[COFF] The Z3

[Tomasz Rola]

On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 09:56:24AM +1000, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> On Wed, 12 May 2021, Tomasz Rola wrote:
> 
> >>Pity it got destroyed when the joint was bombed...
> >
> >A pity or not a pity at all... It was a remarkable achievement of
> >engineering but I am happy it did not get appreciation in the eyes
> >of contemporary German authorities. In such case it would
> >inevitably be used to prolong WW2 to detriment of everybody
> >involved.
> 
> Well, any technology can be used for malicious purposes; look at how
> the N*zis employed IBM tabulators with Watson's full knowledge (they
> went via a Swiss intermediary -- look up "Dehomag" to find the
> book).

Ahem. As a matter of fact, I have once spent a few afternoons reading
about exactly this... Actually, I am trying (low priority, leisure
activity) to grok punched cards technology (i.e., before arrival of
Turing-complete devices). The subject is quite fascinating because so
alien (forget about your favorite editors and compilers).

It is also interesting to note how modern ways (including warfare and
social media) have been rooted in logistics and accounting, all going
back to electromechanical tech supporting works being done by big
business and administration more than hundred years ago...

-- 
Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **