Nothing brings you closer to your computer then counting binary on your
fingers. We had to do it for Machine Arch. at the U and I find myself
doing it from time to time accidentally. Using the binary clock is a good
way to show the system you're a real guru as well. It took me a few weeks
to show the systems around here that they should fear me. They used to
mock me until I threatened init's life. Now they know to respect me, the
keeper of renice(8).
Adam Maloney
Systems Administrator
Sihope Communications
On Mon, 7 Aug 2000, Troy A. Johnson wrote:
> Holy educational aids, Batman!
>
> Is there anything like this on the market today? It might be nice to be
> able to get people to feel more comfortable when they get closer to the
> 1s and 0s (myself included, though I'm not a stranger to them). How big
> was this thing?
>
> Peter Schuman wrote:
> >
> > Well, literally, my first digital computer was a plastic contraption I got
> > in the 1960s sometime. It consisted of wires (for strength, not
> > conduction) and a lot of levers and plastic slides. You could rearrange
> > the sliders and levers and get the computer to either do addition or
> > subtraction or generate random numbers -- all on a 3-bit "display": three
> > of the sliders that represented 1 if pulled out and 0 if pushed in. No
> > Altair, but I certainly got an understanding of the process in adding
> > numbers in a digital computer -- and an appreciation for the time and
> > rework needed to get even the simplest computer program to work. Once you
> > spent the hours to assemble the thing and worked out how to do the small
> > number of things it could do, that was that: there was nothing more you
> > could do with it. You couldn't even dismantle it so you could store it
> > safely (easy-snapping polystyrene, remember?)
> >
> > A few computer museums have these, but they were made of soft steel wire
> > and polystyrene ("high-impact," of course!), so they have VERY little
> > resistance to breaking.
> >
> > A bit of experience with a mechanical digital computer goes a long way
> > towards breaking down any awe for the magical electronic "brain." I will
> > never think of computers as anything but extremely fast, extremely stupid
> > adding machines. Of course, they are also examples of how much can be done
> > with lots and lots of simple-minded processes -- but then, so are ants and
> > bees; the tiny, self-replicating robots that some labs have running around
> > on lab floors are really just an order of magnitude or so simpler than the
> > "brains" controlling insects.
> >
> > The Kaypro 2X in the garage is a different animal, of course: 4 MHz Z80
> > with 64 K of memory and two 390K floppy drives. Over 6 years, I wrote
> > about 1 1/2 million words on it, all of which were printed on a Juki 6100
> > daisy wheel printer. And Wordstar -- made in hacker's heaven, for hackers.
> >
> > "Trainor, Kevin T." wrote:
> >
> > > Jeff wrote:
> > > > I still have my first computer (Apple II+) and monitor (green
> > > > monochrome made by apple) in the basement.
> > > I have an XT clone that my son has "inherited"; bought it
> > > for about $2000 worth of grad school student loan money in 1988.
> > > I remember being thrilled because it had 10 expansion slots and
> > > a CGA monitor.
> > >
> > > <snip>
> > > > Scary, though,
> > > > that my TI-89 graphing calculator is many times more powerful than my
> > > first
> > > > computer, or even my first Mac. (16MHz 68000 vs. 8MHz 68000
> > > > vs. 1MHz 6502)
> > > I feel the same way about my Palm Pilot (a Personal, not
> > > even a III!) and that 8088. Very scary.
> > >
> > > Kevin Trainor
> > > [Snip!]
> >
> > --
> > Peter Schuman paschuman at uswest.net
> >
> > Vegetarians eat vegetables: Beware of humanitarians!
> >
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> --
> Troy Johnson mailto:john1536 at tc.umn.edu http://umn.edu/~john1536/
> You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails
> to
> follow the first one.
> -- Rush Limbaugh, in a moment of unaccustomed profundity 17 Aug
> 1993
>
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