w00t!!

[lazygamer]

Magnetic stuff is amazing! If I was an inventor my computer would have to utilize bumps or holes of some sort. It would be totally mechanical. Such concepts of the modern computer with silicon, microsizes, electricity carrying data and magenetic storage baffle the mind!

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by lazygamer:
Magnetic stuff is amazing! If I was an inventor my computer would have to utilize bumps or holes of some sort. It would be totally mechanical. Such concepts of the modern computer with silicon, microsizes, electricity carrying data and magenetic storage baffle the mind!

You're like me; if I can watch it work, I understand it.  I'll never be a Linux guru; I can't SEE it work, but I can rebuild any kind of mechanical device.  Let's see if we can come up with an analog Linux distro, then maybe I'll get the intricacies.

[Sleeping Dog]

You know......I have tried and tried.....but I still can't find a distro of Linux that will load and run on this abacus.

Sleeping Dog

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by Sleeping Dog:
You know......I have tried and tried.....but I still can't find a distro of Linux that will load and run on this abacus.

Sleeping Dog

Nah; I was thinkin' of one of those battleship fire control computers.  My reasoning:  They've de-commisioned all the Iowa- class boats (SOB!), so I could buy one for a song through government surplus.
Then, when I got AnalogLinux up and running, I could drop 16- inch rounds on any boxes running a MicroSoft OS within a 30 mile radius.
Good thinking, Huh?

[Calum]

one thing i always wonder about, what were they using as computers for the space programs? they had people in space in the fifties and sixties, and people on the moon in the sixties and seventies, and if unix was just coming about in 1969, and ITS was what they had, what the hell were they running for the spacwe program? you know they have banks of computers and so on, what software did they use? how did they store data? et c et c...

[lazygamer]

Three theories.

1)Something else.

2)Getting into and out of space isn't as complex as it seems, and all the calculations can be handled by some human math and instinct/training.

3)This is some proof that we might not of gone to space as early as we think we did.

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by lazygamer:
Three theories.

1)Something else.

2)Getting into and out of space isn't as complex as it seems, and all the calculations can be handled by some human math and instinct/training.

3)This is some proof that we might not of gone to space as early as we think we did.

Just to illustrate what a gap there is between now and the bulk of the space program ('60's-'70's), watch "Apollo 13".  There'a scene that shows JUST how different things are.  As a background, I was an adult in 1970, I was a 23-year old Navy vet with 2 kids.
Anyway, thre's a scene in the movie where Jim Lovell is doing some astro-navigation; he's tired and cold, so he's a little skittish about making a decision that, if wrong, will kill him and the other 2 occupants of the capsule.  He asks Mission control to check his math; they all whip out SLIDE RULES and start figuring like mad.  Now, the first time I watched that movie, I distinctly remember thinking "Why are they using slide rules?  Where's their calculators"  Then I remembered- there were NO hand-held calculators on the market in 1970.  Do you see my point; I was an ADULT in 1970, and yet I had to think about why they ere using slide rules, even though, as a machinist, I used one regularly at that time.
As far as whether the space program actually did what they perported to do in the 1960's, yeah, I think they did; remember, digital computers didn't exist in a practical form then, but there were analog systems that, while not as flexible, were accurate to the point of being usable for space flight.

[Sleeping Dog]

Just a note about what I recall from the space program:

Yuri Gaugarin (sp), the Russian cosmonaut credited with being the "first" man in space, made his three orbit flight in 1963 (If I am not grossly mistaken.)  However, there were American pilots from the X-15 program who were later awarded Astronaut wings (very quietly by Congress).  Much of the data from the X-15 program of the 50's and 60's is STILL classified.

The Lunar Lander with Neil Armstrong on board had a flight control computer with 64K of RAM.  It was linked to the navigational radar and inertial guidance system as well as a data output string that was fed back to the Cape.  I believe that it ran a form of UNIX.  If the system memory got within about 90% of capacity from too much input, a red light on the pilots control panel would come on to let him know that the computer was near crashing from input overload.  There were a couple of times when they had to slow down what they were doing during landing to let the computer catch up.

