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Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew?

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On Tue, 19 Jan 2016 08:32:42 -0600
"Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> wrote:

> You are right! I was following the tangential thread instead of the base 
> thread. It didn't occur to me that there would be two accounts.
> 
> Thorp did field testing in 1961, much earlier than the "pie" people. My 
> reading says it had 12 transistors, not that it makes that much
> difference. I can't tell what the thing was, the author calls it a
> computer, but, I would guess, for simplicity of discussion.  When the
> five transistors came up my first thought was an analog computer of some
> sort.

	From the desriptions about pulsing as the ball went into each
octant and the final response being a tone representing an octant I'm
thinking it's something along the lines of an eight stage ring counter with
a decaying clock that's phase locked and tuned by the pulses. Even for
something that simple 12 transistors is pretty good going.

> I believe a basic digital computer needs at least an algebraic add and a 
> conditional jump to be what people think of as a computer today and I
> don't think that could be done with 12 transistors. 

	Quite so, I don't think this is anything we would consider a
computer now, but in the sense of being something that performed a
computation it was a computer - just not programmable or digital both of
which we assume these days but once had to be stated.

-- 
Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays
C:>WIN                                      | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins.                |    licences available see
You lose and Bill collects.                 |    http://www.sohara.org/

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Thread

wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? "M. John Matlaw" <nouser@invalid.com> - 2016-01-17 05:23 -0500
  Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-01-17 14:20 +0000
    Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-01-17 15:14 +0000
      Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2016-01-17 19:24 +0000
        Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-01-17 20:15 +0000
  Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? isw <isw@witzend.com> - 2016-01-17 10:25 -0800
  Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-01-17 23:12 -0500
    Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-18 10:01 +0000
      Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-01-18 15:28 -0500
        Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-19 03:58 +0000
          Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-18 23:16 -0500
        Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-01-19 00:22 -0600
          Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-19 06:58 -0500
            Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-01-19 08:32 -0600
              Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-01-19 15:48 +0000
          Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-01-19 15:44 -0500
        Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-01-19 07:36 -0500
          Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-01-19 15:46 -0500
            Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-01-19 16:37 -0600
  Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Sbez <Sbez742@gmail.com> - 2016-03-04 07:19 -0600
    Re: wearable computers from the sixties - who knew? Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-03-04 16:24 +0000

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