Message-ID: <877@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 13:12:45 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.877
Posted: Tue Mar  5 13:12:45 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 05:20:34 EST
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From: Couse.osbunorth@XEROX.ARPA


Glad that somebody finally mentioned "Colossus, the Forbin Project."
This film, which was released originally as just "The Forbin Project"
didn't do well in the theaters, primarily because the movie going public
couldn't seem to relate to computers in 1971 (when the movie was made)
like they would now.  The movie was relatively low-key, without any
shoot-'em-ups or other flashy gimmicks and was received well by
everybody I knew who knew anything about computers.  

Trivia Note:  The exterior shots were filmed at the Lawrence Hall of
Science on the University of California Berkeley campus.  The opening
shot where the helicopter flew down over the top of a building and
landed in front of LHoS had to be shot more than once because everybody
in the Space Sciences Lab (the building they flew over and down in front
of) was staring out the windows on the first shot.  Both building are
located on the hill behind the campus with a sweeping view of the Bay.

/Mary

Article-I.D.: orca.1401
Posted: Fri Mar 15 02:23:38 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Mar-85 01:23:30 EST
References: <877@topaz.ARPA>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 27

[]

	"Glad that somebody finally mentioned "Colossus, the Forbin
	Project." This film, which was released originally as just "The
	Forbin Project" didn't do well in the theaters, primarily
	because the movie going public couldn't seem to relate to
	computers in 1971 (when the movie was made) like they would
	now.  The movie was relatively low-key, without any
	shoot-'em-ups or other flashy gimmicks and was received well by
	everybody I knew who knew anything about computers."

Well ... almost everybody.  I saw it with a group of college frosh
hackers.  When we saw the Colossus machine room, the "willing
suspension of disbelief" was dissolved in a pool of laughter.  The
console for Colossus was made up of several (identical) front panels
from IBM 1620's.

Each such panel had a bright red switch labeled "in emergency, PULL".
On a 1620, indeed on every IBM computer I've seen, this switch drops a
short across the main power input to bring the system down very
quickly.  (This once saved a person from serious injury when their
necktie got caught in a line printer.)  The second half of the movie
has the main characters concerned with finding a way to turn off
Colossus, but they ignore these obvious switches.

  -- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew)       [UUCP]
                       (orca!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA]

Article-I.D.: ahutb.565
Posted: Mon Mar 18 18:17:44 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Mar-85 06:05:38 EST
References: <877@topaz.ARPA>, <1401@orca.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 22

REFERENCES:  <877@topaz.ARPA>, <1401@orca.UUCP>

 >>"Glad that somebody finally mentioned "Colossus, the Forbin
 >>Project." This film, which was released originally as just "The
 >>Forbin Project" didn't do well in the theaters, primarily
 >>because the movie going public couldn't seem to relate to
 >>computers in 1971 (when the movie was made) like they would
 >>now.  The movie was relatively low-key, without any
 >>shoot-'em-ups or other flashy gimmicks and was received well by
 >>everybody I knew who knew anything about computers."
 >
 >Well ...  almost everybody.  I saw it with a group of
 >college frosh hackers.  When we saw the Colossus machine
 >room, the "willing suspension of disbelief" was dissolved in
 >a pool of laughter.  The console for Colossus was made up of
 >several (identical) front panels from IBM 1620's.
 >

Reportedly that is the Universal Studios payroll computer.

				Mark Leeper
				...ihnp4!ahutb!leeper

Article-I.D.: hyper.145
Posted: Fri Mar 22 13:53:44 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Mar-85 07:05:48 EST
References: <877@topaz.ARPA> <1401@orca.UUCP>
Organization: Network Systems Corp., Mpls., Mn.
Lines: 14

> 
> When we saw the Colossus machine room, the "willing
> suspension of disbelief" was dissolved in a pool of laughter.  The
> console for Colossus was made up of several (identical) front panels
> from IBM 1620's.
> 
> 
>   -- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew)       [UUCP]
>                        (orca!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA]

I remember that!  Yes!  Hysterical!  On the other hand, the 1620
is probably the best computer IBM has built to date.
Have you ever worked with one?  WATY RCTY...table look-up
add...what a machine!