Hi guys Managed to get Mandriva to work in the end - set the graphics driver to be a generic ATI one and it seems to work - though I have to log in and load KDE by hand now. I want to install MediaWiki to have a play with it, and have created the database, put everything in place but the installation php script is moaning that I don't have the php-xml package installed. A quick google has proved pretty inconclusive, and there is no sign of this on Rpmdrake. Any clues on where I can get this from? One complication is that I don't have internet access on this machine, so I have to download it on my Windows box and transfer it across. Cheers Dave
Not completely Linux related...but I am posting to the main list because it is a suggested meet. I have just spent a lovely Sunday at Bletchley Park....It truly was a wonderful day out with plenty of exhibits (not all computer related) and a fantastic guided tour (that sadly was cut slightly short because of a seasonal downpour) Highlights for me were seeing an almost completely operational Colossus...complete with a chat with the chap who is rebuilding it. and a small but wonderful vintage computing exhibit (the highlight of this being that you are free to play with the running machines) those two things were worth the £10 entry price alone...but there is plenty more to see and the tour gives a very complete picture of how Bletchley discovered how to crack the German codes. I thought it would be an excellent day out for ALUG'ers (I am thinking more towards the end of Spring or Summer as I'd like a gap between this visit and the next and we get the chance of more predictable weather....I am happy to help organise this later in the year if it is of interest.
On 09-Apr-06 Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Not completely Linux related...but I am posting to the main list because it is a suggested meet.
I have just spent a lovely Sunday at Bletchley Park.... It truly was a wonderful day out with plenty of exhibits (not all computer related) and a fantastic guided tour (that sadly was cut slightly short because of a seasonal downpour)
Highlights for me were seeing an almost completely operational Colossus...complete with a chat with the chap who is rebuilding it. and a small but wonderful vintage computing exhibit (the highlight of this being that you are free to play with the running machines) those two things were worth the £10 entry price alone...but there is plenty more to see and the tour gives a very complete picture of how Bletchley discovered how to crack the German codes.
I thought it would be an excellent day out for ALUG'ers (I am thinking more towards the end of Spring or Summer as I'd like a gap between this visit and the next and we get the chance of more predictable weather....I am happy to help organise this later in the year if it is of interest.
Splendid suggestion, Wayne! I've long been thinking of making just such a trip myself, but it would be much more fun in company, and I guess it's just about within our "territory" (certainly MK is on the Great Ouse, so it should count -- but that logic puts Northampton in too, by virtue of the Nene, and and I'm so sure about that). Thanks too for the nice overview! Best wishes, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 10-Apr-06 Time: 07:29:49 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On Sun, Apr 09, 2006 at 11:55:03PM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
I have just spent a lovely Sunday at Bletchley Park....It truly was a wonderful day out with plenty of exhibits (not all computer related) and a fantastic guided tour (that sadly was cut slightly short because of a seasonal downpour)
Bletchley Park is truely a wonderful place, I spent an entire day there from opening until closing time and still didn't get enough time to look at the whole place. I'd recommend that anyone interested in computers/crypto/2nd world war etc. take a day our there. I'd certainly be interested in going along there but if I can find the time or not is another matter. Thanks Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem
Wayne Stallwood writes:
I have just spent a lovely Sunday at Bletchley Park....It truly was a wonderful day out with plenty of exhibits (not all computer related) and a fantastic guided tour (that sadly was cut slightly short because of a seasonal downpour)
Highlights for me were seeing an almost completely operational Colossus...complete with a chat with the chap who is rebuilding it.
