I'm sure most of you have seen me use this user-icon before: It's a photo of the ENIAC. It was built in 1946, and I think it's just so damned cool. Go to their official website to learn more. There's even an ENIAC simulator online.
I've seen the parts of the ENIAC that are in the Smithsonian.
It is cool, but you know, I would hate to have been a card puncher. Really. And having to wait days to get your output back in the form of a ginormous stack of paper and then spot one little bug and have to do it again and wait days. Blech.
Yeah, I'm happy with my more efficient (at least to program) speedy high-level languages and tiny computers that I can balance on my knees.
I went to grad school at Penn. The DRL (physics and math depts) is directly across the street from the main engineering building where they built ENIAC and had large chunks of it on display during my time at Penn. I used to walk across and take 5 minute breaks there - it was nifty. Unfortunately, the last time I went back, the portions on display had shrunk considerably to the point where you couldn't really see anything interesting.
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It is cool, but you know, I would hate to have been a card puncher. Really. And having to wait days to get your output back in the form of a ginormous stack of paper and then spot one little bug and have to do it again and wait days. Blech.
Yeah, I'm happy with my more efficient (at least to program) speedy high-level languages and tiny computers that I can balance on my knees.
Technology's steady advance has improved our lives.