Abacus to Baby to Lego Rover

[purplecat]

Image of a Lego Rover on top of a giant abacus in front of a reproduction of the Manchester Baby (the first stored-program computer).

Comments

[fififolle]

I have a sneaky feeling that the Lego rover has more computing power than Baby, or at least compares, and isn't that incredible? And in the lifetime of our parents.

[purplecat]

I'd be hugely surprised if the Lego Rover wasn't more powerful than the Baby. You can run Linux on it...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TechnologyMarchesOn/Computers was my reading just this morning, by chance.

[fififolle]

Thanks for that link. It's all absolutely fascinating :D
I look forward to knowing what we can't foresee right now *g*

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It is, isn't it?

And if you haven't found this out yet - beware - TV Tropes can be a real time-sink.

[fififolle]

Oh it is! But it is fabulous :D I try not to go too often *g*

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Try not; there is only spend time on TV Tropes, or spend time on TV Tropes.

[fififolle]

Hee!

[liadt]

Great! I have saved the picture too:)

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Meet the relatives :-) Great picture! Coincidentally was reading a little about this yesterday (via Turing, natch) at Bletchley Park.

Having not visited BP for a good couple of years or so, I was very impressed by the transformation wrought by the refurb and new displays/exhibits, plus excellent video guide. Although I do oddly miss the slightly ramshackle, volunteer-run on a shoestring air it used to have. One of the quotes from someone who'd arrived at BP at the start of the war, left for a while and come back again felt apt: "I had left... a group of enthusiastic amateurs; I returned to a professional organisation..." This could easily be applied to the BP site as we've experienced it. :-)

[purplecat]

I've not visited Bletchley since the reorganisation. Scuttlebutt suggests that the politics of the re-org were rather botched and, as a result, they lost a lot of their long-standing volunteers who helped so much to contribute to the feel of the place. On the other hand, one hopes it is now on rather securer footing.