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Edsac Goes Live, At UK's National Museum of Computing
Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes "Britain's National Museum of Computing has flipped the switch on the venerable Edsac computer. The arduous task of reconstructing the 1949 behemoth, fraught with little in terms of the original hardware or documentation, was brought to fruition on Wednesday. As project lead Andrew Herbert is quoted as saying, "We face the same challenges as those remarkable pioneers who succeeded in building a machine that transformed computing." A remarkably shaky video of the event, replete with excellent views of the floor at the videographer's feet, can be found here."
So, the word 'fraught' doesn't appear in TFA. And there's probably a reason for that.
Fraught doesn't mean "without the benefit of".
So, to continue this egregiously bad bit of writing ....
Wiff his trusty condoms, Ralph fraught he'd be safe, but, alas, he fraught wrong and got the clap anyway.
Bereft, perhaps. But, fraught??? Really???
Come on guys. Don't just use words you don't know what they mean because they sounded cool in another context.
Oh, wait, I'm assuming editors have a grasp of the language and actually read the submissions. My bad.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
ought to be enough for anybody.
The EDSAC's main memory consisted of 1024 locations, though only 512 locations were initially implemented. Each contained 18 bits, but the first bit was unavailable due to timing restrictions, so only 17 bits were used... Internally, the EDSAC used two's complement, binary numbers. These were either 17 bits (one word) or 35 bits (two words) long.
- Wikipedia
just don't vacuum up the spills, let the kiddies roll it around in their palms like we did. probably be a more efficient way to pick it up.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
are you suggesting space did not exist before 1950?
The Colossus and Bombe replicas were amazing achievements, and they just keep going. Building complex machines with nothing but some photographs to go on.
Where's my 'we're not worthy' emoticon? _o_
It's not finished yet. They have the clock and the delay line memory working, but it can't run programs.
...what? I'm suggesting that no technology existed before we went into space. This is the main belief of the space fans on Slashdot. Is this not correct?
Only space has spinoffs, only space inspires scientists. Right?
"Edsac" doesn't sound very 1949-like. I'm pretty sure it was called EDSAC.
No, actually there are two things that inspire: space and WAR. War is awesome for progress. We need more and more wars to fuel advancement.
But is there was no technology until after we got into space, THEN WHO IS SPACE?
Really? So Philo T Farnsworth developed electronic TV because of space or war? We invented the transistor because of space or war?
How about all of human history up to and including the Industrial Revolution? We developed the loom because of space or war?
Instead of submitting articles, this retarded bag of shit should be
sent to a camp for "re-education", where the first step will be sterilization
for the protection of society.
Nah, space isn't for silly things like computers - it's for important things like non-stick frying pans and biros that write upside down*.
(The comms satellites, GPS, remote sensing and general coolness of landing robots on comets and stuff might count for something, too)
* Don't bother with the snopes links - I'm being silly.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Computers! Oh wait ....
That computer really was an earthshaking milestone, as the video clearly shows.
Space did not exist until the Soviets discovered it in 1957.
Have gnu, will travel.
Architecture? Castles and fortresses: war. Chemistry? Incendiaries, explosive and poison gas: war. Treatments for extensive burns? War. Airplanes? Bombers and fighters: war. Jet engines? Faster of the above: war. Computers? Artillery and cryptoanalysys: war. Nuclear power? Bombs and nuclear wessels: war. Even margarine was developed for war. Now grab a rifle and go shooting up people for science, or you're a luddite shit.
But no space, right? Good, because it got real tiresome trying to explain to delusional, naive nerds that technology came FIRST, then we used it in space.
Nerds think that because NASA painted its logo on something that it invented it.
space: V2 missiles: WAR!
Watch this Heartland Institute video