If you've heard anything about CHM, you've probably heard that they have one of only two reproductions of Charles Babbage's famous Difference Engine - a mechanical computer which was designed in the 19th century, but never built. Not, that is, until some genius at the British Science Museum dug out Babbage's original plans and decided to have a go at it.
It's one of those pieces of technology which is as beautiful to behold as it is amazing - it could generate tables of "differences" to 30 digits, and and had a built in printing capability with two fonts and word-wrap! Here is a picture of it, but if you're interested follow the links for the CHM and see the videos of it in action, which came out better than mine.
Another must see (for me, at least) was the PDP-1. The PDP-9 was the first minicomputer I played with, when I was in high-school. My Dad was a Dartmouth prof, and we hung around the Kiewit computer center. We would somewhat surreptitiously avail ourselves of this piece of technology, upon which we played Spacewar! for hours. Here are two of the chaps who demonstrated the PDP-1 Saturday (the one with the ponytail is Lyle Bickley - I didn't get the name of the smiling chap at the console).
Jonah and I even got to play Spacewar! on this beauty, which is some kind of amazing time warp! One last note -- if you do go, check the schedule, as the tours/demos of the Difference Engine and PDP-1 are only available on certain Saturdays.
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