11 Jul
2007
11 Jul
'07
12:34 p.m.
Just seen on the BBC Web site (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6291422.stm):
"Plans are taking shape to set up a museum that celebrates Britain's role in the
origins of the digital age.
The National Museum of Computing will be based at Bletchley Park where World War II code
breakers built the first recognisably modern computers.
The museum's centrepiece is the rebuilt Colossus computer that broke high-level German
communications during WWII.
The museum's founders are seeking funds and backers to exhibit more machines from its
extensive collection. " <more>
Bob
11 Jul
11 Jul
1:52 p.m.
New subject: UK computer history gets new home / BCS@50
On Wed, 2007-07-11 at 16:34 +0000, feldman.r at comcast.net wrote:
Just seen on the BBC Web site
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6291422.stm):
"Plans are taking shape to set up a museum that celebrates Britain's
role in the origins of the digital age.
The National Museum of Computing will be based at Bletchley Park where
World War II code breakers built the first recognisably modern
computers.
The museum's centrepiece is the rebuilt Colossus computer that broke
high-level German communications during WWII.
The museum's founders are seeking funds and backers to exhibit more
machines from its extensive collection. " <more>
Bob
It's mentioned in this article - is anyone going to the BCS at 50 day there
tomorrow? I will be there - if anyone's going they can get in touch via
the mobile number on my Contact page at the site below. I'll also be in
London Friday and Saturday.
See http://www.bcsat50.org/ if you want to learn about what's going on,
though the Bletchley Park day is fully booked.
--
Lawrence Wilkinson lawrence at ljw.me.uk
The IBM 360/30 page http://www.ljw.me.uk/ibm360
3:03 p.m.
New subject: UK computer history gets new home / BCS@50
Lawrence Wilkinson wrote:
It's mentioned in this article - is anyone going
to the BCS at 50 day there
tomorrow? I will be there - if anyone's going they can get in touch via
the mobile number on my Contact page at the site below. I'll also be in
London Friday and Saturday.
I'll be on site at Bletchley tomorrow from 9:30 or so, up in H Block - almost
certainly in the room housing the Elliott 803 etc. (unless I get dragged into
the workshop next door, or over in the archive room).
It's been a rather busy day today trying to put everything in place for
tomorrow; unfortunately I never got time to look at the list of who's coming
to see whether there were any classiccmpers!
I'm sure we'll run into each other at some stage tomorrow anyway (if I
remember right, the afternoon's "free to wander around on your own" time)
See http://www.bcsat50.org/ if you want to learn about
what's going on,
though the Bletchley Park day is fully booked.
Yep - the layout of the building where the new museum is makes it hard to take
tours of more than 30 round at a time, which meant there was a limit on how
many places were available in total.
We're open to the general public "properly" around October time (by which
time
the ICL 2966 etc. will be in place) - but we often find ourselves giving
people a little peek at things behind the scenes in the meantime! (there's
always quite a few volunteers there on a Saturday, so from a computing
perspective they're the best day to visit the Park)
cheers
Jules
5:49 p.m.
New subject: UK computer history gets new home / BCS@50
On 11/07/2007 20:03, Jules Richardson wrote:
Lawrence Wilkinson wrote:
I had planned to go, but the next four days are our every-5-years
electrical safety testing, which is constrained to a very few possible
dates thanks to degree days, open days, UCAS clearing, etc, and the
dates were agreed with umpteen departments months ago :-(
Hopefully someone will post a report and perhaps some pictures.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
It's mentioned in this article - is anyone
going to the BCS at 50 day there
tomorrow? I will be there - if anyone's going they can get in touch via
the mobile number on my Contact page at the site below. I'll also be in
London Friday and Saturday.
I'll be on site at Bletchley tomorrow [...]
It's been a rather busy day today trying to put everything in place for
tomorrow; unfortunately I never got time to look at the list of who's
coming to see whether there were any classiccmpers! 
3:25 p.m.
New subject: UK computer history gets new home / BCS@50
On Wed, 11 Jul 2007, Lawrence Wilkinson wrote:
On Wed, 2007-07-11 at 16:34 +0000, feldman.r at
comcast.net wrote:
I'll be going along also, to Bletchley Thursday and London Friday. I think
we should all have name badges. But will take a note of your mobile in
case :o)
Cheers,
Andrew
Just seen on the BBC Web site
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6291422.stm):
"Plans are taking shape to set up a museum that celebrates Britain's
role in the origins of the digital age.
The National Museum of Computing will be based at Bletchley Park where
World War II code breakers built the first recognisably modern
computers.
The museum's centrepiece is the rebuilt Colossus computer that broke
high-level German communications during WWII.
The museum's founders are seeking funds and backers to exhibit more
machines from its extensive collection. " <more>
Bob
It's mentioned in this article - is anyone going to the BCS at 50 day there
tomorrow? I will be there - if anyone's going they can get in touch via
the mobile number on my Contact page at the site below. I'll also be in
London Friday and Saturday.
