Cufflink Posted June 8, 2004 #1 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Alan Turing, the genius who was at the heart of Bletchley Park's code-cracking war effort, died fifty years ago, yesterday. It was his idea of creating a machine to turn thought processes into binary numbers which was one of the key turning points in the history of the computer. His revolutionary idea was for a machine that would read a series of ones and zeros from a tape. These described the steps needed to solve a problem or task. He was of course, also involved with cracking Germany's Enigma code, which gave the Allies a huge advantage against the Nazis. But by the 50's, he was hounded for his homosexuality, and eventually took his own life, by eating an apple laced with cyanide. This great man has already been honoured by having a road named after him in Manchester, his adopted city, and the famous Manchester `Gay Village' area has a bronze statue of him. And on Monday, a plaque was unveiled outside his final home, in Wilmslow, to match a plaque in London, his place of birth. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manches...ter/3781481.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Universal Absurdity Posted June 8, 2004 #2 Share Posted June 8, 2004 The father of computers was gay.... well, that explains alot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted June 9, 2004 Author #3 Share Posted June 9, 2004 The father of computers was gay.... well, that explains alot In what way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenojjin Posted June 9, 2004 #4 Share Posted June 9, 2004 QUOTE (UniversalAbsurdity @ Jun 8 2004, 05:39 PM) The father of computers was gay.... well, that explains alot QUOTE In what way? In a fabulous and gay way . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted June 9, 2004 Author #5 Share Posted June 9, 2004 In a fabulous and gay way . And for those of us who only speak English, what the hell does that mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenojjin Posted June 9, 2004 #6 Share Posted June 9, 2004 you mean English english not American english ? I shall translate then . In America gay can mean . .... A ) fabulous B ) awesome C ) stupid D ) Lame E ) dorky F ) happy G ) wierd H ) funny I ) homosexual . my guess is he was referring to H , since many computer nerds are dorky . Hence , the father of computers being gay explains a lot . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted June 9, 2004 Author #7 Share Posted June 9, 2004 And in England, we have an expression `talking b******s', which in American English means, `jibberish'. There seemed to be a fair bit of this form of `jibberish' being spoken, in reply to me asking a simple question. Could UA perhaps expand on his post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenojjin Posted June 9, 2004 #8 Share Posted June 9, 2004 no . Accept thy jibberish . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted June 9, 2004 Author #9 Share Posted June 9, 2004 no . Accept thy jibberish . Sadly, that is often the only thing on offer. Meanwhile, back in topic land... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenojjin Posted June 9, 2004 #10 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Universal Absurdity Posted June 9, 2004 #11 Share Posted June 9, 2004 (edited) Could UA perhaps expand on his post? Perhaps i should have elaborated, but then i would have missed the hilarous posts above. Now that the fun seems to have died down, here is my explanation: It seems that Alan Turning, was in his early to mid 30's from what the pic looks like. He died 50 years ago, so some time in the late 1930's i assume he figured out that he was gay, which was not at all accepted by the very christian dominated society back then. I'm sure this gave him pleanty of time to do something besides chase girls, which is what most adolecents do. Perhaps he educated himself a bit more than the average person to the point where he got a brilliant idea. 1's and 0's yes and no. That explains alot. *The edit was to re-position the 'yes and no' to further show my point with a tad bit of symbolism, if you can catch it. Edited June 9, 2004 by UniversalAbsurdity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imorningsun Posted June 9, 2004 #12 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Why is that creaters before thier time always go MAD in some sort of way? Example; Ignaz Semmelwieze, The first man to introduce the bacteria concept. He went mad, and spent a half a lifetime in an Asylum. At any rate, I am greatful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cufflink Posted June 9, 2004 Author #13 Share Posted June 9, 2004 Why is that creaters before thier time always go MAD in some sort of way? He didn't go mad. He was broken-hearted that a world he had done so much for, treated him like sh**. btw, thanks for the explanation UA. I see your point, now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimma Posted June 9, 2004 #14 Share Posted June 9, 2004 (edited) So what if he was gay, without him all us Brits would now be talking German, a true hero. And I for one will honour him. Edited June 9, 2004 by jimma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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