Happy Birthday to Us!

Nexor Celebrates its 30th Anniversary

This year, Nexor is commemorating its 30th anniversary and as part of the celebrations the entire company joined together for a coach trip to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The trip was in recognition of the hard work and dedication from Nexor employees that made this milestone achievement possible. The National Museum is a must-see historical landmark, which preserves the unique story of the brilliant men and women charged with decoding enemy communications during WW2, as well as providing a broader look at the dramatic evolution of computers since their inception over eighty years ago.

Left to Right; Liz, Simon, Adrian, Steve, Nick, Keith, Simon, Donna, Miles, Colin, Tony, Pete, Lakhshmi, Alec, Dan, Travis, Shane, Natalie, Tom, Keith, Katie, Nev, Josh, Simon, Sarah, Will, Irene, Emma, Ollie and Andrew

Our more experienced employees were taken on a walk down memory lane, reminiscing over long defunct devices that they once used themselves. For others it was an opportunity to see the extent to which computers have transformed over the past 80 years, transitioning from behemoths that took up half a room, to devices orders of magnitude more powerful that we can now carry around in our pockets. Overall it was a fascinating experience, learning about the influential roles played by gifted women and men that led to the birth of computers as we know them today.

To add a little friendly competition to the day, the company split into teams and went head to head in several challenges throughout the day.  The highlight was a codebreaking puzzle based around the first programmable electronic computer, Colossus, that was used for deciphering the German High Command’s Lorenz SZ-40 cipher machine. The teams raced against each other to decrypt an encoded message using a simplified version of the techniques used by codebreakers in WW2.

The Colossus Challenge, breaking the code

Left to Right; Simon, Lakhshmi, Colin and Dan

After returning, the whole company followed up with a trip to one of Nottingham’s finest curry houses for a delicious Indian buffet. The whole day was an enjoyable and educational experience and even the weather played its part.

Opinions from the Day

The Colossus has over 1700 thermionic valves

“I think visiting somewhere that had a lot of information and history about our industry helped me learn a bit more about where Nexor has come from and where it’s going. It was really interesting to see the history of computers over the last 80 or so years, but also to see how quickly it’s progressed. I was also extremely encouraged to see how many women were involved in the creation of computers.”

Natalie – Product Manager

In 1965 an Elliot 903 sold for between £12,750 and £90,000 depending on the configuration.

“Great to see an Elliott 903, the first real computer I programmed. On start-up, you had to use the switches to programme the paper tape drive, so you could load the operating system.”

Colin – Managing Security Consultant

Left to Right; Dan, Katie, Sarah, Lakhshmi, Travis, Alex, Simon, Nick, Simon, Adrian and Josh

“I especially enjoyed seeing the more experienced staff members reminiscing about the computers that they used to work with “back in the day”. Less so when I saw less experienced staff members experience a Mega Drive for the first time.”                                                             

Nick – Engineering Manager

The Turing Bombe Rebuild Project still decrypting codes to this day

“A perfect way to celebrate 30 years of Nexor. From learning about our heritage, to the fun quizzes and team building exercise and having the opportunity to relax and socialise with everyone. A great day was had by all!”

Katie – Sales Executive