Alex Reid News, Topical

Speech to 50th Anniversary of computing at Oxford University, 8-Jun-07

Bluebells

History of Me and Computers

40th Anniversary of First Program (Nov 2001)

Further information on Wredac can be found at Jack Smith's Website, located at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~jacksmth/wredac.htm

My second computer - an IBM7090 Picture

My first Time-Shared computer - the Digital Equipment Corp PDP-6.
This was delivered to the University of WA in May 1965, and became the first commercially-delivered time-shared computer anywhere in the world.
Pictured before it left the factory in Maynard, Massachussetts: HERE
Pictured on delivery, with Dennis Moore sweeping up: HERE
Pictured towards the end of its useful life (1972), with Dennis Moore and Yow Kwan: HERE

The first computer in Western Australia was the IBM 1620 delivered to the University of WA in September 1962. The console and keyboard of that computer are still intact - pictured together on 13-Dec-02 HERE.
Console close-up (L-half) HERE.
Console close-up (R-half) HERE.
Keyboard close-up HERE.
The following picture shows how they should look if/when properly housed, and was borrowed from http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/
Picture HERE
A plan is being hatched to reconstruct some suitable housing...

I purchased my first microcomputer in 1979. It would have been one of the first microcomputers in WA.
It was an Ohio Scientific Challenger 1P, pictured: HERE
Its technical details can be seen HERE
An amusing anecdote concerning its programming and where it led the programmer (my son) can be seen HERE

For some of the history of computers in WA and at UWA (including WARCC), see HERE
Photo of the Cyber 72 which formed the heart of WARCC when first established (1972) - with Janette Wrightson (Robin Collins in background): HERE
And the console is gathering dust in a UWA store - see: HERE

In June 1998 I attended a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of "Baby" at Mancherster - the first programmed computer in the world. It has been rebuilt and a photo can be seen: HERE

Christmas

Reids' Christmas Letters for 2001-2005 are available by email on request.
Photo of Christmas lunch 2001