Wren in famous picture has died | The National Museum of Computing Dorothy Du Boisson MBE, the Wren on the left in the famous photograph of Colossus, passed away last month, aged 93. Miss Du Boisson was part of the Newmanry from June 1943 until the end of the war and we believe that she worked on both Tunny and Colossus, distributing tapes for the machines. She visited TNMOC last September to have her photograph taken once again -- this time in front of the Rebuilt Colossus. Her friends in Brighton, where she lived in her later years, said they did not learn the extent of her contribution to the team at Bletchley Park until after her death: "With typical modesty she had played down her role as largely administrative... During her life, she made no mention of the MBE she later received for services to the Ministry of Defence." The Brighton Argus reported her nephew Richard Du Boisson as saying: "She never let on she had an MBE and would just say, ‘oh everyone was talented’."
World’s First Computer Rebuilt, Rebooted After 2,000 Years | Gadget Lab A British museum curator has built a working replica of a 2,000-year-old Greek machine that has been called the world’s first computer. A dictionary-size assemblage of 37 interlocking dials crafted with the precision and complexity of a 19th-century Swiss clock, the Antikythera mechanism was used for modeling and predicting the movements of the heavenly bodies as well as the dates and locations of upcoming Olympic games. The original 81 shards of the Antikythera were recovered from under the sea (near the Greek island of Antikythera) in 1902, rusted and clumped together in a nearly indecipherable mass. Scientists dated it to 150 B.C. Such craftsmanship wouldn’t be seen for another 1,000 years — but its purpose was a mystery for decades. Many scientists have worked since the 1950s to piece together the story, with the help of some very sophisticated imaging technology in recent years, including X-ray and gamma-ray imaging and 3-D computer modeling. Now, though, it has been rebuilt.
Uncovering Colossus - video now online | The National Museum of Computing The video of Prof Brian Randell, seated in the heart of the Colossus Gallery at TNMOC, telling the story of how he uncovered the existence of Colossus in the 1970s and how the 30-year veil of secrecy surrounding the world’s first electronic computer was lifted, is now online. Tim Reynolds, Deputy Chair of TNMOC, said: "This video is essential viewing for anyone interested in the history of computing and we are delighted that Professor Brian Randell agreed to give his presentation in the new Colossus Gallery at TNMOC. “The specially invited audience was captivated by Professor Randell’s history of the uncovering of Colossus. Margaret Sale, a TNMOC trustee and wife of the late Tony Sale who led the team that rebuilt Colossus, said: “Professor Randell inspired Tony to rebuild Colossus and now it stands in TNMOC on Bletchley Park as a wonderful celebration of Britain’s codebreaking and engineering ingenuity during World War II. Notes To Editors About The National Museum of Computing
Who was Ada? | Ada Lovelace Day Who was Ada Lovelace? By Sydney Padua, author of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage. Read the longer biography of Ada Lovelace by Suw Charman-Anderson, taken from our book, A Passion for Science: Stories of Discovery and Invention, but for a short overview of her life and achievements, read on! The woman most often known as ‘Ada Lovelace’ was born Ada Gordon in 1815, sole child of the brief and tempestuous marriage of the erratic poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, and his mathematics-loving wife Annabella Milbanke. Fearing that Ada would inherit her father’s volatile ‘poetic’ temperament, her mother raised her under a strict regimen of science, logic, and mathematics. At the age of 19 she was married to an aristocrat, William King; when King was made Earl of Lovelace in 1838 his wife became Lady Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. The Analytical Engine Her thwarted potential, and her passion and vision for technology, have made her a powerful symbol for modern women in technology.
Sharing stories of Bletchley Park: home of the code-breakers For decades, the World War II codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park was one of the U.K.’s most closely guarded secrets. Today, it’s a poignant place to visit and reflect on the achievements of those who worked there. Their outstanding feats of intellect, coupled with breakthrough engineering and dogged determination, were crucial to the Allied victory—and in parallel, helped kickstart the computing age. We’ve long been keen to help preserve and promote the importance of Bletchley Park. Today we’re announcing two new initiatives that we hope will bring its story to a wider online audience. First, we’re welcoming the Bletchley Park Trust as the latest partner to join Google’s Cultural Institute. We hope you enjoy learning more about Bletchley Park and its fundamental wartime role and legacy.
