Yea and who's to say the unclassified info is accurate. Kinda like the SR-71, everytime the russians would break the record, the pilot's would flip a coin to see who was going to go break it this time... and I ain't shitting you I talked to one of the first pilot's he's a rep for "untidy" (United) now.

 

Figure the purpose of the Colosus was to break the Enigma code (which is a very cool thing in and of itself) and as I remember the code was at least factured by the invasion of Normady.



Meanwhile on the other side we were using Navajo to confuse the heck out of Japan.

 

OOOooo ok....lol now I know who invited the first digital computer..kewl

 

This site has some of the best information on the Colossus and Lorenz cipher machines that I've found, up to and including drawings.



One of the most intresting aspects of the site is they had one of the few living members of the team assist them in rebuilding it.



On another notes, if you've ever heard of the Turing Test for AI it was created by a man named Alan Turing one of the creators of the Colossus.



Another name is Heath...as in Heathkit.Colossus

 

My comp sci 104 professor said that Atanasoff jotted down the idea for the ABC on a bar napkin after a night of binge drinking...let the inspiration flow.

 

By the way, there isn't a first computer ever museum...it's just sitting in the hallway of Durham hall...not Atanasoff hall, ironically enough.