追憶短暫的英國計算機創(chuàng)新

Electronic Dreams: How 1980s Britain Learned toLove the Computer By Tom Lean Bloomsbury/Sigma￡16.99

《電子夢：20世紀80年代英國人如何迷上計算機》(Electronic Dreams: How 1980s Britain Learned toLove the Computer)，湯姆•利恩(Tom Lean)著，Bloomsbury/Sigma出版，售價16.99英鎊。

In 1983 Britain proudly boasted the highest level ofcomputer ownership in the world, technologyhistorian Tom Lean tells us in his entertaining andaffectionate, if for the most part nostalgic, book on the country’s relationship withcomputers. About one in 10 UK homes, he writes, had a computer, more than in the US orJapan.

1983年英國自豪地宣稱擁有全球最高的計算機普及率，科技史學家湯姆•利恩在他的書中寫道。這本書有趣、深情，以大篇幅的懷舊，敘寫了英國和計算機之間的淵源。他寫道，大約每10個英國家庭就有1家擁有計算機，超過當時的美國或日本。

At the same time, the UK had several computer manufacturers, one of which was making moreof them than any other company in the world — Sir Clive Sinclair’s Sinclair Research. There waseven a Welsh computer, the Dragon 32. And the UK had an early version of the internet,Prestel, set up by the Post Office. It trialled an early version of Ocado et al, with the wonderfullyterrible name, The Armchair Grocer.

同時，英國當時有數(shù)家計算機制造商，其中一家的計算機產(chǎn)量超過世界上的任何其他公司，這就是克萊夫•辛克萊爵士(Sir Clive Sinclair)的Sinclair Research公司。當時甚至還有一種名為Dragon 32的威爾士產(chǎn)計算機。英國還出現(xiàn)了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的雛形——英國郵局(Post Office)建立的視訊系統(tǒng)Prestel。Prestel試驗了類似Ocado等在線超市的雛形系統(tǒng)，就是名字蹩腳了點兒，叫“扶手椅雜貨鋪”(The Armchair Grocer)。

Another remarkable fact from Electronic Dreams: which UK company would you imagine was,by 1951, the world’s first to use a computer for business, and started making computers forother companies?

《電子夢》還展示了另一個令人驚訝的事實：你能想象在1951年是哪家英國企業(yè)在全世界率先將計算機應用于商業(yè)、并開始為其他公司制造計算機嗎?

It was J. Lyons and Co, the teashop chain. Its computer business, LEO, kept going until 1963.Lyons’ role as a computer manufacturing pioneer is the more astonishing — at least to anyoneold enough to remember the ostensibly low-tech J. Lyons cafés — in that there was stiffcompetition from within the UK; companies such as Ferranti, Elliott Brothers, English Electricand British Tabulating Machinery were all selling British boffin-made computers globally.

那就是連鎖茶商J. Lyons and Co。其計算機業(yè)務LEO一直經(jīng)營至1963年。Lyons作為計算機制造業(yè)先驅更為令人震驚的是(至少對年紀足夠大的人而言是如此，他們還記得Lyons看起來科技含量很低的咖啡館)，當時Lyons在英國面臨激烈的競爭。Ferranti、Elliott Brothers、英國電氣(English Electric)以及英國制表機械(British Tabulating Machinery)等公司都在向全球出售著英產(chǎn)計算機。

Britain’s role in computing, as it emerges in Lean’s book, is similar to England’s place in thehistory of football. At each juncture, from the work of Alan Turing to Sir Clive to Sir TimBerners-Lee, even to Sir Alan Sugar at a stretch, the UK was a prime innovator, only later tobecome a minor player.

在利恩的書中，英國在計算機領域的地位，堪比英格蘭之于足球史。在每一個轉折點上，從艾倫•圖靈(AlanTuring)的研究，至克萊夫爵士，再至蒂姆•伯納斯•李爵士(Sir Tim Berners-Lee)，直至艾倫•休格爵士( SirAlan Sugar)，英國一度都是計算機行業(yè)的創(chuàng)新先鋒，后來卻變得無足輕重。

Yet while the average non-Brit would probably regard Britain’s part in computing history to beabout as interesting as, say, Portugal’s, the UK does still punch significantly above its weight.While few in Britain, you would suspect, used a British computer between around 1995 and theemergence of the Raspberry Pi in 2012, UK tech companies such as ARM, which has its roots inAcorn Computers, are still of global importance.

不過，雖然對那些并非英國人的大眾而言，在計算機史上英國就跟葡萄牙一樣名不見經(jīng)傳，英國卻仍然在這一領域盡力而為。難以想象在1995年左右至2012年卡片式電腦樹莓派(Raspberry Pi)誕生之間，在英國還有人使用國產(chǎn)電腦，然而，英國的科技公司，比如起源于Acorn計算機公司(Acorn Computers)的ARM，在全球仍然舉足輕重。

But the British are slightly in love with stories of national failure, and it is hard for a true Britnot to giggle slightly reading that the Post Office picked up only 6,000 Prestel users in its firstyear, peaking at 90,000, with just 12,000 when it died in 1991. The French pre-internetcomputer network equivalent, Minitel, peaked at 9m.

但英國人對于講英國失敗的故事會有一種微妙的喜愛，讀到Prestel的興衰史每個真正的英國人都會忍俊不禁。在Prestel建立的頭一年，英國郵局只網(wǎng)羅到6000名該系統(tǒng)的用戶，Prestel巔峰時期的用戶量是9萬，到1991年倒閉時是1.2萬。而法國與之對應的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)前身Minitel，用戶量的巔峰值是900萬。

This book is nevertheless very much for British readers, mostly of a certain age. I enjoyedreminiscences of people starting British computer magazines and shops in the 1970s, but ashistory it is a little niche.

不過這本書在很大程度上是為英國人而寫，特別是某特定年齡段的英國人。我就很喜歡其中追憶上世紀70年代英國計算機雜志及商店創(chuàng)始者的部分。但作為歷史類書籍，這本書略顯小眾。

When it steers, however, towards the colourful history of Sir Clive — especially reminding us ofthe 1984 fight in a Cambridge pub with his erstwhile right-hand man, Chris Curry, by then atrival Acorn — it is glorious stuff. Lean accuses the British tabloid press of overblowing theincident, but I still feel it was a bit underblown.

書中對克萊夫爵士的精彩軼事描寫尤為精湛，使我們對1984年劍橋小酒館發(fā)生的沖突記憶猶新，在那里克萊夫爵士與他曾經(jīng)的得力助手、當時為競爭對手Acorn效力的克里斯•柯里(Chris Curry)發(fā)生爭執(zhí)。利恩指責英國小報對這一事件過分渲染，但我仍覺意猶未盡。

It prompted a marvellous 2009 BBC drama, Micro Men, but had it happened in Palo Alto, itwould have made a Hollywood movie.

由這段插曲還衍生出一部精彩的BBC電視電影《英國電腦鼻祖》(Micro Men)，如果它發(fā)生在帕羅奧圖(PaloAlto)，一部好萊塢電影說不定會應運而生。