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Handwritten Oblique Strategies, Sony CCD’s, Gravity Waves, Tommy Flowers and Doing

The original hand-written Oblique Strategies from 1974. Via Richard Kadrey.

New Sony CCD’s.

Gravity waves in Venus’ atmosphere.

“After the war, Flowers was granted £1,000 by the government, payment which did not cover Flowers’ personal investment in the equipment and most of which he shared amongst the staff who helped him build and test Colossus. Ironically, Flowers applied for a loan from the Bank of England to build another machine like Colossus but was denied the loan because the bank did not believe that such a machine could work. He could not argue that he had already designed and built many of these machines because his work on Colossus was covered by the Official Secrets Act. His work in computing was not fully acknowledged until the 1970s.”

Tommy Flowers. Designer of the world’s first programmable electronic computer, the Colossus. Quiet British genius.

“If we’re already going to go through the trouble of doing something, then let’s do something that no one else can do.”

Good words from Errolson Hugh.