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Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC)-tan

General facts:
- Automaton, though it's hard to tell at first glance
- Refined ideas pioneered in ENIAC.
- Physically active
- Smaller, simpler and faster than its predecessor.
- Her body was incomplete for a long time, worked around it with prostheses
- Slow development, changed significantly over course of project.
- Proud of her advancement, but disappointed she didn't have the freedom to be weird and different like ENIAC-tan
- More formalized design, less piecemeal and experimental.
- Fantastic memory
- Stored program computer.
- Pressured by high expectations from the start
- Project ran concurrently with ENIAC compensating for its shortcomings.
- Sociable, met and worked with many outsiders, not shy about discussing the nature of computers. (Which she came to regret.)
- Foundational computer, inspired the creation of others of its era.
- Trust issues.
- [waves broadly at EDVAC history]
- Glory stolen by her half-sisters
- EDSAC and Manchester Mk. I completed before EDVAC, and IAS Machine remembered as "the originator".
- A bit aimless, has ambitious ideas but has trouble applying herself
- Big ideas, implementation issues.
- Recruited into the army as a 2nd Lieutenant.
- Military service gave her the direction she'd lacked all her life.
- Pragmatic and hard working, loves her job in ordnance and the army.
- Badly hurt in a spontaneous combustion, but recovered fully.
- Suffered an electrical fire in 1952.
- Retired(?) at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
- Used and upgraded until 1962.
- Aware of her influence on future generations of computers but seems to gain no fulfillment from it.
- Status: Exceptionally dead

Quote from: Williams, "The Origins, Uses, and Fate of the EDVAC""Today nothing remains of the EDVAC except a few small plug-in circuit elements stored carefully away in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and a larger section of electronics in the basement of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. said to have been part of the original construction effort. The EDVAC - the machine that launched us into the computer age - is no more, and many who worked on her would say, "Just as well.""

Relationships:
- Close, but complicated relationship with ENIAC-tan
- Though EDVAC was directly inspired by ENIAC, it's defined mostly by its differences from its predecessor.
- Has a large, dysfunctional human "family"
- EDVAC development committee frequently in conflict.
- Initially got along with her uncles, but soured after the creation of IAS-tan ...
- von Neumann & Goldstein contributed to EDVAC, but fell out with the team after the First Draft controversy.
- Intense, one-sided enmity with IAS-tan, who she blames for her misfortunes.
- Forced to work with her niece(s) ORDVAC-tan and BRLESC-tan(?).
- Other computers at the BRL
- Aware of, but ignores, her half-sisters EDSAC and Manchester Mk. I
- Feels abandoned by her "fathers", has a strained relationship with the Univacs
- Eckart & Mauchley departed the project and formed their own company.

Appearance & personality:
- Bears resemblance to ENIAC-tan and IAS-tan: slender, olive skintone, short black hair worn in curls, gold-amber eyes and soft features. Fuller figure than ENIAC, but leaner than IAS.
- Doll-like features present but less pronounced. Mechanical trappings (wires, plugs) hidden.
- Disheveled, contemporary 40s attire in black, hat with short black veil. Carries around counting tools and artillery tables.
- WAC uniform when on duty.
- Reflects her mother's pride and primness, with none of her graciousness or patience. Bitterly wounded, though she's gotten better at hiding her regrets she'll bare her feelings when the conversation turns to her past. Despite her scientific acumen she's less academic than others in her family, very hands-on and happiest when she has a practical problem to solve. Sabotaged by obsessive tendencies. Well-regarded and respected in the army/ordnance computer community, but tends to go unnoticed by the wider world of -tans.

#46

OS-tan Fan-Fics, Comics and Fan-Stuff / Re: FREE COOKIES!

Last post by Goujer - August 01, 2025, 05:43:02 PM

So sharp, so nice <3

#47

OS-tan Fan-Fics, Comics and Fan-Stuff / Re: FREE COOKIES!

Last post by VonDaab - July 31, 2025, 02:57:26 PM

I'll just waste people's time some High Quality Vidyagaem fan fart.

#48

General Computers and Gaming / Re: Games General

Last post by VonDaab - July 31, 2025, 12:17:28 PM

They're fairly expensive these days yeah, but it's worth having an eye out for any "junk" systems with a faulty display, as IPS kitting is kinda a must for anysort of modern comfort. I've had a first model, monochrome display WS for over 10 years now and been telling myself I didn't need a WSColor, until now (then again, drop-in IPS kits weren't a thing 10 years ago). I guess I could've gotten one for bit cheaper back then, but oh well. The one I found was supposed to been "faulty screen" so I got it for an ok price. Turns out the screen was just fine, so dunno what the seller had thought. Came even with Final Fantasy I, even though it's all in Japanese.

Flashcarts are really expensive yeah, and also currently there's only 1 guy who makes them, so they can kinda dictate the price and quality (their current model still uses 3D printed shells, which is far from ideal). There is supposedly a new flashcart in the works, but who knows how long that will take to become a final product.
Current flashcart has also quite high battery drain so a IPS kitted WSC with a Flashcart might end up with rather poor battery life, like 1-2 hours with standard Alkaline battery. People say they can get more with 1.5V Lithiums. IPS kitted with genuine cartridge gets you somewhere between 2-3 hours. Which is like, just okay for modern standards, also to consider the thing runs on a single AA cell, which is impressive.

I decided to instead get some fairly cheap bootleg cartridges which have already English translation hacks on them. Also noticed there are new-made headphone jack adapters for it, so had to grab that too.
IPS backlight is at about half brightness in this pic, which is more than enough for indoor use, and is better for the battery.
BTW, the game in photo is Dicing Knight, a genuine cartridge of that game goes for about $1500, so yeah... the Wonderswan world is wild.

#49

General Computers and Gaming / Re: Games General

Last post by Hālian - July 30, 2025, 10:01:01 PM

Quote from: VonDaab on July 23, 2025, 02:23:59 PMSolved my biggest peevee with Wonderswans. Slapped an IPS panel kit into one.
(snip)

Hell yeah! I'd love to get a WSC or SwanCrystal sometime, but $$$, especially once you account for a flashcart.

#50

Forum Games and Role-Playing / Re: RP?

Last post by Hālian - July 30, 2025, 09:59:26 PM

Quote from: Bella on July 09, 2025, 10:17:24 PMI've never actually done OS-tan related RPs before but I do miss the old forum RPs we used to have, so I'm intrigued!

Quote from: stewartsage on July 09, 2025, 10:29:01 PMKinda curious, I do love me some RPs!

What I do remember is that the primary setting was a bar and restaurant in neutral territory, with IRIX 5-kun (see my recent posts) as one of the waiters; my primary characters were the IRIXen, VMS-tan, 2K-tan, and also Linux Kernel-tan (specifically Juzo-kun's version). Other characters for which I have tuppers registered are:

Amiga-tan
ProDOS 8-tan
UNIX-tan
Solaris-tan
LA30-tan
AMIX-tan
BeOS-tan
XP Professional-tan
Vista Ultimate-tan
Decima 19HX
XP Home-tan
Palm OS-tan
Mac OS ROM-tan
Copland-kun
Snes9x-tan

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