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"World's First Computer"

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  • I Ian Shlasko

    Nice to know we're all descended from prehistoric hairdressers, account executives, and telephone sanitizers, huh?

    Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
    Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)

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    Corporal Agarn
    wrote on last edited by
    #22

    Oh, put a towel on it.

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    • S Simon ORiordan from UK

      Here we go:[](Americas First Computer)http://www.wired.com/2014/11/eniac-unearthed While we think 'the world' of Americans, they really must resist being so inbred; the World's First Computer was Collossus at Bletchley Park, or even Charles Babbage's 'Difference Engine'. There there. Eniac was America's First Computer. :laugh:

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      Marc Clifton
      wrote on last edited by
      #23

      Leslie[^] ;) Kent beat you to it. Marc

      Imperative to Functional Programming Succinctly Higher Order Programming

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      • I Ian Shlasko

        Nice to know we're all descended from prehistoric hairdressers, account executives, and telephone sanitizers, huh?

        Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
        Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)

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        den2k88
        wrote on last edited by
        #24

        It took me half an hour to get that reference. In my defense I can only say I read it in Italian and not in English, still... shame on me!

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        • J Jorgen Andersson

          Hmm, lets see. Z3 was the world's first working programmable, fully automatic digital computer. (1941) Colossus is the world's first electronic digital computer that was programmable. (1944) Eniac is the first electronic general-purpose computer. (1946) Are everyone satisfied now? :laugh:

          Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

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          Simon ORiordan from UK
          wrote on last edited by
          #25

          Quite right, I was aware of the German work. Forgot it was called the Z3. The Nazis didn't see what it was good for. Destroyed by bombing if I remember. Another first.

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          • M Marc Clifton

            Leslie[^] ;) Kent beat you to it. Marc

            Imperative to Functional Programming Succinctly Higher Order Programming

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            Simon ORiordan from UK
            wrote on last edited by
            #26

            I keep getting lost on the way to the forum. And no. It wasn't a funny thing. :laugh:

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            • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

              I think the ping time would make it kinda difficult to play! :laugh:

              Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

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              Nicholas Marty
              wrote on last edited by
              #27

              Why? With such a low framerate you'd have plenty of time to react so you should be able to hit anything with a perfect shot :laugh:

              OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
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              • L Lost User

                I'm tired of the British always trying to steal American glory. If it were up to this American we'd of never introduced tea to the British Isles.

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                Lost User
                wrote on last edited by
                #28

                Sometimes I bet you wish you never discovered us in the first place.

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                • S Simon ORiordan from UK

                  Here we go:[](Americas First Computer)http://www.wired.com/2014/11/eniac-unearthed While we think 'the world' of Americans, they really must resist being so inbred; the World's First Computer was Collossus at Bletchley Park, or even Charles Babbage's 'Difference Engine'. There there. Eniac was America's First Computer. :laugh:

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                  Lost User
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #29

                  Many first computers here, however this one has a lawsuit attached to it :) Says in the 1930s should be earlier than 1940s :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Vincent_Atanasoff[^]

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                  • S Simon ORiordan from UK

                    Quite right, I was aware of the German work. Forgot it was called the Z3. The Nazis didn't see what it was good for. Destroyed by bombing if I remember. Another first.

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                    Jochen Arndt
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #30

                    It has been rebuild twice. First by Konrad Zuse himself (1961). That can be seen in the Deutsches Museum: http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhibitions/communication/computers/universal-computers/[^]. The second has been build by Horst Zuse (2011-2013): http://www.z3-computer.de/[^] (German page).

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                    • N Nicholas Marty

                      Why? With such a low framerate you'd have plenty of time to react so you should be able to hit anything with a perfect shot :laugh:

                      OriginalGriffO Offline
                      OriginalGriffO Offline
                      OriginalGriff
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #31

                      By which time it's in a different county, never mind room! :laugh:

                      Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

                      "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                      "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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                      • S Simon ORiordan from UK

                        Here we go:[](Americas First Computer)http://www.wired.com/2014/11/eniac-unearthed While we think 'the world' of Americans, they really must resist being so inbred; the World's First Computer was Collossus at Bletchley Park, or even Charles Babbage's 'Difference Engine'. There there. Eniac was America's First Computer. :laugh:

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                        Mark_Wallace
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #32

                        Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote:

                        the World's First Computer was Collossus at Bletchley Park, or even Charles Babbage's 'Difference Engine'

                        The difference engine may or may not really count as a computer, but the Royal Navy had genuine analogue computers during World War 1 -- a major historical point is that the Admiralty refused to use them for targeting at the battle of Jutland. A major not-really-historical point is that some countries' armed forces manage to actually keep things secret, no matter how much money can be made from selling them or claiming ownership.

                        I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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                        • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                          You can program it, it has input and output - heck, it's even got a graphics display(if a bit low resolution, unless it is working with really fine silk). What does a computer do that this doesn't? (Apart from play Doom :laugh: )

                          Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

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                          Mark_Wallace
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #33

                          OriginalGriff wrote:

                          What does a computer do that this doesn't? (Apart from play Doom :laugh: )

                          It took me Four Hours to make that f***in' cacodemon, and you just chopped it up with a f***in' chainsaw!

