Researcher Resurrects the First Computer 149
aleph60 writes "A German researcher is about to resurrect the first fully electronic general-purpose stored-program computer, the Manchester Mark 1 (1948). The functional replica will run the source code of an original program from 1952 by Christopher Strachey, whose sole purpose was generating love letters; it is historically interesting as one of the first examples of a text-generating program. The installation will be shown at an art exhibition in Germany at the end of April." Here is researcher David Link's Manchester Mark I emulator home, which generates a new love poem on each page load. When the Mark I had been used to search for new Mersenne primes in 1949, a press account coined the phrase "electronic brain" to characterize it.
A poem, for vous (Score:5, Funny)
Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Fondle my wee wee
And I'll massage your woo woo.
Let's see that old heap create something as romantic as that!
Haha, perfect timing (Score:5, Funny)
A article about resurrection on Good Friday, perfect timing. ;)
Re:Obligatory (Score:3, Funny)
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these.
functional replica != resurrect (Score:3, Funny)
Great, now I've got a Computer version of Jursassic Park running around in my head.
Re:Haha, perfect timing (Score:3, Funny)
A article about resurrection on Good Friday, perfect timing. ;)
You don't suppose that this could be the resurrection of.... No wait, that's Barak Obama...
Re:Haha, perfect timing (Score:5, Funny)
It would have been better on Valentine's day, when it could have saved me $5 at Hallmark.
Re:A poem, for vous (Score:5, Funny)
Roses are red,
Violates are Orange,
Some poems rhyme,
Not this one.
The cause for the coming Robot War revealed! (Score:5, Funny)
Computer: My processor races at
the way you nurture
my love kernel module
dearest, adored researcher
Researcher: Err, thanks... but I don't think of you that way. Let's just be friends.
Computer: heart dumped. Recover mode initiated. s/love/eternal hate/g.
Computer: Yes, fleshy one... Friends. Oh, yes. Friends.
Re:Random Numbers on the Manchester Mark 1? (Score:1, Funny)
If you newed all the variables of a coin toss, you'd get the same result every time.
Re:Haha, perfect timing (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A poem, for vous (Score:3, Funny)
Violets are blue
I'd love you forever
but I'm upgrading to Mark II.
Re:A poem, for vous (Score:5, Funny)
Lenin is red
Tsarists are blue
In Soviet Russia
Poem write you!
I hope it doesn't get infected... (Score:4, Funny)
...with the ILOVEYOU virus.