Computer History John Kopplin © 2002 Just a few years after Pascal, the German Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (co-inventor with Newton of calculus) managed to build a four-function (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) calculator that he called the stepped reckoner because, instead of gears, it employed fluted drums having ten flutes arranged around their circumference in a stair-step fashion. Although the stepped reckoner employed the decimal number system (each drum had 10 flutes), Leibniz was the first to advocate use of the binary number system which is fundamental to the operation of modern computers. Leibniz is considered one of the greatest of the philosophers but he died poor and alone. Leibniz's Stepped Reckoner (have you ever heard "calculating" referred to as "reckoning"?) Jacquard's Loom showing the threads and the punched cards By selecting particular cards for Jacquard's loom you defined the woven pattern [photo © 2002 IEEE] A close-up of a Jacquard card
Prize Home Page What is the Loebner Prize? The Loebner Prize for artificial intelligence ( AI ) is the first formal instantiation of a Turing Test. The test is named after Alan Turing the brilliant British mathematician. Among his many accomplishments was basic research in computing science. In 1950, in the article Computing Machinery and Intelligence which appeared in the philosophy journal Mind, Alan Turing asked the question "Can a Machine Think?" In 1990 Hugh Loebner agreed with The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies to underwrite a contest designed to implement the Turing Test. Further information on the development of the Loebner Prize and the reasons for its existence is available in Loebner's article In Response to the article Lessons from a Restricted Turing Test by Stuart Shieber. The Loebner Prize was originally made possible by funding from Crown Industries, Inc., of East Orange NJ. For a comprehensive overview of chatbots in general, check chatbots.org
Jacquard loom This portrait of Jacquard was woven in silk on a Jacquard loom and required 24,000 punched cards to create (1839). It was only produced to order. Charles Babbage owned one of these portraits; it inspired him in using perforated cards in his analytical engine.[1] It is in the collection of the Science Museum in London, England.[2] It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728) and Jacques Vaucanson (1740)[6] A static display of a Jacquard loom is the centrepiece of the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs[7] in Lyon. Live displays of a Jacquard loom are available at a few private museums around Lyon and also twice a day at La Maison des Canuts, as well as at other locations around the world. Principles of operation[edit] The term "Jacquard loom" is somewhat inaccurate. Importance in computing[edit] The Jacquard head used replaceable punched cards to control a sequence of operations. See also[edit] Jacquard weaving References[edit]
The Turing Test First published Wed Apr 9, 2003; substantive revision Wed Jan 26, 2011 The phrase “The Turing Test” is most properly used to refer to a proposal made by Turing (1950) as a way of dealing with the question whether machines can think. According to Turing, the question whether machines can think is itself “too meaningless” to deserve discussion (442). However, if we consider the more precise—and somehow related—question whether a digital computer can do well in a certain kind of game that Turing describes (“The Imitation Game”), then—at least in Turing's eyes—we do have a question that admits of precise discussion. The phrase “The Turing Test” is sometimes used more generally to refer to some kinds of behavioural tests for the presence of mind, or thought, or intelligence in putatively minded entities. The subsequent discussion takes up the preceding ideas in the order in which they have been introduced. 1. Turing (1950) describes the following kind of game. 2.
Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself Margaret Hamilton wasn’t supposed to invent the modern concept of software and land men on the moon. It was 1960, not a time when women were encouraged to seek out high-powered technical work. Hamilton, a 24-year-old with an undergrad degree in mathematics, had gotten a job as a programmer at MIT, and the plan was for her to support her husband through his three-year stint at Harvard Law. After that, it would be her turn—she wanted a graduate degree in math. But the Apollo space program came along. As a working mother in the 1960s, Hamilton was unusual; but as a spaceship programmer, Hamilton was positively radical. “People used to say to me, ‘How can you leave your daughter? Then, as now, “the guys” dominated tech and engineering. ‘When I first got into it, nobody knew what it was that we were doing. As Hamilton’s career got under way, the software world was on the verge of a giant leap, thanks to the Apollo program launched by John F.
Work begins on hardware to aid Edsac replica recreation 9 January 2013Last updated at 02:56 ET By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News The pioneering Edsac computer is being recreated by engineers Plans to rebuild the pioneering Edsac computer are a step closer to completion as parts that will form its metal chassis start to be manufactured. Edsac - Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator - ran its first program in 1949 and was created to help scientists at Cambridge University. The rebuild project started in 2011 after it was found that few of the original design documents remained. Project workers hope to have the recreated machine finished by 2015. "In many ways, and people do not realise this, Edsac was the beginning of the computer age," said Hermann Hauser, who kicked off the whole project and made the first substantial donation towards the £250,000 needed to complete the rebuild. Early work has focused on determining the parts and computational elements used in the 1949 Edsac. Big thinking