> A lot of the theory behind information processing, and especially on 
> finding the most efficient algorithm to accomplish a specific task, 
> comes from this era.  When a single clock cycle of computer time costs 
> enough money to show up on a balance sheet, efficiency in computing 
> becomes something of interest.

I'l bet it does...

Of course, today efficiency has nothing to do with how many instructions 
it takes and depends *only* on how good its cache behaviour is.

> In the early 80s my high school went and bought a card reader for use in 
> quickly tallying input from the 2000+ students on things like student 
> council elections and so forth.  They wanted me to help get the system 
> going, but I never spent more than an hour or so with it.

Man, I had no idea card readers persisted so long!

> The US military had 50s-era cryptologic equipment, using vacuum tubes 
> and magnetic cores, in active service until the late 80s.  The 
> transmitter and receiver together took up an entire equipment rack.

Ah yes, but that's military equipment. It takes a lot of time, money and 
effort to design mil spec equipment. If it still works, why change it? 
(Or rather, "who's going to pay to redesign it?")

> It 
> was widely rumored among Air Force crypto technicians that the designer 
> of the system had been committed to an insane asylum, and that nobody 
> else fully understood how it worked.

That totally sounds like something the Air Force would rumour. ;-)

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