Tony Sale. These old guys are amazingly ingenious. For example, seeing he needed some kind of widget when re-building Colossus, Tony whipped one up on the lathe in his garage. Hands up those who can remember to use a lathe (safely).
and a small but wonderful vintage computing exhibit (the highlight of this being that you are free to play with the running machines) those two things were worth the £10 entry price alone
I visited a couple of years ago. Somewhat embarrassingly, one of the exhibits was an Icl Perq, a machine on which I did my postdoctoral research! Guaranteed to make one feel old... On a related topic, the Science Museum has a couple of places, not normally open to the public, with interesting historical computing equipment including some old Elliot kit which probably causes a dip in the national grid when it's switched on. The Computer Conservation Society is pretty active in trying to get this stuff working in addition to the exhibits at Bletchley Park. ..Adrian -- Dr Adrian F Clark WEB: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~alien/ EMAIL: alien/at/essex.ac.uk TEL: +44 1206 872432 FAX: +44 1206 872900 PAPER: VASE Lab, Dept ESE, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ,UK "The great tragedy of science: the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact" -- Huxley
On Monday 10 April 2006 09:34, Adrian F. Clark wrote:
Hands up those who can remember to use a lathe (safely).
/me, /me !! I too would love to visit Bletchley Park, if only to see how the reconstruction of the Bombe is progressing - I did get asked to make some of the small parts for the machine, but quantities of 12,000 plus really required a swiss lathe. Regards, Paul.
On Mon, 2006-04-10 at 09:34 +0100, Adrian F. Clark wrote:
Tony Sale. These old guys are amazingly ingenious. For example, seeing he needed some kind of widget when re-building Colossus, Tony whipped one up on the lathe in his garage. Hands up those who can remember to use a lathe (safely).
That's the guy ! fantastic thing the Colossus and complete respect to the people like Tony who are dedicating a lot of time to getting an example running again. This is helped greatly by using bits robbed from decommissioned Telephone exchanges (the originals were built using the same technology) But considering that most of the documentation was destroyed the fact that these guys have made so much progress is astounding. Another interesting thing is that due to Colossus's parallel nature, even a fairly top end Desktop PC can only crack the codes 5 times faster...Ok it's a bit on an unfair comparison because Colossus is a single purpose device...and uses 5KW and a large room to do it...but it's still pretty impressive.
Wayne Stallwood writes:
fantastic thing the Colossus and complete respect to the people like Tony who are dedicating a lot of time to getting an example running again. This is helped greatly by using bits robbed from decommissioned Telephone exchanges (the originals were built using the same technology)
That's because much of the design was due to Tommy Flowers, who worked for the post office research department. His contribution to early electronic computing is still not as widely recognized as it should be.
Another interesting thing is that due to Colossus's parallel nature, even a fairly top end Desktop PC can only crack the codes 5 times faster...Ok it's a bit on an unfair comparison because Colossus is a single purpose device...and uses 5KW and a large room to do it...but it's still pretty impressive.
You're entirely right. That's the difference in performance between what is in effect a dedicated piece of hardware and a general-purpose architecture. The nearest modern equivalent would be to implement Colossus on an FPGA, perhaps in Handel-C. Now there's an interesting idea for a final-year project... ..Adrian -- Dr Adrian F Clark WEB: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~alien/ EMAIL: alien/at/essex.ac.uk TEL: +44 1206 872432 FAX: +44 1206 872900 PAPER: VASE Lab, Dept ESE, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ,UK "The great tragedy of science: the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact" -- Huxley
-----Original Message----- From: main-bounces@lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main- bounces@lists.alug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Wayne Stallwood Sent: 09 April 2006 23:55 To: ALUG Subject: [ALUG] Proposed ALUG day out
Not completely Linux related...but I am posting to the main list because it is a suggested meet.
I have just spent a lovely Sunday at Bletchley Park....It truly was a wonderful day out with plenty of exhibits (not all computer related) and a fantastic guided tour (that sadly was cut slightly short because of a seasonal downpour)
Highlights for me were seeing an almost completely operational Colossus...complete with a chat with the chap who is rebuilding it. and a small but wonderful vintage computing exhibit (the highlight of this being that you are free to play with the running machines) those two things were worth the £10 entry price alone...but there is plenty more to see and the tour gives a very complete picture of how Bletchley discovered how to crack the German codes.
I thought it would be an excellent day out for ALUG'ers (I am thinking more towards the end of Spring or Summer as I'd like a gap between this visit and the next and we get the chance of more predictable weather....I am happy to help organise this later in the year if it is of interest.
