Zomg Babbage
I'm in Mountain View, CA this week for work and for a variety of reasons ended up taking a ridiculously early flight down today. In the end it was probably worth it since I got to finally visit Weird Stuff and the Computer History Museum. Weird Stuff was something of a let-down as it's mostly just full of old PC hardware and while the prices are good, I wanted more... well... weird.
On the way back from that I remembered that the Computer history museum was nearby and since I'd never managed to get in while it was open I thought I'd try again. It was my lucky day. Just as I walked in and caught sight of The Difference Engine a docent was starting a talk about it. It's an awesome machine. That made getting up early worth it.
There was a bunch of other old hardware, but after The Difference Engine it all seemed somehow a let down. Though the Cray 1 was pretty cool, and you could stand inside of that!
Pics here.
On the way back from that I remembered that the Computer history museum was nearby and since I'd never managed to get in while it was open I thought I'd try again. It was my lucky day. Just as I walked in and caught sight of The Difference Engine a docent was starting a talk about it. It's an awesome machine. That made getting up early worth it.
There was a bunch of other old hardware, but after The Difference Engine it all seemed somehow a let down. Though the Cray 1 was pretty cool, and you could stand inside of that!
Pics here.