johnnyeponymous: It's Here!

Johnny Eponymous (

johnnyeponymous) wrote,
@ 2008-04-09 12:37:00

It's Here!
The Babbage Engine is on the ground at teh museum. If you come by in the next half-hour or so, you can see it being loaded in!

I'm now in charge of getting costumed folks for the event in May, so if you're interested, lemme know.

I love working here!
CHris

(Post a new comment)

	stevegreen 2008-04-09 07:49 pm UTC (link)
	Did you catch the BBC R4 special on Bletchley Park? It's still available for a couple of days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/thereunion/ (Reply to this)(Thread)

	johnnyeponymous 2008-04-10 02:12 pm UTC (link)
	It conked out after about 5 minutes, but what I did hear was really good stuff. I wasn't aware there were even 4 former Bletchley folks still around! Chris (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	stevegreen 2008-04-10 02:26 pm UTC (link)
	The programme's repeated at 9am tomorrow (UK time), if that helps. Might be worth trying "Listen Again" a second time. It's usually fairly reliable. Edited at 2008-04-10 02:30 pm UTC (Reply to this)(Parent)

	nmg 2008-04-09 08:03 pm UTC (link)
	Good grief. Is this the same D.E. No.2 that was in the Science Museum, or has a second been built? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	johnnyeponymous 2008-04-09 09:43 pm UTC (link)
	New one. It's here for the better part of a year. Chris (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nmg 2008-04-09 09:52 pm UTC (link)
	Nice. Who built this one? (my undergraduate tutor many years ago was Martin Campbell-Kelly, so I was exposed to quite a lot of Babbage) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	johnnyeponymous 2008-04-10 02:20 pm UTC (link)
	Wow! I don't think I've ever met Martin, but he works with reviewing our stuff a lot. This was the Science Museum London's team again. It had some traveling problems, but it got here in one piece! Chris (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(Anonymous)
2008-04-10 03:19 pm UTC (link)

I persuaded Martin to let me write an essay on the socio-political and technological plausibility of Gibson and Sterling's The Difference Engine for one of my assignments (this was back in 1993, I think). It has always been a source of deep regret that he went off on sabbatical in my final year; I didn't get to take his course on the history of computing.

Is it just the engine that the Science Museum built for you, or do you have a printer as well?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nmg 2008-04-10 03:22 pm UTC (link)
	Login, then comment. BTW, is there an error in the abstract of Doron's lecture here? The Science Museum had a working DE No.2 by 1993, and a printing mechanism by 2000; the date of 2002 is out on both counts. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2008-04-16 07:07 pm UTC (link)
	Sorry, forgot to sign my post. I refuse to get an LJ account when I have my own domains and blogs that I rarely even post in. -Ken (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2008-04-16 07:09 pm UTC (link)
	Oops, and wrong anonymous... Mine was the anonymous below (about seeing the DE on it's last day in the museum...) -Ken again (sorry for the mess...) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	bast_kitten 2008-04-10 01:40 am UTC (link)
	so should we call them DE#2.1 and DE#2.2 ?? please tell me you are going to go all nutty with trinkets like the British Museum did with the Rosetta Stone. that would be sweet! how about little DE nutcrackers? or coffee grinders? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	bovil 2008-04-09 08:13 pm UTC (link)
	Unfortunately, May 10 is the PenWAG fashion show, something we're heavily involved in... (Reply to this)(Thread)

	johnnyeponymous 2008-04-09 09:43 pm UTC (link)
	Damn! Chris (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kproche 2008-04-09 08:27 pm UTC (link)
	What bovil said. I'm majorly bummed. I'm the MC for the fashion show, so it's not like I can put in a token appearance there. If there were going to be an evening reception of some kind I'd cope with double-booking the day. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	babbage fun bast_kitten 2008-04-10 01:36 am UTC (link)
	well there's the reception/lecture the night of May 1.. hey Chris, can you get them in for that? Surely they will want civilized people attending that event as well... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	smofbabe 2008-04-09 09:17 pm UTC (link)
	Too cool! BTW, when in May? Stephen & Co are going to be in town again for a tech meeting May 26 - 29 and he was going to try to hit you up for a quickie evening tour :-> Edited at 2008-04-09 09:18 pm UTC (Reply to this)

	And it only took 8 Days... (Anonymous) 2008-04-09 10:01 pm UTC (link)
	The guy at the museum said it was going out the day after we were there, and we were there on the 31st. They were discussing the weight issue, in that the Difference Engine weighed more than the maximum load on the lifts! Have fun with it. We'll have to come by to see it again on this side now... (Reply to this)

	trinsf 2008-04-09 11:18 pm UTC (link)
	Me and my peeps have nothing to do with Penwhatever it is, and we'd be available, and I bet know other people who would be, too. (Reply to this)

	Babbage Exhibit is at the Computer History Museum, not... (Anonymous) 2008-04-10 02:19 pm UTC (link)
	Not the Tech Museum..... Thanks for the great mention in your blog. If you want more info, please feel free to connect with us Karae Lisle CMO Computer History Museum www.computerhistory.org/babbage (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: Babbage Exhibit is at the Computer History Museum, not... johnnyeponymous 2008-04-10 02:23 pm UTC (link)
	Tech? Did I say Tech? (Looking over text...searching...searching...) Oh, the typo 'teh'. I think working here for 9 years has given all the info I'll ever need! Chris (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Babbage Exhibit is at the Computer History Museum, not... bast_kitten 2008-04-10 06:06 pm UTC (link)
	Well... we knew what you meant and we're used to 'teh' by now! I just do that 'autocorrect' thingy in my head. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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