                          I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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                          • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                            I think the ping time would make it kinda difficult to play! :laugh:

                            Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

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                            Argonia
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #34

                            The Ping is the excuse of the weak !

                            Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true

                            OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • A Argonia

                              The Ping is the excuse of the weak !

                              Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true

                              OriginalGriffO Offline
                              OriginalGriffO Offline
                              OriginalGriff
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #35

                              Argonia wrote:

                              The Ping is the excuse of the weak week!

                              FTFY!

                              Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

                              "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                              "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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                              • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                                Um...maybe not. I'd be tempted to throw the Jacquard Loom[^] into the picture: programmable, digital, working (and still in use in some places) - invented in 1801 - and kick started the Industrial Revolution.

                                Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

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                                BillWoodruff
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #36

                                Yes, Charles Babbage went to France and saw a Jacquard loom that created a multi-color silk portrait of Napoleon using over a million cardboard rectangles into which holes were punched to regulate weaving. But, I'm not sure I'd call that digital.

                                «If you search in Google for 'no-one ever got fired for buying IBM:' the top-hit is the Wikipedia article on 'Fear, uncertainty and doubt'»  What does that tell you about sanity in these times?

                                OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • S Simon ORiordan from UK

                                  Here we go:[](Americas First Computer)http://www.wired.com/2014/11/eniac-unearthed While we think 'the world' of Americans, they really must resist being so inbred; the World's First Computer was Collossus at Bletchley Park, or even Charles Babbage's 'Difference Engine'. There there. Eniac was America's First Computer. :laugh:

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                                  BillWoodruff
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #37

                                  Well, how about the Antikythera Mechanism circa 3rd. century BCE (Before Common Era). It's age has, recently, been reported to be at least a century older than previously thought: [^]. The Antikythera Project and Musuem: [^]. Another Antikythera site: [^]. Videos: [^]. But, it's not digital.

                                  «If you search in Google for 'no-one ever got fired for buying IBM:' the top-hit is the Wikipedia article on 'Fear, uncertainty and doubt'»  What does that tell you about sanity in these times?

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                                  • B BillWoodruff

                                    Yes, Charles Babbage went to France and saw a Jacquard loom that created a multi-color silk portrait of Napoleon using over a million cardboard rectangles into which holes were punched to regulate weaving. But, I'm not sure I'd call that digital.

                                    «If you search in Google for 'no-one ever got fired for buying IBM:' the top-hit is the Wikipedia article on 'Fear, uncertainty and doubt'»  What does that tell you about sanity in these times?

                                    OriginalGriffO Offline
                                    OriginalGriffO Offline
                                    OriginalGriff
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #38

                                    It's binary - on for a hole, off for the absence of a hole. So it isn't analog! :laugh:

                                    Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

                                    "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                                    "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

                                    B 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                                      It's binary - on for a hole, off for the absence of a hole. So it isn't analog! :laugh:

                                      Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

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                                      B Offline
                                      BillWoodruff
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #39

                                      I'm not sure that the Jacquard Loom can be considered digital. Certainly the Loom meets the test of "fully programmable" in the sense that, up to its mechanical/physical limits, it could render any design that could be made with the thread at hand. And, the cardboard "program" (sewn together cards) was, indeed, rolled off a spindle in a sequence, as I recall (based on reading over thirty-years ago). No undo, no goto, no recursion: the ultimate declarative language ? :) Would a true "digital" computer have to have a memory-store, and the capability of some kind of branching based on conditional evaluation, and looping ? I think so. I'm trying to remember the names of those three Italian theorists who stipulated that those three attributes were essential for a Turing machine, but drawing a blank. I'm inclined to think the true "computer" in the case of the Jacquard Loom was the human intelligence that figured out what cards were needed, and how they should be punched. cheers, Bill

                                      «If you search in Google for 'no-one ever got fired for buying IBM:' the top-hit is the Wikipedia article on 'Fear, uncertainty and doubt'»  What does that tell you about sanity in these times?

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                                      • L Lost User

                                        Sometimes I bet you wish you never discovered us in the first place.

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                                        Nelek
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #40

                                        I thought you were discovered by the spanish

                                        M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

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                                        • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                                          I don't know! Google defines it as: "an electronic device which is capable of receiving information (data) in a particular form and of performing a sequence of operations in accordance with a predetermined but variable set of procedural instructions (program) to produce a result in the form of information or signals." But Wiki says: "A computer is a general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem." And I have to say that the google definition is closer to my ideal! But...the "electronic" bit would exclude the Jacquard Loom - and also the Babbage Difference Engine. Removing that would remove Ada Lovelace from the role of "first programmer" and I'm pretty sure she deserves that title! So my feeling is that the Google definition (sans one word) fits a computer well - and also the loom. You have to remember that all out modern computers are based on devices which worked solely from punched cards - which started life as a data storage media, which were derived from the loom! :laugh: As usual, the "Search for Beginnings" is complicated...

                                          Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

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                                          Nelek
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #41

                                          OriginalGriff wrote:

                                          As usual, the "Search for Beginnings" is complicated...

                                          What was first? The chicken or the egg? :laugh: :laugh:

                                          M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

                                          OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
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