Video

Macquarie University Fortran 77 Computing 101 PDP11 1984 …

60s computer technology is fascinating

I have admired this video for many years. I have to do a talk inside my company about software reliability and I'd like to copy some of this talk (with full credit to the source) to use inside my company (not public). I could tell the story in my own words, but I'd never achieve the brilliance that Robert does. I tried to find Robert Wills on LinkedIn, twitter/X etc to ask if that would be OK to use the 'script' of his story pretty much word for word and failed. I see that TNMoC is monitoring this feed so I'll ask you. Do you think that will be OK?

"Benedict Cumberbatch broke the Enigma Cipher after many years of hard work and sweat in a garden shed in the back of Blechley Park." I did not expect that. Hilarious.

Loving all you are doing Peter to really understand and maintain electronics and computer processing ☺

I have to comment Robert Wills here, it’s not particularly common to find computer scientists with such great communication skills (I saw with love and understanding, I’m a developer by trade myself). Not only were very complex topics simplified to very understandable terms with apparent ease, but he also implemented techniques such as injecting really good humor, contextualizing topics before he began them (such as telling the audience that they didn’t necessarily need to remember all the details he was providing, that what he expected them to take away was the complexity of the task, and also warning them when he was entering more of a dry part of the presentation), and also summarizing sections to reinforce understanding. A brilliant communicator

PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE.. .& DOUBLE PLEASE.....EMPLOY THIS YOUNG MAN ON THE BBC....IDEALLY ON THE SKY @ NIGHT......HE IS SO INSPIRATIONAL AND ENJOYABLE TO WATCH....YOU NEED TO GRAB HIM!!!!!

So glad I accidentally found this. Vince is my hero.

Some years ago I was a close acquaintance of someone whose father ran a transport company in the Wolverhampton area. At some point, that company had been contracted to move what must have been Colossus. I wish now I had made some notes and appreciated the story more. At the time, I had no idea how obscure the history was.

So interesting and enjoyable, thanks Robert!

NASA SP287 " WHAT MADE APOLLO A SUCCESS ??? " " of course , the way we got this job done was with meeting , big meetings , little meeting hundreds of meetings ! " the thing we always tried to do in these meetings (( was to encourage every one no matter how shy to speak out !!! " )) not training ? , not tech development ? WHY encourage every one NO MATTER HOW SHY TO SPEAK SOMETHING OUT !!! IS ULTIMATE SECRET TO "MADE APOLLO A SUCCESS ??? " YOU CAN GO TO THE MOON WITH " DON'T SHY TO SPEAK SOMETHING OUT ??? " " shy for speak what ???

Thank you, most interesting. Can you say how the rotors implemented having af different number of inputs from outputs?

I thought I would include a link to a period report on the actual construction of the Apollo guidance computer it's a fascinating video: czcams.com/video/ndvmFlg1WmE/video.htmlsi=nBX2IEf7v-hd07jN The presenter Robert in this video did a fascinating explanation of how the Apollo guidance computer works and the long talked about , but never properly explained failure mode of Apollo guidance computer moon landing. He did a top-notch job explaining how it works and what exactly happened during the computer errors of The Descent phase.

Fascinating and informative. 'Should have disabled rendezvous code while in landing phase' (knowing your [computer's] limitations) 2) Buzz is such the Dennis Hopper character

A nice, tongue in cheek talk, thank you. Mr Cummerbund should be ashamed of hogging the limelight! I think quite a few Poles would object to the notion that Poland was ever defeated - occupied yes but the Polish Home Army, the Armia Krajowa, never stopped fighting. Indeed Poland never formally surrendered to either invader. With regard to the use of the German language, my late father-in-law who was an engineer before 1939 and a Polish Army officer until 1948 told me that to get on in science and engineering in central Europe in the 1930s you needed a good grasp of the lingua franca of the day: German.

The biggest mistake the Germans and Japanese made was. They used Commercial made machines. One reason the United States was reading the Japanese messages. As it was the Polish Navy that helped the Japanese develop their codes. Using these machines.

2024 and it's not the first time i've watched it. Thank you so much for this great explanation.

Nice talk. K2 layer 2 before X's. Field location somewhere message west

This was wonderful. Thanks for this great presentation.

What a great family story!

