From: john boyle 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: That "squalid raffle" (aka Premium bonds) Times Sat 29 April 2006
Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 21:24:43 +0100

In message , Virgils 
Ghost  writes
>> ERNIE isnt a computer.
>
>Yeah, of course not.
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/business_a_history_of_e
>rnie/html/5.stm
>
>*cough* muppet.

Suggest you take some cough medicine before you do some more research.

Can you can find any of the attributes of a computer that can be found 
in ERNIE ?

The main attribute that ERNIE lacks is that it is not programmable and 
it does not work using software. It just generates numbers, that is all, 
not from an algorithm but from thermal noise. Previous models used a gas 
mechanism.
-- 
John Boyle