55 ms·
>Programs are stored on a central server, but are executed by putting a printout of the code on a tabletop that has a camera and a projector above it So...time
by nexuist 7y ago
>Programs are stored on a central server, but are executed by putting a printout of the code on a tabletop that has a camera and a projector above it
So...timesharing and punchcards?
Ha! I'm amazed at how often computer history repeats (rhymes?) itself. Not to discredit Dynamicland's work, if anything I love that they took something that seems so ancient and turned it into something excited again. Sounds like such a cool place to work at.
- tlb 7y agoPunchcards have their virtues! My family's business used them for inventory management in the 70s. You could print out a deck of cards for the inventory database, and walk around the warehouse pulling out cards for anything broken or missing, then scan those cards back in to change their category. Now you could do it all on an iPad, but the bandwidth of shuffling cards by hand can be significantly higher than scrolling through a list.
- tdeck 7y agoHere's a company that was still using them in the last decade: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chron.com/news/amp/Conroe-company-still-using-computers-museums-want-4459714.php https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chron.com/news/amp/Conroe-c...
- fatso784 7y agoWriting a scholarly paper now that points this issue out in DynamicLand. DynamicLand is amazing but making the "old" paradigm the centre point of the new is a contradiction. I wonder if Bret Victor has thought about this bottleneck.