Idiot journalist

[ewx]

“The first program was written by the late Tom Kilburn to work out the highest factor of a prime number”

I'm not entirely convinced that's true, you know...

Comments

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

They're tricky things to find, these factors of prime numbers. That's why you need a computer.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

The article contains (now) an explanation of why they really do mean factoring primes.

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

Yep, I saw.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Well, sort of. The program really was a program to factor arbitrary (representable) integers, and the fact that they fed it a prime first doesn't alter that.

[pm215]

Does also contain a quote to the effect that the highest factor of a prime is one, though...