£). So in the end they would be getting 1,000,000£ minus paypal costs.
If you could be a sponsor to the upkeep of a physical valve the corresponding cost would be 400£ per valve. Truth be told, I'd be interested in doing that as an annual contribution, especially if there was some sort of physical plaque somewhere on site stating who was sponsoring the project and how many valves they sponsored.

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DEMETRIUS: Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON: Villain, I have done thy mother.
Shakespeare invents 'your mom'
1. Re:Not a real valve by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 10:13 · Score: 0
  
  Its £100,000
I just bought 200 pixels by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-09 16:19 · Score: 0

But nothing has shown up so far. WTF?!?!