Well, what can I say. It seems as though the last update was a lifetime ago. The world has changed so much! As you might imagine we have been unable to complete any work on the IBM 360 over the last couple of months due to the lockdown restrictions in place in the UK. We are hopeful that in the coming months as the lockdown eases we will be able to return to the project and start posting regular updates again.
We have received a few items off of the Amazon wishlist, and I will post the proper thanks in due course, I am currently unable to do so as they get delivered to my fathers house and due to the self isolation policies I have been unable to collect them thus far. I hope to be able to collect them soon, and we are really very grateful to those of you who have been kind enough to send things to us! We hope we can put them to good use soon enough!
The only update I am really able to provide on the project itself at the moment is that we’re going to be featured in a TV programme this coming week on BBC One Scotland! The programme is called Silicon Dreams, from Ships to Microchips. Peter Vaughan and I were filmed with the 360 for the programme some months ago. Peter was also filmed at TNMoC with the 1130. The programme documents IBM’s plant in Greenock, Scotland and the impact its presence had on the local area. Part of our 360 appears to have been manufactured at this plant, and thus we were asked if we’d like to take part. So if you happen to be able to tune into BBC One Scotland, the programme will be broadcast on Tuesday the 26th of May 2020 at 20:00, otherwise it’ll be available on iPlayer shortly thereafter.
Speaking of TNMoC, as I’m sure you’re all aware, during these difficult times of COVID-19, museums such as The National Museum of Computing have had to shut their doors to ensure the safety of the staff, volunteers, and indeed the visitors. TNMoC relies on corporate visits, school visits, and members of the public to cover its overheads. Despite furloughing the staff and reducing costs as much as possible, massive overheads are still depleting the museums funds and without your support museums like TNMoC may be forced to shut their doors. TNMoC is very near and dear to all of the teams hearts, it not only brought us all together but it’s given us all a platform to save these incredible machines from the scrap heap and enabled us to display them to the public in ways they would never have been seen before. If you can help in any way at all, TNMoC have a crowdfunding campaign here, every little helps towards the survival and eventual reopening of the museum.
That’s all there is from me for now, although I hope to have some more media content to post soon, and I also hope that we can get back to work restoring the 360 ASAP. Until next time, I hope you all stay safe and well.
Adam
