Computers

Whilst looking into claims that the Apollo moon-landings were faked, I found this article with a snippet of information which I'm sure will be enjoyed by anyone sad enough to have worked on a mainframe computer:
'The real computer work was done on Earth using mainframe computers. Results of complex calculations were transmitted to the onboard computer which could act upon them.'

While we're on the subject of computers (in a stream of human conciousness way), my dad worked for Hewlett Packard from when he left University (before I was born) until he retired (imagine working for the same company for more than 10 years! Hmm), he told me that the space shuttle carried a Hewlett Packard calculator as their ultimate back-up computer. I can remember an HP brochure he brought home in the late 70s which declared HP to be 'the second biggest small computer manufacturer in the world', what a great tag-line. People used to ask me what job my dad did and I was always at a bit of a loss, presumably he has the same problem when people ask him what I do now...