THE HARWELL COMPUTER will become the oldest functioning electronic stored program device in the world if Bletchley Park boffins can raise the funds to get it fixed.

The giant rack of vacuum tubes is being taken out of storage at Wolverhampton University where it has been gathering dust since 1973. The amazing thing is that, until then, the Harwell – or the WITCH (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computing from Harwell) as it was known at the time – was still being used to teach computing science to students. Its new home will be at the National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) at Bletchley Park, wartime home of the Enigma Machine codebreakers.

Picture by courtesy of the Wolverhampton Express and Star

The machine was designed in 1949 and was intended to take some of the slog out of scientific calculations. If they can get the funding, they plan to rebuild this ancient machine and bring it back to life.

Source: [BBC, The Inquirer, Gizmodo]

NaturalNews.com have exposed Energizer’s ploy to charge 400% more for rechargeable D batteries that merely have AA cores in them.  Energizer E2 Rechargeable Batteries specifically are ones in question.  These batteries provide 2500mAh vs 12000mAh for a standard single use D battery.  Most AA batteries provide 2500mAh+ for both single use or rechargeable.

By comparison, check out the Powerex “D” rechargeable batteries at BetterLifeGoods.com. These batteries have more than 300% more power than the Energizer batteries, and they only cost slightly more! ($15 dollars vs. about $12, for triple the power). They’re also significantly heavier. And you know why they’re heavier? Because they don’t contain a bunch of cheap plastic and air gaps inside!

So make your choice.  I think Energizer has just banged it’s last drum off my shopping list.