So in “real life,” I work with computers. I’ve played with computers since about 1983, and have had professional jobs working with them since 1993. Since 1993, I’ve worked more or less down the hall from the Eniac Museum at the University of Pennsylvania, which my department runs. And for some reason, I’ve never quite found the time to go take pictures of it — even though we have the keys to get up close and personal with about a tenth of the original Eniac.

Until now, of course, because what you’re looking at is a shot of one of the function tables. Last week I took a couple dozen good shots of the Eniac, and over the next couple of days I’m going to post some of them. I suspect I’ll keep some in reserve for another dry spell.

If you take a look at this shot from the Eniac Museum online, you’ll see the tenth that we have on display. This shot comes from the left side of the right piece, where the fat cable connects the two chunks.

Oh, and the title of this shot is hard to decipher without seeing the original, full-size version of this shot. The upper left corner has an hours-in-use counter. It is showing 33,410 hours — roughly 1392 days. Just short of four years.