Dig deeper, there are some tidbits there. It's usually not a matter of omission, rather one of being able to get the whole story told right before publishing.
We've got some old lectures, some including transcripts, some texts for both Baby and Colossus. I can't say why one or both aren't featured more prominently in current exhibits.
It's been a multi-year process for the exhibits team designing the future full scale museum. We are currently in an 'Alpha Phase' while we ramp up.
Some of my favorite items in the video library are a video of Tom Kilburn accepting Fellows nomination in the museum, and another of him demonstrating the finished reconstruction of Baby, now housed at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.
In order to keep it from getting more fingerprints and dirt, and to remove the gumming up tape that held it up, the diagram was taken off the side of the IMP where it lived in the moffett warehouse.
That diagram was of over 20 nodes and generated by a plotter, not hand drawn.. the cooler diagrams are of the first two and four nodes, and those are handwritten.
Yep. The 1620 was lovingly restored by some of our dedicated volunteers.
While there are some machines that will get this treatment, there are too many that are too costly to run or repair to ever try to plug in again.
Certainly most of the PC era systems would still boot, but in an attempt to preserve them, we aren't going to try.
There are a few places where more contemporary machines can be seen in their fully pixelated splendor (running) that you can visit.. Get it while the getting is good.. it only takes a blown power supply or burned in tube to ruin it forever.
Here is one example where they have a great collection of systems plugged in and warming up the place. Actually a barn, so a little heat isn't so bad.
Yep. Site went down. Thanks all for the vote of popularity. Server has been reoptimized for the flood and should be able to handle it.
While we're not running on the Altair, our Apache daemon had all those nice friendly timeouts and keepalives active for the leisurely browser, not for the flood of hits of getting slashdotted.
To dispell the foreseeable endless debate regarding what the museum is about, and whether or not we're an international museum, you just have to visit in person.
http://www.computerhistory.org/about/tour/
We have THE LARGEST collection of computing artifacts in the world. Period. The site doesn't do it justice at the moment, but keep an eye out.. lots to come.
The collection does include international representative machines, including a great deal from the UK. Only about 10% of our collection is actually on display, and even less is currently available on the web. If you want to help us change that, come volunteer.
We have a great volunteer pool and are always looking for people excited about computing to come and help out.
Director of IT and Webmaster
webmaster@computerhistory.org
Slashdot Mirror
Dig deeper, there are some tidbits there. It's usually not a matter of omission, rather one of being able to get the whole story told right before publishing.
We've got some old lectures, some including transcripts, some texts for both Baby and Colossus. I can't say why one or both aren't featured more prominently in current exhibits.
Google site:computerhistory.org 'Baby' 'Kilburn' search results
Google site:computerhistory.org 'Colossus' Search Results
It's been a multi-year process for the exhibits team designing the future full scale museum. We are currently in an 'Alpha Phase' while we ramp up.
Some of my favorite items in the video library are a video of Tom Kilburn accepting Fellows nomination in the museum, and another of him demonstrating the finished reconstruction of Baby, now housed at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.
Director of IT and webmaster@computerhistory.org
In about another month, you'll be able to visit the site and see everything currently on exhibit. Roughly 10% of the overall machine artifacts.
Still not the same as seeing them up close and personal. I love my job. ;^)
After that, we continue picking away at the other thousands of artifacts, thousands of videos, photos and documents.
Keep watching. Thanks for the props.
Director of IT and webmaster@computerhistory.org
Director of IT and Webmaster
webmaster@computerhistory.org
In order to keep it from getting more fingerprints and dirt, and to remove the gumming up tape that held it up, the diagram was taken off the side of the IMP where it lived in the moffett warehouse.
That diagram was of over 20 nodes and generated by a plotter, not hand drawn.. the cooler diagrams are of the first two and four nodes, and those are handwritten.
A brief internet history on the site covers these and more.
While there are some machines that will get this treatment, there are too many that are too costly to run or repair to ever try to plug in again.
Certainly most of the PC era systems would still boot, but in an attempt to preserve them, we aren't going to try.
There are a few places where more contemporary machines can be seen in their fully pixelated splendor (running) that you can visit.. Get it while the getting is good.. it only takes a blown power supply or burned in tube to ruin it forever.
Here is one example where they have a great collection of systems plugged in and warming up the place. Actually a barn, so a little heat isn't so bad.
http://www.digibarn.com/
While we're not running on the Altair, our Apache daemon had all those nice friendly timeouts and keepalives active for the leisurely browser, not for the flood of hits of getting slashdotted.
To dispell the foreseeable endless debate regarding what the museum is about, and whether or not we're an international museum, you just have to visit in person.
http://www.computerhistory.org/about/tour/
We have THE LARGEST collection of computing artifacts in the world. Period. The site doesn't do it justice at the moment, but keep an eye out.. lots to come.
The collection does include international representative machines, including a great deal from the UK. Only about 10% of our collection is actually on display, and even less is currently available on the web. If you want to help us change that, come volunteer.
We have a great volunteer pool and are always looking for people excited about computing to come and help out.
Director of IT and Webmaster
webmaster@computerhistory.org