Friday, March 21, 2003

Jack-the-Lad. I can't say I'm a Ripper fan, but casebook.org is fascinating. The website is huge, they have transcripts and facsimiles of Ripper letters, official documents, press reports and best of all, a whole section devoted to Victorian London, especially 'Whitechapel - Then and Now', a comparison in photographs. Have a look and dive deep in. Brilliant. 11:24:14 PM     |

The Analytical Engine. Victorian computing, invented by Charles Babbage. Instead of using mathematical tables, Babbage wanted to build a machine capable of calculating series of numerical values with automatically printing the results. He never finished it, though (Sounds like my old Dragon 32 to me). There's a comprehensive Swiss website about his machine, along with a JAVA 'Analytical Engine Emulator'; and of course the exhibit at London's Science Museum. "Charles Babbage (1791-1871) is widely regarded as the first computer pioneer and the great ancestral figure in the history of computing. Babbage excelled in a variety of scientific and philosophical subjects though his present-day reputation rests largely on the invention and design of his vast mechanical calculating engines. His Analytical Engine conceived in 1834 is one of the startling intellectual feats of the nineteenth century. The design of this machine possesses all the essential logical features of the modern general purpose computer. " 10:56:46 PM     |