Steve Lindemann wrote:
I think I still have a Model B in the loft somewhere...
Kevin
I've seen CP/M mentioned but no mention of the venerable Kaypro! Oh
those were the days.... 8^)
But my first digital computer (at work) was a Raytheon 703 with paper
tape to load programs (after you fingered in the boot) and output was
the lights on the front panel. I also worked on analog computers for
a number of years, it wasn't so much programming as re-engineering. I
actually do miss those days.
A skilled practitioner could get 5 digits out of this baby:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule (I still have the yellow one).
If you needed more rigorous but still relatively easy and quick, you
would use this: http://ljkrakauer.com/CRC99ph/CRCbook.htm.
Later, there were Wang digital calculators
(http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/wang362e.html <- that one's actually
newer, smaller & more feature rich) in the chem library with multiple
keyboard/display units connected by serial cable so that several
students could be using it at once. The thing is that all those extra
digits were insignificant and had to be lopped off anyway. ;-)
Computers often encourage innumeracy
(http://www.amazon.com/Innumeracy-Mathematical-Illiteracy-Its-Consequences/dp/0809074478/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0),
and make us think we know more than we actually do. (That's quite a good
book, by the way. If you like numbers/math, get it for yourself for
Christmas or whatever you celebrate at this time of year.)
--
---------------
Chris Hoogendyk
-
O__ ---- Systems Administrator
c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
(*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
<hoogen...@bio.umass.edu>
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Erdös 4
