The National Museum of Computing to Accounting at Furzton!

Meeting up with the Bombe!

Hello every-one and sorry for my delayed blog this week. You could say I’ve been somewhat off grid these last few days when it comes to social media. In fact I’ve been working incredibly hard catching up with my accounts and concentrating on admin, and believe me I’ve had a lot to get through! I’ve just come back from my accounts weekend where I check into a hotel and worked solely on my accounts getting them ship shape and ready to present to my accountant for the Inland Revenue. I’m very organised and I’m always twelve months ahead with my paper work which is how I like it.

The Enigma Machine!

This year I choose to check into the Premier Inn at Furzton Lake. It’s a great place to go running which I like to do first thing in the mornings and then it’s down to the job in hand as I crack on with my paper-work. Doing accounts is the most boring job in the world and I find checking into a hotel is the best way of getting this tedious task done. I also find taking some time out is good for my sole, away from the internet and the distractions of home.

On this occasion I allowed myself an afternoon off as I visited “The National Museum of Computing” which is in Block H at Bletchley Park. It’s important to state the Museum of Computing is a completely separate entity to the famous Bletchley Park museum next door, and dare I say, a better visitor experience too!

Me with Colossus!

It’s much cheaper at only £7.50 for adults plus you get the full WW2 code breaking story. The museum houses the largest collection of working historic computers from the 1940s to the present day, plus it has working rebuilds of The Bombe and Colossus. It took me four visits to see everything at Bletchley park as the information is displayed on boards which you have to take time to read . I found the Museum of Computing much more interesting as it’s visual and for someone who is dyslexic easier to understand, especially as there

Computing the Old Fashioned Way!

are lots of knowledgeable people you can talk to. I particularly enjoyed the talks which I found very informative.

Interestingly I hadn’t realized just how many important women had been involved in computing from the dawn of the idea right through to the present day. Of course we all know about the WRNS who work with the computers at Bletchley during the war and it’s easy to think the ideas people behind computing is owed entirely to men but not so. Amongst the hall of fame I found Ada Lovelace who interestingly was represented in the TV drama Dr Who the other week. Many of you might have caught that episode, so it was fascinating to find out a little more about her this weekend.

Thermionic Valves!

Ada Lovelace was a Computing visionary born in 18.15. In 1843 she imagined a machine capable of extraordinary things limited only by the creativity of it’s programmer, nearly a century before the first computers were built. Ada was the daughter of poet Lord Byron and mathematician Anne Isabelle Milbanke. Sadly Ada tragically died at the age of 36 which makes me wonder what she would think of the modern word today and how her idea was so ahead of it’s time.

As for me I’ve been working this week in the office planning 2020. Its great to see the year