News PGP, IBM launch Bletchley fundraiser

[CardJoe]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/09...y-fundraiser/1

PGP and IBM have joined forces to launch a campaign to raise funds for Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing - both of which are in danger of being forgotten.

[ChaosDefinesOrder]

turned down by Bill and Melinda Gates foundation? What the hell? Surely Bill should have a significant debt of gratitude?

[p3n]

What do you mean, afterall we have the Americans to thanks for bailing us out of WW2

[steveo_mcg]

and to be fair most other computer systems were developed independently of colossus thanks to the official secrets act.

[Nexxo]

Not the first time the UK government has dismissed its own historic and cultural heritage.

"Heritage" is good commerce when it involves Laura Ashley dresses, home-made cheese and jam and twee china plates with floral patterns and pictures of rustic scenes on them. It is highly eligible for National Lottery grants when it involves opera houses and art museums that the upper crust enjoy. But when it comes to what Britain was really made of: the coal mines and the industrial revolution, nobody cares --there's no profit to be made since both were sold down the river during the Thatcher years.

Neither do people want reminding that the guy who saved Britain's ass was then persecuted to suicide for being gay. Or that Tommy Flowers, the creator of the first practical electronic computer and the technical innovator behind the design of the Colossus computer had to fund the initial project out of his own pocket because nobody believed it would work. He was given an MBE and reimbursed £1000,-- after the war ended --barely enough to cover this debt. Although he proposed making a digital electronic exchange, he was not successful because he couldn't convince the management of the Post Office of their worth nor tell them he had already worked on such systems due to the Official Secrets Act. He as not acknowledged until 1970.

Don't ask the US: they prefer to think that they cracked the Enigma code, and like to take credit for saving the World's ass rather than to concede it to a gay mathematician and a Post Office engineer. Who really saved the world.

[Cupboard]

I am sure that our government would be slightly more willing to help if it hadn't stupidly gone for the Olympics.

[Bionic-Blob]

i live right next to bletchley park :P

[Red 5]

Originally Posted by Bionic-Blob

i live right next to bletchley park :P

Really? I live about a half mile away from the grounds and pass the new housing developments on my way to work.

Back on topic, I've only ever visited because part of my college course was held there. Specifically, the old American building. It's a great shame that our government, and indeed others, won't recognise the estate's contribution to freedom and democracy throughout the world, or at least Europe.

I hate myself a little for that last sentence.

[LordPyrinc]

A multitude of people from different countries and backgrounds contributed to Allied victory in WWII. Unfortunately, the history books seem to only footnote many, and completely exclude others. As long as we continue to remember those who contributed, great and small, their deeds will not go unsung.