4 ms·
This page [0] includes an analysis of the manual for the possible machine Mel programmed in the story along with a probable photograph of him. [1] is an instru
by pfarrell 4y ago
This page [0] includes an analysis of the manual for the possible machine Mel programmed in the story along with a probable photograph of him.
[1] is an instruction manual for the blackjack program itself, written by Mel.
Classic story solidly in the “should be reposted every six months or so” cohort.
0: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/macho-programmers-drum-memory-and-a-forensic-analysis-of-1960s-machine-code-6c5da6a40244/ https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/macho-programmers-drum-mem...
1: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/royalPrecision/RPC-4000/programWriteups/W1-01.0_Blackjack_Game.pdf http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/royalPrecision/RPC-40...
- chimeracoder 4y ago> I did eventually manage to get in contact with Mel, but I scared him away, unfortunately. That's a story for another day... :-/ I'm... very curious what this entailed
- mbakke 4y agoThe answer can be found in this very thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32400786 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32400786
- nocoiner 4y agoIt’s interesting to me that caption to the 1956 newspaper picture in the first linked article identifies someone from the NSA. I thought the mere existence of that agency was basically classified information well into the ‘70s.
- pfarrell 4y agoThat’s puzzling! Thanks to the author’s sourcing, a quick search turned up a scan of the full article [0]. My initial thought was, maybe it’s a name collision and this National Security Agency in 1956 is an insurance or accounting firm, but the source article doesn’t elaborate. 0: https://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/1950_-_1959_files/560800%20Librazette.pdf https://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/1950_...