desperance

We went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View today, so I put on my geekiest T-shirt*. At the desk, we were in the process of paying when a voice cried "They don't pay! They're on me!" and Chris Garcia erupted from a back room. We didn't even know he was a curator there...

So we did the exhibition in stints, with lunch between, and intermittent cries of "Oh great Ghu, I had one of those!" - and then we went to see the Babbage Difference Engine being demonstrated. Turns out it is curiously like every Windows computer you've ever used: four cranks and it crashed. Brass screen of death.

Still, the crowds dissipated, and Karen got me to pose for a photo round the back of the beautiful beast. And then - because she's actually geekier than I am, and I couldn't think of anywhere better if I worked on it with both hands for a fortnight - I asked if she'd like to marry me.**

And now we're back home, she's writing job applications (or possibly playing WoW, I haven't peeked) and I'm writing a gay pirates story. Yo ho, Sebastian. Keep the aspidochelone floating.

*(black, with a Linux cheat-sheet inverted on the chest so that I can read it)

**EtA: she said yes. Yes, she said, she would. So that's okay.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

movingfinger

Yay!

(Is someone doing a whip-round collecting for a Difference Engine for the wedding gift?)

desperance

Heh. Apparently it was insured for $3 million on its journey from London, so I guess that's the kind of figure people should be whipping for... (And yes, thank you: I would love one.) (But they weigh five tons, so we might need to reinforce the flooring.) (Which is allegedly the reason why the museum still has Nathan's machine; he's reinforcing his flooring.)