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Now that's what I call a hard disk !

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Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby RogerS » 24 Nov 2016, 18:53

I've been meaning to go to pay homage to Bletchley Park for many years now. If you haven't been, then I thoroughly recommend it. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating and if you shut your eyes you can almost imagine them all around you trying to break the Enigma code. Really brought it home to me just how incredibly bright and resourceful we can be.

Close by is the National Museum of Computing and that is also well worth a visit and that's where I came across this little beastie

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and a bloke alongside for scale

Image

That's 4Mbits lying there.
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Andyp » 24 Nov 2016, 19:22

Looks to be full of ICL kit. 2966 as well. That takes me back.
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby RogerS » 24 Nov 2016, 19:23

Andyp wrote:Looks to be full of ICL kit. 2966 as well. That takes me back.


Yup, lot of ICL kit there. And Elliott.

And the rebuilt Colossus...which works :o
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Rod » 24 Nov 2016, 19:31

They are hoping to run courses in cyber security for teenagers in some of the old huts.

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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Pinch » 24 Nov 2016, 20:07

The bloke looks like Tony Robinson. Perhaps he was on a Time Team special :lol:
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby RogerS » 25 Nov 2016, 22:49

They had a lot of early personal computers. Who remembers the Dragon ? The Nascom II ? Research Machines 380Z ? All there.

Then a load of calculators. How many of you bought the scientific calculators like the Casio and entered a random number, took the Sin, then the Tan, then the Cos then the reverse to see whose got back closest to the original number ?
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby RogerS » 25 Nov 2016, 22:58

And here's something that got me confused. Are the motors going the right way round ?

The Bombe has many brush assemblies

Image

and these are polished/ground in this jig.

Image

The brush to be ground is mounted on a motor that rotates clockwise looking at the photo. A manually driven worm drive gradually advances the rotating brush against the grinding wheel on the motor shown to the right. But this grinding wheel is rotating anti-clockwise which seems to me to be the wrong way.

If anyone is interested in learning more details about the Bombe that they rebuilt then it is here
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Andyp » 26 Nov 2016, 08:41

RogerS wrote:They had a lot of early personal computers. Who remembers the Dragon ? The Nascom II ? Research Machines 380Z ? All there.

Then a load of calculators. How many of you bought the scientific calculators like the Casio and entered a random number, took the Sin, then the Tan, then the Cos then the reverse to see whose got back closest to the original number ?



Did they have any ICL OPDs (One Per Desk) I still have a couple of the cartridge tapes that they used. I would be happy to send them.
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby RogerS » 26 Nov 2016, 08:42

Andyp wrote:
RogerS wrote:They had a lot of early personal computers. Who remembers the Dragon ? The Nascom II ? Research Machines 380Z ? All there.

Then a load of calculators. How many of you bought the scientific calculators like the Casio and entered a random number, took the Sin, then the Tan, then the Cos then the reverse to see whose got back closest to the original number ?



Did they have any ICL OPDs (One Per Desk) I still have a couple of the cartridge tapes that they used. I would be happy to send them.


I'm not sure Andy but I think that they would welcome them.
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Rod » 26 Nov 2016, 09:14

I've still got a Dragon 32 and an early Rockwell calculator.
My boss bought one of the first Sinclair's but had lots of trouble with it - was always sending it back for a replacement.
For surveying we used 12 figure logs which took hours to use.
For design we used IBM's Call 360? Punch tapes went off Fridays, plots returned on Mondays.
Any mistakes or alterations sent out again on Fridays and the cycle repeated.
Then the company bought their own main frame - it was years before we went OPD.

Those were the days

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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Tusses » 27 Nov 2016, 16:55

lol .. leaving school in the early 80's .. we had log books ! .. I always wondered what was the use of that !

Zx81 was my 1st "computer".

Later 80's working in the PCB industry, we regularly would handed a big suitcase with a hard disk in, and told which file we needed ! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Wifey still brings me home old caluculators from boots sales etc .. just so I can type 5318008 :D
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Malc2098 » 27 Nov 2016, 18:44

Commodore 64 was my first one.
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Tusses » 27 Nov 2016, 21:18

Malc2098 wrote:Commodore 64 was my first one.
tape upload , flickering edges to the screen and screaching sounds :-)


tape upload , flickering edges to the screen and screaching sounds :-)
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Re: Now that's what I call a hard disk !

Postby Malc2098 » 27 Nov 2016, 22:58

Tusses wrote:
Malc2098 wrote:Commodore 64 was my first one.
tape upload , flickering edges to the screen and screaching sounds :-)


tape upload , flickering edges to the screen and screaching sounds :-)


Oh, wow! It's all coming back to me now! :shock:
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