JWG (jwg) wrote,
JWG
jwg

At the computer museum

Our friday trip to the Computer History Museum was interesting. We were led by a docent backwards through time and listened to his stories that at least to me were somewhat boring but semi-informative. There wasn't much emphasis on breakthoughs nor key people. Unlike the Association for Computing Machinery whose members are people and whose emphasis these days is software, the Computer History Museum is about old relics of hardware.

I had tried to arrange to see the Multics hardware they have there, but the custodian and another contact never responded to phone calls or email so it couldn't be seen. Too bad, the CPU had about 80 boards with about 100 ICs on each one and a back panel with 14,000 wires connecting the boards. They have a lot of stuff in the back and in a warehouse that you can't see (as is true for most museums).


My father had a Monroe calculator just like that - I used to like playing with it. I wonder if anyone makes slide rules anymore?


Enthralled by the docent. This kind of reminds me of my erector set that I used to like to build stuff with.




Could this fellow have used this hairdo?
Tags: motss-con, motsscon20, museums
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