3:59 p.m.
New subject: UK computer history gets new home / BCS@50
Andrew Back wrote:
I think we should all have name badges.
Yes, should do, traffic permitting! (last I heard earlier today was that
they're being couriered up from the BCS offices in the wee hours of tomorrow
morning)
cheers
Jules
9:16 p.m.
On 11 Jul 2007, at 17:34, feldman.r at comcast.net wrote:
Just seen on the BBC Web site
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
technology/6291422.stm):
"Plans are taking shape to set up a museum that celebrates
Britain's role in the origins of the digital age.
Reading about Bletchley Park I'm never quite sure quite how the heck
it rose from the bunch of derelict concrete prefabs I knew as a
(1970s) child to the acknowledged symbol of computing history that it
now is. Enough kudos to them - if there is a publicly-funded British
National Museum of Computing, I think it's likely to be at Bletchley
Park.
Since I live locally to (less than 5 miles from) Bletchley Park, I
often read of events there covered in the local paper. A (fairly
unique slate) statue to Turing was recently unveiled and featured on
the front page of the Citizen. I was disappointed to read praise of
his wartime efforts but no mention of how he was subsequently hounded
to suicide. I feel this to be a series of events of which we should
all be ashamed and equal in signifiance to his mathematical
achievements, yet half a century later it is still swept under the
carpet. :(
Stroller.
12 Jul
12 Jul
5:46 p.m.
Stroller wrote:
Reading about Bletchley Park I'm never quite sure
quite how the heck it
rose from the bunch of derelict concrete prefabs I knew as a (1970s)
child to the acknowledged symbol of computing history that it now is.
Half the site's still a bunch of derelict concrete prefabs... :-)
I think plans are afoot for the Park themselves to do something with C Block
(the one by the new entrance that looks like "IIIE" from the air). The
building's a mess, though - there's even a fairly substantial tree growing on
the roof!
D Block's leased by English Partnerships these days and they want to sub-let
bits of it (either for museum-related activities, or for archival purposes -
I've heard both). Needs a heck of a lot of work internally to get it up to
scratch, though - but at least it's been re-roofed and stabilised now.
G Block's fate is unknown - I think the property developers who are building
the housing estate on the old ATC site might own that one. I don't think it's
got listed status unfortunately...
Some of the Huts have been restored, as has B Block, and of course we'll be
taking over the whole of H. Hut 4 (beside the mansion) has just been restored
and turned back into catering facilities. That still leaves various Huts
around the site that need a lot of TLC, though.
Enough kudos to them - if there is a publicly-funded
British National
Museum of Computing, I think it's likely to be at Bletchley Park.
It was almost at Waltham Abbey for a while... some of the politics in the past
at the Park have been horrible. The new guy in charge seems to have his head
screwed on right, thankfully.
I was disappointed to read praise of his wartime
efforts
but no mention of how he was subsequently hounded to suicide. I feel
this to be a series of events of which we should all be ashamed and
equal in signifiance to his mathematical achievements, yet half a
century later it is still swept under the carpet. :(
I don't know, I think it's pretty common knowledge as to how he was treated
post-war. I think I'd much rather he was remembered for all the great
achievements, rather than for all the nasty stuff that went on later.
What gets me a little is the comparative lack of recognition that all the
others working on projects like Colossus have received; Turing still gets
publicity (rightly so), but not much ever gets said about all the others who
were contributing effort and ideas.
Anyway, things went well today I think - everyone seemed to be enjoying
themselves (and more importantly, there were no mishaps with any of the
vintage hardware :-)
cheers
Jules
7:52 p.m.
What gets me a little is the comparative lack of
recognition that all the
others working on projects like Colossus have received; Turing still gets
publicity (rightly so), but not much ever gets said about all the others who
were contributing effort and ideas.
This is a very common problem, especially when dealing with wartime
technologies and who gets the credit. Two of the big factors are state
secrecy, and the old saying "the victor writes the history books".
For the former, one can look at the breaking of the Japanese codes
(purple being the most famous). The Enigma and Lorenz stories are now
pretty much out in the open and declassified, but the Japanese stuff
is still locked up in secrecy. Under the veil of secrecy, the guys
that did the work can not get the credit.
For the latter, one can see just how little (almost no) credit is
given to the Axis powers. There is very credible evidence that Allied
codes were broken during World War 2. It is likely the Germans had
some sort of equivalent of Bletchley, but is probably forever lost.
The Allies were not about to give credit to the Axis engineers. Many
still will not.
It is bothers you - then speak up. Give the guys credit. Spread the
word. They deserve it.
--
Will
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andy＠smokebelch.org -
classiccmp.org＠stellar.eclipse.co.uk -
feldman.r＠comcast.net -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
ljw-cctech＠ljw.me.uk -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com