Prev: Firefox 3.6.2 and Flickr not happy?
Next: Seagate 2TB drive - Win NT formatted Huh?
From: Rowland McDonnell on 27 Mar 2010 07:05
J. J. Lodder <nospam(a)de-ster.demon.nl> wrote:

> Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote:
>
> > Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Woody said:
> > >
> > > > Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote:
> > [snip]
> > > >> Exhibit A: HP x86 servers. I SAID EXHIBIT A: HP X86 SERVERS!
> > > >
> > > > we have those. LOUD, LOUD, QUIETER, quiet.
> > > > You can tell when they have found a system!
> > >
> > > We've got a DL585 beast that I wished I'd named banshee, because it
> > > sounds like one when it boots, and there's a solid wall between me and
> > > it!
> >
> > The Babbage engine at the Science Museum is very smoothly quiet in
> > operation.
> >
> > Mechanical computing, quieter than electronic computing? Huh?
>
> AFAIK the operating one is a modern copy,
> and much better built than Babbage's originals,

AFAIK, the operating one is a modern build of Babbage's design,
constructed with Babbage-era tolerances on the machining to see if it'd
work as designed.

It didn't - there was a small bug that Babbage would have fixed if he'd
ever got as far as building that much of his design. But they fixed
*that*, and now it works. All to Victorian tolerances, so I've heard,
and powered by a man winding a crank.

I've not heard that Babbage ever finished building any of his big
computer designs.

Rowland.

--
Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org
Sorry - the spam got to me
http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk
UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
First  |  Prev  | 
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Prev: Firefox 3.6.2 and Flickr not happy?
Next: Seagate 2TB drive - Win NT formatted Huh?