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’."
HTML5 presentation In March 1936, an unusual confluence of forces occurred in Santa Clara County. A long cold winter delayed the blossoming of the millions of cherry, apricot, peach, and prune plum trees covering hundreds of square miles of the Valley floor. Then, unlike many years, the rains that followed were light and too early to knock the blossoms from their branches. Instead, by the billions, they all burst open at once. Seemingly overnight, the ocean of green that was the Valley turned into a low, soft, dizzyingly perfumed cloud of pink and white. Uncounted bees and yellow jackets, newly born, raced out of their hives and holes, overwhelmed by this impossible banquet. Then came the wind. It roared off the Pacific Ocean, through the nearly uninhabited passes of the Santa Cruz Mountains and then, flattening out, poured down into the great alluvial plains of the Valley.
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.
Vintage Calculators Web Museum 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
blog 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.
Ecommerce Software & Ecommerce Platform Solutions | Magento Warby Parker Eye wear, innovation, strong results, strong brand, great story Harpers Bazaar Fashion industry, recognizable brand, scalability, and flexibility Gant International brand, fashion, performance, global expansion, strong results 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