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kobayashi
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Singapore
Dec 2000 time: 13:14
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quote: Originally posted by Henrik
Well, acording to "The Code Book" by Simon Singh (a book about cryptography (or is it cryptology?) through history) which is where I heard of it the Collosus was (note: this quote is from the swedish translation) : "adaptable" and "what we today would call a programable computer".
Further into the text he says that:
"But more important the than the increased speed was the fact that the Collosus could be programed". |
Sorry for the delay. I had to dig my book out from some box. The book I have by Simon Singh is called "The Science of Secrecy". But I think we are referring to the same book. The exact english version reference to the Colossus is
"...It's specific purpose was to decrypt messages encrypted by the German Lorenz SZ40 machine, so it was not designed as a general purpose computer. Nevertheless, it was programmable, some programs being implemented through permanent wiring......"
I suppose Singh is an authority on cryptology but the fact that he doesn't even know of the existance of the Z3 which was programmable through punchtape and had a floating point processor and was built years earlier does not give me too much faith in his claim that it was the birth of the modern computer.
For the purposes of the game either Z3/Eniac or Z3 Colossus would do but since there is another wonder called Enigma Decoding, I think I will just keep the Eniac there (hey I'm PENN alumni you know!)
once again, thanks for the close attention that you paid to the scenario.
p.s. see this page
http://irb.cs.tu-berlin.de/~zuse/Konrad_Zuse/index.html
Last edited by kobayashi on 23-06-2001 at 00:26
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Dienstag
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Brea, CA, USA
Feb 2000 time: 05:14
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Feedback: Still seems like a really well made game, especially with the new landscape. I learned, though, that it requires much patience. All the numbers are lower than I'm used to (movement points, city production, <-- turn length). I played a while and then got a little frustrated when my Spitfire kept being destroyed be a U-boat, despite numerous re-loads. I did't think it was supposed to work that way, but I guess I could understand having to wait for ground attack planes and sub-hunters. Anyway, I think I'll come back to it after finishing some other stuff (I'm still half-way through The Struggle For Europe, I think !) Nothing against your scenario; I just haven't had the time or patience to play it right, yet.
BTW, whats the top, center graphic in the samples for your next scenario (which seems to deal with another of my favorite subjects, I might add)? The stuff I recognize looks great.
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