Durn, was supposed to go to the list.
Here's "real" info on the ENIAC:
http://www.library.upenn.edu/special/gallery/mauchly/jwmintro.html--PBr
-----Original Message-----
From: Brousseau, Paul E (Paul)
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 12:17 PM
To: 'J. Larry Hendry'
Subject: RE: [motm] Vintec Audio: Random Thoughts
IIRC (and I haven't read the other replies yet), it was (one of the) first computers, tube based, used by the government in WWII. Or was it post-WWII? At any rate, it was a huge, room-sized monstrocity with calculations power comparable to modern sophisticated (scientific) pocket-calculators. I think it had to be programmed by hand, by rewiring the guts.
It was machine like this that spawned the term "bug", because often, an insect would fly into the room and short two wires, causing a glitch or malfunction. Hence, there's a bug in the program (remmeber, the program was hardwired!) / machine.
Oh yea, and I'm a 26-year-old-computer-history-enthusiast. Who lost his 2nd ed. copy of "The New Hacker's Dictionary". Damnit.
--PBr
-----Original Message-----
From: J. Larry Hendry [mailto:
jlarryh@...]
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 7:38 PM
To:
motm@yahoogroups.comSubject: Re: [motm] Vintec Audio: Random Thoughts
Great thoughts Tom. So, how many MOTMers in their 20s know what the ENIAC
was?(us old farts do).
----- Original Message -----
From: mbedtom@...
ENIAC marries Mackie and this is the progeny.