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Computer Pioneer Harry Huskey Dies At Age 101 (bbc.co.uk)
Big Hairy Ian quotes the BBC:
Engineer Harry Huskey, who helped build many of the first ever computers, has died aged 101. Dr. Huskey was a key member of the team that built the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) which first ran in February 1946. ENIAC is widely considered to be one of the first electronic, general purpose, programmable computers. Dr. Huskey also helped complete work on the Ace -- the Automatic Computing Engine -- designed by Alan Turing.
U.C. Santa Cruz also remembers Huskey's work on the Bendix G-15 in 1954, "a 950-pound predecessor to today's laptops" which is sometimes hailed as the first personal computer (since it didn't require a separate technician to run) -- though each one cost over $50,000. The idea of an "electronic brain" was still so new, it led Huskey to an appearance on Groucho Marx's radio show You Bet Your Life, where Groucho warned him that "They're pretty tricky those machines! I wouldn't trust 'em... They'll turn on your like a mad dog, doctor!"
U.C. Santa Cruz also remembers Huskey's work on the Bendix G-15 in 1954, "a 950-pound predecessor to today's laptops" which is sometimes hailed as the first personal computer (since it didn't require a separate technician to run) -- though each one cost over $50,000. The idea of an "electronic brain" was still so new, it led Huskey to an appearance on Groucho Marx's radio show You Bet Your Life, where Groucho warned him that "They're pretty tricky those machines! I wouldn't trust 'em... They'll turn on your like a mad dog, doctor!"
He only lived to the age of 5???
You've been told wrong. We only have computers because of war.
The space race provided a major push for miniaturization of computers, but computers existed well before the space race.
A search for Harry Huskey on Amazon brought up "TJ Hooker - The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons" DVD for $7.55. O_o
I've heard about Colossus. I've also heard about Guardian.
Never let these two systems talk together otherwise we'll be in a lot of trouble.
#DeleteFacebook
This was the oldest computer I ever programed on. It was not my first computer. It still being used at the time to process paper tape and write it to magnetic tape. It had no memory only a drum. The only fun thing about is that it had a brass huge bell, that you could ring with an instruction.
Harry Huskey would be a great porn name. Just say'in.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
To have complete control of a computer all by yourself was a thrill. Did a little simple lens design on a G-15 as a summer job for Kodak as a high school student back in '61. Liked its paper tape better than punched cards cause program commands didn't get scrambled when dropped.
Colossus was a special purpose calculator built to decode messages. It wasn't a general purpose computer and wasn't Turing complete.
"- it had no program inside itself. A person used plugs, wires and switches to change the program. This is how it was set it up for a new task.
Colossus was not a general-purpose machine. It was designed for only one code breaking task. That task was counting and Boolean operations.
It was not a general Turing-complete computer, even though Alan Turing was at Bletchley Park. This idea had not yet been invented, and most of the other early modern computing machines were not Turing-complete (for example: the Atanasoff–Berry Computer, the Harvard Mark I electro-mechanical relay machine, the Bell Labs relay machines by George Stibitz and others, or the first designs of Konrad Zuse).
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
It was actually a Fairchild "micrologic" double three-input NOR gate, but, same difference...
Ezekiel 23:20
and they were the first to make an all-IC computer for the Minuteman missile, before NASA.
False; MIT IL ordered the Fairchild chips in 1962 and built a Block I AGC computer in 1963, Minuteman's IC-based D-37C computer was built in 1964. But in 1963, Apollo was consuming 60% of the world's combined IC production.
Ezekiel 23:20
Neither was ENIAC, actually. Until they "hacked" it into a limited state machine somewhat later... Still not exactly a competitor to SSEM and EDSAC in terms of design, though.
Ezekiel 23:20
Setting aside the simple fact that Kilby's design was an unmanufacturable joke compared to Hoerni et al.'s, what does that even have to do with the specific falsehood I refuted above anyway?
Ezekiel 23:20
And Fairchild, once they started manufacturing the first integrated gates, then actually credited NASA/MIT for teaching their engineers how to do proper QA for larger batches.
Not to mention the fact that your reasoning renders the Minuteman claims obsolete since Minuteman people didn't invent ICs either. (But they and the Apollo people were the only ones willing to pay for them at the time.)
Ezekiel 23:20
I also completely forgot to point out how you are a parasite, a *CONSUMER* of technologies, too. :) Given how we've established that now...
Ezekiel 23:20