[Yr7-10it] Early computers

[ken price]

Might be a little off topic but this parody Help Desk transcript for a
Babbage Analytical Engine owner might amuse students once they know what the
Difference Engine and Analytical Engine were about

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2247#comic

Ken
Teacher, Tasmanian eSchool

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 8:04 AM, Colin SUTTON <oz.sutton at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I took these pictures at  London's fantastic Science Museum last week.
> Neither are as old as the Karnak spreadsheet I posted a month or so ago (
> http://www.4shared.com/photo/uhxMbAby/Karnak_-_Worlds_first_spreadsh.html)
>
> ** Pegasus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferranti_Pegasus) is the oldest
> WORKING digital electronic computer in the world. It was a second gen
> computer. Anyone know what gen we are at now? One of it's jobs was to
> analyse metal fatigue in planes - the Comet tragedy. It was
> "mass-produced",
> the Science Museum says 40, Wikipedia a slightly smaller number (2 models).
>
> CSIRAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSIRAC) IS the world's oldest valve
> computer (first gen) at Melbourne Museum, but is not in working order.
>
> I have (somewhere) a SILLIAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILLIAC)
> Gestnered manual. Only an Australian would call a computer SILLIac!
>
> ** Babbage's Difference Engine No 2 (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine) that we've ALL told our
> students about over the years when discussing the history of computers. The
> Science Museum actually BUILT it and ran, I believe, Ada Lovelace's
> programs, although this article doesn't mention her. They did fix a few
> minor errors in his design, but built it to 19th C technology standards.
>
> Here's the link:
> http://www.4shared.com/folder/4wzLUpu6/London_Science_Museum.html
>
> Regards
>
>