Another good reason to go to Bletchley Park...

[Christel]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/cult ... -Park.html

[targetman]

Great place to go and visit. I have been going there for quite a few years, from when the collection was scattered all over the place in different huts and with no real theme. The volunteers were very enthusiastic and knowledgable though.

Since they have got lottery funding it has all come together really well, the displays are excellent and coherant and the conducted tours are superb. Seeing Colossus actually running after all this time is terrific. I went to a lacture at Surrey Univercity given by the chap that used his own money and time to rebuild it, fascinating guy, left me way behind with the technical stuff though.

The display about Alan Turing is certainly worth seeing and it is not before time that he was honoured in this way, he was treated very badly by a narrow minded establishment at the time and I remember thinking when Gordon Brown gave a governmental apology that even after all this time it was half hearted and delivered in an embarrasing manner.

[Christel]

The display about Alan Turing is certainly worth seeing and it is not before time that he was honoured in this way, he was treated very badly by a narrow minded establishment at the time and I remember thinking when Gordon Brown gave a governmental apology that even after all this time it was half hearted and delivered in an embarrasing manner.

The half hearted apology...could be linked into the fact that even to this day homosexuality is not a subject that is easily dealt with for some?
Or the fact that Alan Turing committed suicide because he lived in a society that did not accept who he really was?

There are many facets of this story that means it is difficult to deal with for some...

[targetman]

Christel.....I do so agree, given the attitudes at the time it was not so surprising, but the way in which Turing was treated was barbaric even for the period, chemical castration was just so extreme. His treatment took no account of the amazing service he had given to the country, nor the value that his work in the future might have brought. But history is a hard master.....

The other person who was so involved in the story of Bletchly Park is Tommy Flowers the GPO engineer who actually built Collosus using thousands of electronic valves, his reward was a small gratuity at the end of WW2. He was not honoured at the time because Britain still maintained secrecy over having a programable computer that could break codes, particularly Russian codes, as it did right through the 1960s at GCHQ. It was only when the Cold War was running down that Britain admitted to having Collosus and that the Americans realised it was not them who invented the programable computer but that Britain had got there nearly 30 years before them.

[Sim G]

The display about Alan Turing is certainly worth seeing and it is not before time that he was honoured in this way, he was treated very badly by a narrow minded establishment at the time and I remember thinking when Gordon Brown gave a governmental apology that even after all this time it was half hearted and delivered in an embarrasing manner.

Or, is the full story not really known about Turing......

Without doubt, the man was an absolute genius and without him, the war might actually have gone on longer, however, after the war, the start of the Cold War, the then criminal legislation and public attitude. He was suspected of being a paedophile, he was known to be an "aggressive, predatory" homosexual, he admitted a criminal offence and chose the punishment himself, over prison. At the time, the first of the Cambridge Five had been unearthed and were found to be homosexual, which again, put Turing in a very doubtful situation in regards to security clearance. Then on top of which, he then killed himself, one more thing not given high regard by the general thinking of the day...

[Christel]

http://www.itproportal.com/2012/03/22/t ... titioners/

I am a great fan of Darwin however if he is to be replaced I think this is a good choice

[Christel]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17486464

"Nobody entered there because it was very secret," says Felix Sanz, the director of Spain's intelligence service."And one day somebody said 'Well if it is so secret, perhaps there is something secret inside.'

[Christel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/arts/ ... r-age.html

Apple and Turing.

[Christel]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/n ... -debt.html

Going on a £10 note

[Polchraine]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/n ... -debt.html

Going on a £10 note

Why does everyone keep on about Turing? Yes, it was important work but there was equally important work in other fields that also helped shorten the war.

Consider the team at EMI that developed the high power radar systems - Alan Blumlein, one of the key members was killed in 1942, but does anyone keep on about him and the team?