#heinznixdorfmuseumforum — Public Fediverse posts

to follow up on @Wintermute_BBS pictures from the #HeinzNixdorfMuseumForum that we made during our roadtrip... here is an areal view of the buildings. if you are nearby it is a nobrainer to visit! if you have to travel a while to paderborn (germany) team up and keep in mind that you won't find the typical classical homecomputers there. but you get very closeup look on business machines and professional "IT-Systems" of the yesteryears. every todays worker in IT can see the roots (pun intendet) there!

... and another legend, a real big one - the #DEC #pdp8e

#HeinzNixdorfMuseumForum

... what a wonderful day out, thank you @BlackICEBBS for taking me on this cool #ComputerHistory #Roadtrip ... 👍

the mother of all photocopiers - the #Xerox 1385 photo copier ...

#HeinzNixdorfMuseumForum
#photocopier

#Zuse Z80 electronic computer ...

EDIT: this machine would calculate area sizes taken from maps. The device on the desk is kind of an early digitizer device, it has a magnifying glass to ensure highest precision when setting waypoints to mark an area on the map.

#HeinzNixdorfMuseumForum

meeting a legend ...

EDIT: this machine was used in the Lawrence Livermore Labs during the 1980s.

#Cray2 #HeinzNixdorfMuseumForum

I dunno what I expect from a museum funded by a trust created by a computer corporation, but I'd love to see more serious engagement with the political forces acting on communication technology in the beautifully presented "History of the Future - A Journey Through the HNF" book.

It acknowledges that writing came about to track the surpluses created by an organised farming society in a fertile region and the impact that moveable type had on propagating the ideas of the Reformation, but is silent on the political imperatives pushing the creation of mass media and computation. A bit of Problematisation 101 wouldn't go amiss here. Who benefits? Who is harmed?

Still, I very much appreciate the long view taken by the museum, in the drawing together of representation systems for text and numbers, mechanised systems for computation and text reproduction, communications and computation, and the evolution of clerical work.

#HNF #hnfpb #HeinzNixdorfMuseumForum

Checking out the hastag #hnfpb on Mastodon that #HeinzNixdorfMuseumForum suggest you use, I find the wonderful virtual #ICT1301 #mainframe at https://ict1301.virtualcolossus.co.uk/ by @virtualcolossus.

The computer was a fully transistorised 48-bit word machine with core memory and drum backing store: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICT_1301

(Image in the public domain: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ICT_1301_Gothenburg_1962.jpg#mw-jump-to-license)