Monday, September 13, 2010


SAN JOSE, CA, Sep 13, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- The Tech Museum today raised the curtain on its most ambitious exhibition, The Tech Silicon Valley Innovation Gallery, revealing cutting-edge technology developed by the world's foremost experts on computing, digital design, communication and collaboration.

5 comments:

AphotoAday said...

Oh that is SO cool...
I've been waiting and wondering when the tech museum was going to open with the new displays. Thanks for the info.

AphotoAday said...

Update -- glad I checked before heading down there because "the curtain was raised" doesn't mean that the exhibits are actually open yet, just that they have it all planned out. They're putting it all together now and will be open to the public in January. Other parts of the Tech Museum are open however, including the fabulous Babbage machine.

marc aurel said...

I'm sorry to steer you wrong. The Babbage machine: Would that be the one conceived by Turing in the forties, kind of electro mechanical and filling a whole room? I won't be in California for a while, but the museum sounds fascinating.

AphotoAday said...

Hi Marc,

Oh, no need to apologize. No problem, but can't wait to see the new exhibits.

And next time I'm there I'm definitely going to hang around to see the Babbage Difference Engine in operation. This fellow, Charles Babbage was a mechanical genius and I don't think I've ever seen anything mechanical that looks any more complicated.

Believe it or not, he designed all of this back in the 1840's, but it has more gears and cams and cogs than a person can count.

It's supposed to operate on the principle of "polynomials" (which is way above my pay grade to explain).

Google "difference engine wiki" and you'll get all the specifics -- maybe you'llbe able understand all that technical and mathmatical stuff -- for me it's rather mind-numbing.

And yep, if you do get to California some day I think it would definitely be worth a visit -- it's not too far south of San Francisco Airport. Google headquarters is close by, but of course Google doesn't allow casual visitors (I know, because they kicked me off the property one day)

marc aurel said...

mm