Hope you folks had a fun and safe holiday.

Sleeping Dog

[Calum]

i thought Yuri Gagarin was in space in 1959? i bet the soviet union tried to get a man in space before that too, but cataclysmically failed and hushed up the evidence of several destroyed "first men in soace". We may never truly know who the real first man in space was.

Re: 1959/63, i know nothing! but that was what i heard...

[rsd]

Yuri Gagarin reached orbit around earth on 12 April, 1961. I still remember quite vividly, sitting in the classroom and the schooll broadcast system cut through with fanfares and a principal's speach about the achievements of our dearest soviet brethren (I grew up behind the iron curtain -- Czechoslovakia).

However, there is a story that he was not the first. If I remember correctly, it may have been the architect of the russian space program, Korovlev, that got there first, about 4 months earlier. The only problem is that no one knew if he would be successful (SU could not admit a failure) and secondly, he was this unpersonable geek. Since the risk of failure was low after the first successfull attempt (there were 3 other atempts between 1957-1959, all failures and fatal), the decision was made that this Gagarin dude is the best PR material.

And so, as it was with many instances before and after, PR got a priority, beating the historical truth.

[ July 05, 2002: Message edited by: rsd ]

[Sleeping Dog]

Thanks for the date correction RSD.  I remember hearing a pre-Yuri news story when I was a kid that the Russians had sent another dog into space.  However, the telemetry being sent back indicated a human (not canine) heartbeat.

I also remember that the international "rules" for laying claim to being the first into "space" were that the pilot had to return to earth in his "ship".  Yuri did not do this.  He bailed out and parachuted to the ground.  The Russians got around this "condition" simply by lying about it.  As with so much other dis-information, the truth has only come to light since the collapse of the "Iron Curtain".

Cheers and Beers

Sleeping Dog

[Sleeping Dog]

So my lady and I are reposing there in bed....enjoying the after-glow of a Leno monologue (yeah....that was the afterglow....right) So I decide to channel-surf as she drifts off into ZZZ-land.

I hit the History Channel and they are doing a thing about WWII American submarines.  Next thing I see, they are giving more details about the computer that we were talking about earlier in this thread.  I grabbed a pen and wrote down all that I could.

Here it is:

It was called a TDC (Torpedo Data Computer).  They were produced by a company called ARMA and the first one (the Mark I) was installed into an American Fleet Submarine in 1936.  They were so large that they were initially put in an area of the main hull below the conning tower.  They were electro-mechanical computers that calculated such input as range, speed, course, angle on the bow, etc.  If all of this info did not correlate properly, the machine would return an error message requiring new data input.  (Would you call that a deep-blue screen of death?)

The next version of the TDC came in 1940 and  was put into the conning tower of the `Pacific Fleet Boats'. It was smaller, but still necessitated lengthening the conning towers of the submarines by at least a foot.  It was called the Mark III.

Despite the fact that this was the most sophisticated "computer based" torpedo aiming system ever devised up until that time, the American pig boats were hampered by faulty torpedoes (Mark 14's) that had a 50+% failure rate until mid 1943 (Must have been manufactured by Microsoft) After mid-43, the US submarines did to the Japanese what the Germans failed to do to the British.....they shut down the system by shutting down merchant shipping.  (and they proably hurt their self-esteem too...)

The only surviving example of a TDC that still survives is in the USS Pompano that is at permanent "museum" moorings at Fishermans Wharf in California.  The TDC has been restored by a university prof named Terry ______ (did not get the last name)  Supposedly, the thing is still/now working.

Don't know if you really care....but I felt obligated to share this additional info considering everyone else's input into this thread.

Have a Great Weekend

Sleeping Dog