A brilliant presentation and lots of food for thought. 1. As "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" has reached public awareness it is worth considering what part a computer should play in solving any kind of problem. The lunar landing could have been fully automatic (but with people on board) or all pilot controlled manual. The issue at the time was a risk calculation for achieving the "Objective". The decision was to go hybrid which turned out to be the best way with both Computer and Human working together to achieve success. As we enter "The age of AI" having a clear idea of Objective and Risk will be essential along side what is the price of Failure, is it money or is it lives? 2. The other factor the video highlights is where is the innovative development done geographically, what skills are required and who pays the bill. I have worked in several of the "Centres of Excellence" around the World. Anybody thinking of a career in Advanced Technology would be well advised to factor in where are todays "Hot Spots" using those three criteria. For Apollo it was Boston and MIT plus the East Coast within easy road travel distance. Today the Locus of Excellence is Silicon Valley with Stanford as a key player. In Europe there is one in Valbonne France and another in Pisa Italy. Both set up by Governments keen to nurture innovation. It comes down to what do you want to do and where is a nice place to do it because if you are clever it is you who has the choice! And whatever you decide to do learn Soft Skills because even the best ideas need to be presented well to an audience and decision makers who need help to understand what you are talking about! That is why the "Light Years Ahead" prestation has so much you can learn from well beyond historical interest. Party on.

Thank you both for an excellent presentation on information reverse engineering

The story of the Poles was mentioned in “A Man Called Intrepid”. Not sure how factual, but there was a story about them bombing a truck carrying enigma and faking debris.

will outa the inbetweeners

I would like to commend and to thank Dermot, the Nephew of Alan Turing, for pursuing the truth instead of simply writing a book that praised only his Uncle.

Amazingly skilled and extremely talented. That is my reaction to the staff at the UK Post Office who built Colossus and the code breakers at Bletchley Park. A suggestion for the Museum: I spent my career in the computer industry, but I did not understand Phil Hayes portion of the reenactment. I am not suggesting that Phil’s portion be “dumbed down “, rather do what I asked my teams to do- explain it so that my mother could understand it.

.I used to be a pdp 11/70 operator. Remember backing up the wrong way. Wiped out a companies entire days work. Remember performing many Sysgens.

I never worked with a PDP-11, but did work with a Data General Eclispe S/130, which I think is in the same class. I still dream about the work I did over 40 years ago. Sean, the likes of us are on the way out, eyes and all... But I think we may have had the best of it.

I feel we let the polish nation down during the second world war. Easy for me to say now but they suffered terribly. My father was in the far eastern fleet (royal navy) and I am proud he fought against the tyrannical powers of the axis powers during this time.

I love Sophie !!! She talks computer She is a computer <3

Ive ALWAYS wanted a bbc and Umi-2 system but, It's been impossible to find in the USA

Fantastic presentation! Really enjoyed it! Thank you 👍

Enigma Poland 1932. CZcams.

That paper is spinning fast enough to cut your fingers off!

How well was this computer known? Feeding Russian traffic to a computer named Colossus that takes over the world is the plot of The Forbin Project.

My lab had over 30 PDP 11/xx including 45, 60, 70 & 80’s. The disks had 5 platters holding the RS11M OS and my designed OS. They were used in groups of 3 to 5 integrated computers with all connected through busses! Amazing machines. The front panel was octal, but internally it was hexadecimal!

Fantastic work. Visiting BP is on my bucket list. Thank you for these presentations.

Can the Bletchley Park Trust be encouraged to send £150k worth of visitors your way?

@6:44 Let's see so the lunar computer is 32kg, 55 watts and can do 50,000 - 100,000 instructions per second. A modern smarphone is less than 200g, consumes only a few watts and can do trillions of instructions per second, I think that's what poeple are talking about.

"How did this happen?" What a great presentation. Thank you for this, much appreciated. Looking forward to visit the museum and pay my respect in 2 weeks.

One of the most interesting and engaging videos on YT. Thank you

The presentator biased and repetitive comments about 'Buzz' Aldrin durant last phases of lunar landing (P64, P66 ?) are symptomatic of his oversized and exuberant ego.

Thank you Peter and Jerry - brilliant in every respect.

Who developed the mathematical equations of the operational and system software? Was the LM manufacturer , Grumman aircraft engineers, supervising the small and inexperienced NASA software team?

REPORTED FOR MISINFORMATION

What a great guy! I just watched the entire video even though I didn’t search for it.

Thank you for share!

Working as a volunteer at TNMoC and learned the power up sequence today.

10:23

I love how unfixable are today's motherboards and our biggest barrier in landing on Moon again.