Tom Abate wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle Jan. 17, 2011, about the grand opening of a museum dedicated to celebrating mankind’s quest to augment its capacity for problem solving. The Computer History Museum fittingly occupies two stories in what used to be the headquarters of Silicon Graphics.

The museum’s mission is “to preserve and present for posterity the artifacts and stories of the information age.” Much of the museum’s historic artifacts came from The Computer Museum in Boston, which closed in 1999.

You can take in the museum’s first permanent exhibit, “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing,” in about 45 minutes if you’re a quick browser. Those who take delight in the history and evolution of computing (read: geeks) could spend hours poring over the more than 1,100 objects and interactive offerings on display. And that’s only about 1 percent of the museum’s collection. According to the museum’s website, “‘Revolution’ is a rich, multimedia exhibition that traces the history of modern computing, everything from the abacus to the smart phone.” The exhibition spans an orientation theater, 19 galleries and five mini-theaters showing high-definition videos.

You can access all of the 100,000 items in the museum’s collection through its searchable online archives, making it a powerful resource for researchers, students and history enthusiasts. The museum also conducts and preserves video and audio oral history interviews and panel discussions with key contributors to the information age.

The Computer History Museum is located at 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View, Calif. Regular museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. General admission is $15; admission for seniors (65 and older), students with ID (13 and older), and active military with ID is $12; members and children 12 and younger are admitted free. School trips are welcome; call (650) 810-1010 in advance to schedule a visit and get help from a museum planner.