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Colossus - The Greatest Secret in the History of Computing

The Centre for Computing History · lecture · Watch on YouTube

History of computing

What it is

Chris Shore of the Centre for Computing History explains how Colossus was built, how it worked, and how it affected the course of World War II. It is an hour-long museum lecture on the codebreaking computer.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters recommend it as an excellent deep dive on the real Colossus, full of stories about unsung engineers.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2022, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “I just watched this excellent lecture on the Colossus machine [0]”

    Lecture on Colossus and the Normandy deception

    jazzyjackson, 2022-03 · Strong recommendation · in “Psychological Operations”

  2. “It was very worth the watch, lots of fascinating tidbits including some stories of unsung heroes / geniuses.”

    Colossus story with fascinating tidbits about unsung heroes

    hoten, 2024-05 · Strong recommendation · in “ENIAC Simulator”

  3. “And a longer, deeper dive (also very good).”

    Longer, deeper dive on the real Colossus

    jgalt212, 2024-04 · Recommendation · in “Virtual Colossus”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: colossus, bletchley park, wwii codebreaking, early computers

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