By Tim Ferguson, 8 October 2008 16:47
NEWS
In September silicon.com had an exclusive look through the treasure trove of historical technology in the National Museum of Computing at the home of the World War II codebreakers, Bletchley Park.
First up was a look at an exhibition showing how the British PC has evolved over the years, with museum volunteer, Peter Chilvers, providing his thoughts on classics including the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
Videos of the month - September 2008
Click on the links below to see the videos everyone is talking about...
British PCs through the ages
The first UK business computer
Voice biometrics - 60 sec Pitch
Analogue torpedo simulator
Nuclear missile detector
Landing planes with Bletchley's flight simulators
Improving information management
Next up was the UK's first business computer, the Elliott 803, which emerged in the 1960s, with museum trustee Kevin Murrell showing how the computer worked.
The latest instalment of the silicon.com 60-Second Pitch series saw Douwe Mik, business development director from Agnitio, pitch his company's voice biometrics technology to a tough panel of CIOs.
There was also some interesting insight on the importance of information management for businesses and IT in September. Jonathan Steel, the CEO of technology research company The Bathwick Group, discussed the findings of the silicon.com management benchmark survey.
Back to Bletchley and Andy McCue took a look at an analogue torpedo simulator, the PACE TR-48. The video shows exactly how the device was used to model waves in the sea to help design torpedoes.
Sticking with the war theme was a look at a device used to detect earthquakes as well as underground nuclear tests during the 1990s.
The final piece of tech examined at Bletchley was a range of flight simulators that visitors can use to try their hand at landing an aeroplane.
Comments
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1. Roger Huffadine
Try training a 'voice biometric' system - then go out and catch a really bad cold - now try to gain access.
I remember talking to one of these voice biometric experts a few years ago about this problem and their solution was a numeric keypad into which you entered your bypass security code - being a total dimwit I asked why it made sense to spend money on the voice biometric package when I could save money by just purchasing the key code system ...... a nasty dismissive look and silence .... so I walked away.