4 ms·

How It Works...The Computer (1971)

33 points by brazzy 17y ago

shin_lao 17y ago
Hi, I am a traveler from the future! My telephone is more powerful than all the computers of your world put together. I use this power to run a program that simulates a lighter on the screen of my phone.
- mojuba 17y ago
  Hi, I'm from superfuture and I can simulate the world of your time in my phone, except I'm still paying 40c per minute for phone calls.
  - angstrom 17y ago
    And 10c per text message...while the actual cost to the operators has approached zero.
    - tl 17y ago
      Actually in the superfuture the cost is negative; advertising based on the context of recent text messages causes the operator to make a small amount of money (about $.005) per message sent.
- dkarl 17y ago
  Hi, I'm from 1971. Is "faster, smaller, cheaper" really all we're going to accomplish in hardware architecture in the next forty years? We're pretty bored with the Von Neumann architecture and can't imagine it lasting much longer. P.S. I told Vint Cerf about Facebook and he drilled a hole in his skull to "let the evil out." Hope that doesn't screw anything up for you guys. Ciao!
arethuza 17y ago
I'm pretty sure I can remember this from the early '70 (I was born in '65) - for some reason the bit about Analog and Digital computers stuck in my brain....
- jacquesm 17y ago
  There is an interesting parallel between the 'bleeding edge' of digital computing and analog computing in the form of propagation networks. Analog computing never really went away, each and every opamp is essentially an minimal analog computer.
deleted 17y ago
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aleem 17y ago
The first mechanical calculator was actually designed by Da Vinci not Pascal. http://aleembawany.com/articles/history-of-computers/ http://aleembawany.com/articles/history-of-computers/
kulkarnic 17y ago
I actually inherited this book from my grandfather. It's actually quite a nice book, and for the times, seems like a introduction. I remember being pretty impressed by punch-cards for some time after I read the book--my attempts to find one at school were met with some quizzical looks though.
matclayton 17y ago
Found a copy of this at my Grans house, about a month ago. She had just picked it up at a church book club to learn more about how her (Windows 3.0) computer works :) If only we can get her to upgrade..... alas. She found it very understandable and definitely a good intro to old school computing.
AndrejM 17y ago
Hehe, I have a 1984 book about computers, with a ZX Spectrum on the front cover. Got it from my dad. It's not in English, though.
petercooper 17y ago
I had this book as a 5-6 year old in the mid 80s. It's easy, now, to underestimate the importance of short, high level books like these on the imagination of children. Is there anything similar today? (That, ideally, is not 99% software or content creation focused, as most introductory computing books I've seen recently are.)

33 points by brazzy 17y ago

Hi, I am a traveler from the future! My telephone is more powerful than all the computers of your world put together. I use this power to run a program that simulates a lighter on the screen of my phone.

mojuba 17y ago
Hi, I'm from superfuture and I can simulate the world of your time in my phone, except I'm still paying 40c per minute for phone calls.
- angstrom 17y ago
  And 10c per text message...while the actual cost to the operators has approached zero.
  - tl 17y ago
    Actually in the superfuture the cost is negative; advertising based on the context of recent text messages causes the operator to make a small amount of money (about $.005) per message sent.
dkarl 17y ago
Hi, I'm from 1971. Is "faster, smaller, cheaper" really all we're going to accomplish in hardware architecture in the next forty years? We're pretty bored with the Von Neumann architecture and can't imagine it lasting much longer. P.S. I told Vint Cerf about Facebook and he drilled a hole in his skull to "let the evil out." Hope that doesn't screw anything up for you guys. Ciao!

arethuza 17y ago

I'm pretty sure I can remember this from the early '70 (I was born in '65) - for some reason the bit about Analog and Digital computers stuck in my brain....

jacquesm 17y ago
There is an interesting parallel between the 'bleeding edge' of digital computing and analog computing in the form of propagation networks. Analog computing never really went away, each and every opamp is essentially an minimal analog computer.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

aleem 17y ago

The first mechanical calculator was actually designed by Da Vinci not Pascal. http://aleembawany.com/articles/history-of-computers/ http://aleembawany.com/articles/history-of-computers/

kulkarnic 17y ago

I actually inherited this book from my grandfather. It's actually quite a nice book, and for the times, seems like a introduction. I remember being pretty impressed by punch-cards for some time after I read the book--my attempts to find one at school were met with some quizzical looks though.

matclayton 17y ago

Found a copy of this at my Grans house, about a month ago. She had just picked it up at a church book club to learn more about how her (Windows 3.0) computer works :) If only we can get her to upgrade..... alas. She found it very understandable and definitely a good intro to old school computing.

AndrejM 17y ago

Hehe, I have a 1984 book about computers, with a ZX Spectrum on the front cover. Got it from my dad. It's not in English, though.

petercooper 17y ago

I had this book as a 5-6 year old in the mid 80s. It's easy, now, to underestimate the importance of short, high level books like these on the imagination of children. Is there anything similar today? (That, ideally, is not 99% software or content creation focused, as most introductory computing books I've seen recently are.)