[SIGCIS-Members] Colossus at 80

[Joris van Zundert]

Hi Brian,

Brilliant! Thanks for this firsthand account.

(Still a mystery why the British broadcast confusion then.)

All the best
--Joris



--

Dr. Joris J. van Zundert
Researcher & Developer in Humanities Computing

Dept. of Computational Literary Studies / DHLab
Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl<mailto:joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl>
@jorisvanzundert
+31624461051

http://jorisvanzundert.net/
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--
Jack Sparrow: I thought you were supposed to keep to the code.
Mr. Gibbs: We figured they were more actual guidelines.
________________________________
From: Brian Randell <brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2024 5:19:55 PM
To: Joris van Zundert <joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl>
Cc: Sigcis <members at sigcis.org>
Subject: Re: Colossus at 80


Hi Joris:



I was shown the photographs, and given permission to interview the developers, in mid-1975. A set of photographs, and a single-page description, were released to the Public Record Office in 1975. My (cleared) paper revealing the Colossus was given at the splendid Los Alamos conference in June 1976 – see https://computerhistory.org/blog/computings-woodstock/. (I had previously, in 1972, published such few facts as I could discover about the project  in my 1972 paper “On Alan Turing and the Origins of Computers” - http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/Papers-Books/126.pdf.)



Cheers



Brian Randell



—



School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG

EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk   PHONE = +44 191 208 7923

URL =  https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html



On 18/01/2024, 13:42, "Joris van Zundert" <joris.van.zundert at huygens.knaw.nl> wrote:

Hi,



Any ideas on this puzzling sentence in the press release? “The Colossus computer was created during the Second World War […] but its existence was only revealed in the early 2000s after six decades of secrecy.” As far as I know the existence of Colossus has in no way been a mystery at least since the early 1970s, right?



Best

--Joris





From: Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org<mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org>> on behalf of Brian Randell via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org<mailto:members at lists.sigcis.org>>

Date: Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 12:50

To: Sigcis <members at sigcis.org<mailto:members at sigcis.org>>

Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Colossus at 80



Hi:



Here is the official GCHQ press release:



https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80 <https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80><https://www.gchq.gov.uk/news/colossus-80%3e>



Cheers



Brian Randell



—



School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG

EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 191 208 7923





URL = https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html












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