Ken's co-worker, Dave is a volunteer at the Computer History Museum and we had made arrangements prior to get a behind the scenes tour from him this afternoon.
The tour started off with a Demonstration and History of the Babbage Engine. It was quite fascinating. Unfortunately, the girls weren't quite as enthralled as I, Ken, and the boys were, so I had to take them out into the courtyard to play. I took the girls back in when I saw they were going to demonstrate how it worked but shortly after that I had to take them back out again.
It's pretty amazing that Charles Babbage designed that in the 1800's! I am sad I didn't get to hear all about how it works.
After the Babbage Demonstration Dave took us around the museum. He was able to explain the history behind the displays. He also told us how they take very old computers and re-build them to get them working again and learn quite alot about them! Rose and Ginger only lasted about 15 minutes and I had to take them back out. It was interesting for me, but I knew that Ken and the boys would really love it!
Display of the first personal computers.
Dave explaining how this machine worked during the World War.
"They used it so they could create codes so that even if the enemy got it they couldn't decode it. So they press in the letters and each one that they press light up a little letter on top of the machine and that it changes the letters around. And the way to decode is to use the machine and press the letter that are on the paper. There are different disks because if one day the enemy got the letter and decoded it the next day wouldn't be the same." (Nathan)
"The reason why there are so many wires is because they are looped and knotted. This computer, The Cray, just CRAY-- The wires sends off magnetic charges because there are so many of them, the crackling sounds. If there was just one wire playing by itself it would make sounds that would make Cray I fail and not work anymore. But Cray found out that if he took two wires and twisted them together it wouldn't do that. When they were twisted one wire would be making the crackling sound and the other would stop it from doing that so it would never reach to where the computer could fail." (Darin)
Darin's favorite is the Cray II. "Because it's the fastest super computer. It was so fast that they had to use artificial blood to cool it down. Doctor's really liked Cray because he bought so much artificial blood plasma that the price went way down. Cray II when it was working, when there was wires that went really far, and there was another wire that went really short (like short distance) Cray would double or triple the wire distance so there wouldn't be any delay."
Ken's favorite was the Cray Super Computers. He had never seen one, but has always thought they were SUPER COOL! When I asked him why, he said "Because they were custom designed for performance and did some awesome revolutionary things. If I was a computer builder that's what I would want to do!" Totally Typical:-)
Nathan doesn't remember the name of the computer but it was a piece of one. "Where if they had all the pieces together it would fill the whole building. It would be humongous!"
A really, really big cabinet computer (according to Darin)
They also were able to see the computer that beat a grand master at chess. Apparently that is a super big deal (Ken would know why).
They really enjoyed the tour and thought it was awesome that Dave was able to explain so much of the history of each of the computers to them!
I really, really wish I could have heard more. Rose and Ginger had a good time playing in the courtyard. We enjoyed the breeze under the trees, the birds, and butterflies would fly near us! Not quite as stimulating as being in the museum but it was a nice day outside.
After the Museum I dragged Ken off to an Urgent Care Clinic. He was sick about a week and a half ago, started feeling better then started getting much worse. And yet every morning he kept telling me how he was feeling better then the previous day. HA! Yeah right!
So I found him an urgent care clinic and drove him there. And big surprise, after being examined for 2 minutes they said he has a secondary infection that needs anti-biotics and has bronchitis. We spent the next couple of hours getting his prescriptions.
In the meantime, my back is totally our of place and I am in pain. So the remainder of the night Ken took the kids swimming while I alternated between ice packs and going in the hot tub.
We did get some very cute pictures of Ginger eating Mashed Potatoes-- her most favortie food in the world!
1 comment:
My family would love seeing the computers, we'll have to try to check it out when we are up there next - fun!
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