Weird but super useful gadgets
I seem to be someone who buys things on the off chance that they will be useful at some point down the road. Thile there are many times when it doesn't feel like this pays off, some of the ...
Taking tea with the Leo...
Taking tea with the Leo...
The world of business today would collapse without computers to make sure staff get paid and customers receive their orders.
Enterprise's love affair with computing can be traced back to this machine, the Lyons Electronic Office or Leo I.
Leo's first task was working out how much it cost Lyons to get buns, tea cakes and other baked goods from its bakery into its national chain of tea shops - a far cry from the multibillion-pound financial transactions trusted to corporate machines today.
If Leo's first task sounds menial that's because it was. Before the computer came along it required clerks to crank through the many calculations, exactly the sort of boring and repetitive task that was ripe for automation.
That very first business application was fired up 60 years ago on Thursday, and today computer conservation enthusiasts gathered at London Science Museum to mark the anniversary at an event supported by Google.
Caption by: Nick Heath
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