What a great idea, I'm sure visiting with a group of like minded people would make the experience far more enjoyable/informative. I will definitely come along if at all possible. Cheers, BJ -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.4.0/305 - Release Date: 08/04/2006
2nd try at reply (to the list this time !)
I have just spent a lovely Sunday at Bletchley Park....It truly was a wonderful day out with plenty of exhibits (not all computer related) and a fantastic guided tour (that sadly was cut slightly short because of a seasonal downpour)
I was over there a few weeks ago.... (Before it reopened to the public). Hopefully the computer exhibition is going to expand into this... http://www.ccht.co.uk/newmsm.htm but things were yet to be finalized when I was there. There is a LOT of equipment in store (in non-too ideal buildings) including a complete ICL 2966 system. Peter
Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Not completely Linux related...but I am posting to the main list because it is a suggested meet.
I have just spent a lovely Sunday at Bletchley Park....It truly was a wonderful day out with plenty of exhibits (not all computer related) and a fantastic guided tour (that sadly was cut slightly short because of a seasonal downpour)
Highlights for me were seeing an almost completely operational Colossus...complete with a chat with the chap who is rebuilding it. and a small but wonderful vintage computing exhibit (the highlight of this being that you are free to play with the running machines) those two things were worth the £10 entry price alone...but there is plenty more to see and the tour gives a very complete picture of how Bletchley discovered how to crack the German codes.
Ten English Pounds!!! I went oooh years ago and I think it was about two pound fifty ... but yes, very very good then and would definitly be up for another trip even at that price. The vintage computing exhibit rocks - they have mechanical punch card sorters, mainframes, reel readers and so on all the way through to games machines. I suspect before long the curators will turn it into a 'dont touch that - we want to keep it preserved for other people to play with'... I must say my highlight was the reconstructed bombes (which where polish in origin), and I beleive that they work but they don't have them turned on. They also have them in the 'hut' which is quite neat.
I thought it would be an excellent day out for ALUG'ers (I am thinking more towards the end of Spring or Summer as I'd like a gap between this visit and the next and we get the chance of more predictable weather....I am happy to help organise this later in the year if it is of interest.
Its also quite easy to get to, i mean quite a drive from north norfolk, but certainly there and back in a day no problems. When I was there I don't think there was much in the way of food prevision (ie it was a bring a packed lunch) but certainly worth while. Can I suggest an Engima viewing session before hand? JT
On Mon, 2006-04-10 at 11:00 +0100, James Taylor wrote:
The vintage computing exhibit rocks - they have mechanical punch card sorters, mainframes, reel readers and so on all the way through to games machines. I suspect before long the curators will turn it into a 'dont touch that - we want to keep it preserved for other people to play with'...
I think they may do that with some of the rarer exhibits...But the whole attitude seems to be quite relaxed when it comes to the home computers. They even had a card punch with a stack of cards you could practise punching. Colossus of course is heavily guarded (usually by Tony himself) mostly I suspect because with exposed anodes running at 400V it would probably kill someone if they touched it.
I must say my highlight was the reconstructed bombes (which where polish in origin), and I beleive that they work but they don't have them turned on. They also have them in the 'hut' which is quite neat.
Yes I gather that they have some that are fully operational although I didn't see any actually working.
When I was there I don't think there was much in the way of food prevision (ie it was a bring a packed lunch) but certainly worth while.
There is a pretty basic cafe there now..Mostly pre-packed sandwiches and jacket potatoes...Food was quickly forgotten when I saw the rows of unguarded home computers from my childhood next door :-)
On Sunday 09 Apr 2006 23:55, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
I have just spent a lovely Sunday at Bletchley Park....
I thought it would be an excellent day out for ALUG'ers (I am thinking more towards the end of Spring or Summer as I'd like a gap between this visit and the next and we get the chance of more predictable weather....I am happy to help organise this later in the year if it is of interest. I'd love to go. Whether I could find the time is another matter but I would make the time if at all humanly possible.
Martin
participants (10)
-
Adam Bower -
Adrian F. Clark -
Dave Briggs -
James Taylor -
John Woodard -
Martin Smithurst -
Paul -
Peter Onion -
Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk -
Wayne Stallwood