[NJARC] PC 1, Collosus 0

[john ruccolo]

I have many "Churchill" brand 6SN7's that were part of
the original Colossus....bought them on ebay....and if
you believe that, I have some nice swampland in South
Jersey I'd like to sell you.

I agree with Al -- I'm amazed the difference was less
than 2 hours between Colossus and a modern computer.
Colossus must have had the better algorithm, while the
German guy's PC ran literally several million times
faster.

I think vacuum-tube computors are fascinating, and
would love to see one work someday.

I'll never forget what a speaker at a tech conference
said, circa the mid '90s: "Have you ever thrown away
one of those singing greeting cards? If you have, you
threw away more computing power than existed in the
*world* before about 1950."

And what the hell was Churchill thinking? Destroy the
Colossus computers in the interests of national
security? Didn't he -- or his advisors -- realize the
strategic potential of a digital computer, above and
beyond decrypting Nazi traffic? No wonder we had to
bail those blokes out of WW2! ;-)

JR

PS -- I think HRO's and/or AR-88s were used as the
monitor receivers....

--- JOE CRO <n3ibx at verizon.net> wrote:

> Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
> _______________________________________________
> Al,
>     But think of all the fun you'd have replacing
> tubes in "Collosus" on a 
> routine basis! I just think it's interesting that
> someone got the thing 
> operational again. It's a real piece of history that
> can still be used. Kind 
> of like having your own Illiac or Eniac in your
> basement to figure out your 
> checkbook with - hi!
> 
> Joe Cro N3IBX
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Al Klase" <al at ar88.net>
> To: "New Jersey Antique Radio Club"
> <njarc at mailman.qth.net>
> Cc: <Wireless-Set-No19 at yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 10:40 AM
> Subject: Re: [NJARC] PC 1, Collosus 0
> 
> 
> > Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > Keep in mind that your silly cellphone is easily a
> thousand times more 
> > computer than Collosus.  - Al
> >
> > Scott Roberts wrote:
> >> Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
> >> _______________________________________________
> >>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071117/ap_on_hi_te/britain_wwii_computer;_ylt=AvD6rPpAiA6Sm1c5sps7tTOs0NUE
> >>
> >> Boy, this kinda stinks, but I guess modern stuff
> is a
> >> tad quicker...
> >>
> >> Scott
> >>
> >>
> >> 
> >>
>
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> >>
> >>
> >
> > -- 
> > Al Klase - N3FRQ
> > Flemington, NJ
> > http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/
> >
> >
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> 
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