Two Alans who changed my life forever. Richard Shaw The above thought came to me as I was walking home from seeing The Imitation Game at the cinema (I wanted to see if I agreed with Nicole Kobie’s assessment in last month’s PC Pro magazine) after finishing my autobiography a few days earlier (My Life in Computers. From Sharp to Sony via Atari). The first Alan is of course Alan Turing who is widely regarded today as the father of modern day computing and the other was the neighbour of a school friend when I was 13. I don’t believe Alun Turing ever featured in the history of computers
when I was taught it at school. We were told that modern day computers were based on the ‘Von Neumman Machine’ not the ‘Turing Machine’ because the British government were still sitting on the secret of Bletchley Park. For the same reason we were told that the first reprogrammable computer was the American ENIAC not the British Colossus. I now believe that if it wasn’t for Alan Turing the computer that changed my life may not have existed at the time when I was most impressionable and might not have touched my life in quite the same way that it has.
The other Alan was more than happy to show off his Sharp MZ80K when my school friend knocked on his door, and I’m sure he would have let me play with it again if only my school friend could be convinced to knock again. We didn’t have computers at school yet so the only way I was going to get another go on a computer was either to knock on a stranger’s door myself or convince my Dad to buy me one. As it happened I did both. I convinced my Dad to buy me a computer and we visited the back rooms of carpet and camera shops looking at various models – they were sold almost like a black market item back then. My father was a motor mechanic and had no idea how he was going to select the most appropriate machine for his eldest son, so I knocked on Alan’s door and explained the situation. To cut a long story short I returned shortly after with my Dad, he looked at the machine, took some advice from Alan, and we went out and bought one. Alan said if we bought one I should go back and he would share some games with me. I spent at least two evenings a week at Alan’s house from that point onwards prompting my Grandma to ask if I was safe spending time alone with a single man behind closed doors. My Dad put her fears to rest and I continued visiting Alan until I left home to start a Computer Studies Degree at the Polytechnic of Wales. I made do with visiting Alan in the holidays while I was away (there was no email or Facebook for keeping in touch) but I haven’t seen him since I graduated. When I tried to get in touch with him to invite him to my engagement party a mutual friend told me to stop searching for him and said he would explain later why I would never find him as it wasn’t something to be said over the phone.
My Dad and I joked in the meantime that he might be in prison but it didn’t prepare us for the shocking truth that he was – my Grandma’s fears had been true all along. Although I can’t forgive the despicable things that Alan did to our mutual friend’s children I can’t deny that he was a great friend at the time and was the instigator of my love of computers. Maybe Mr Askey the state registered nurse who taught me computer science at school a year after I’d bought my first computer would have had the same effect but I’ll never know. If you’re wondering, I never felt
unsafe at Alan’s and he never made any untoward approaches on me. To lighten the mood my Dad says that he mustn’t have fancied me. As for Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Turing in the movie, I can see why it might have irritated Nicole but without his social ineptitude the film would be very short of the much needed laughs, although they didn’t stop me having a few tears in my eye when the inevitable ending is revealed via subtitles at the close. December 2014