musang s.x.

From computers with love (resurrected)

2009.04.11 10:16

Now this is so cool. Too cool :p German media-artist-slash-computer-researcher David Link has made an emulator of the Manchester Mark 1 computer, virtually resurrecting it, to run Christopher Strachey‘s “Love-Letters” program –a program churning out randomly different love letters.

Here is a link to the emulator. Just refresh your browser to get a different string of affectionate words each time, ready to send to your significant other :)

This coming from a computer built half a century ago, whose size could fill a room, the crude precursors of today’s computers? You just gotta give a thumbs-up to the ingenious cupid of a programmer! :))

Link further explains about the computer and the program responsible for “the strange love-letters appearing on the notice board of Manchester University’s Computer Department from August 1953 to May 1954″, in his essay here.

And here is a picture of a similar (now-defunct, just-for-display) computer that we took at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. It’s not the exact computer, but I think it comes close to just give an illustration for this posting… :p

Now that’s digital love for you… From yours truly, M.U.C. :))

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musangsx | computers,history,poetry