Thursday 06/24/2021
Went up to 11 for aerobics but I was the only attendee physically or on zoom by 8:35, so I told AJ to forget it.
Off to Yosemite for the first time since pre-pandemic. That’s the big warehouse in Milpitas where CHM keeps all the stuff that isn’t on display. Just for nostalgia I took a picture of the first ever core memory, from the Whirlwind circa 1955.
That’s the stack of core planes, and a few of the many vacuum tubes that made it work. On display at the museum is one looking very similar to this as part of the SAGE project of a few years later. The stack implements, I believe, 32x32x16 bits, or 1K of 16-bit words.
Four volunteers did a little practical work, a lot of chatting, then off for lunch and then came on home; Aurora the curator had a meeting and couldn’t stay the afternoon to boss us.
In the CH dining room, today the servers started using hand-held PDA things to take orders. The system seems to work however the people I was sitting with, and who ordered a few minutes after I did, waited a long time to see their food. So that problem isn’t solved.
Codgerville 