New top story on Hacker News: Tell HN: I went and saw CSIRAC, the only first-generation computer still intact

Tell HN: I went and saw CSIRAC, the only first-generation computer still intact
66 by ObsoleteNerd | 15 comments on Hacker News.
Melbourne (AU) has an awesome museum called Scienceworks that currently has CSIRAC on display, so I went to check it out. The museum is primarily aimed at school kids, but honestly, with or without kids it's a really great place to go check out. Website about CSIRAC with lots of good info: https://museumsvictoria.com.au/csirac/ It was the fourth computer ever built, and is the only first generation computer still intact. It was designed and built in Australia in 1949. One bit I found especially interesting: > For a long time, it was believed that computer music was pioneered by Max Matthews in 1957, at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the United States. > However in mid-2004 composer and sonologist Paul Doornbusch proved that the first computer to play music was CSIRAC > The computer’s first public performances, of the popular tune Colonel Bogey, took place on 7-9 August 1951, at the inaugural Conference of Automatic Computing Machines in Sydney. Edit: I added the photos to the comments as they don't link if I add them here.

Middlesbrough