From uchinews!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!news.cerf.net!crash!malloy Mon Aug 16 11:52:07 CDT 1993 Article: 46502 of alt.folklore.computers Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Path: uchinews!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!news.cerf.net!crash!malloy From: malloy@crash.cts.com (Sean Malloy) Subject: Re: Further computers seen in films... Organization: CTS Network Services (crash, ctsnet), El Cajon, CA Date: 16 Aug 93 08:00:37 PDT Message-ID: <1993Aug16.080037.2656@crash> References: <24j1df$4mk@belfort.daimi.aau.dk> Lines: 30 Status: R In article jbuhler@owlnet.rice.edu (Jeremy Daniel Buhler) writes: >> One of the more amusing examples of this is in a Arthur C. Clarke (of >> 2001 fame) short story, in battle leading computer plays a role. This >> computer was so large and complicated that one needed an entire spaceship >> to hold it and the thousands of technicians needed for its operation. >> Judging from the description of its tubes, it was less powerful than >> my trusty old C64. > >Let us not forget how Heinlein's Andrew Jackson "Slipstick" Libby got his >nickname (I believe the story is part of Future History). He was recruited >to perform emergency duties as a ballistic calculator in a space war. The >calculator he replaced was probably 1950's vintage, if not before... it was >HUGE. Or, in a much more entertaining case of Heinlein coming up short with regard to computer technology, _Starman Jones_, where the astrogators compute the entry into the shift points using computers -- but require volumes of reference books to look up the conversions from decimal to binary and back again, since the computers only accept binary input and only output binary -- and all the preliminary calculations are done by hand; the computer is only used for taking the final problem setup, solving it, and applying the result to the starship's controls. -- random sig #171: Sean Malloy Navy Personnel R&D Center | San Diego, CA 92152-6800 | The problem with troubleshooting malloy@nprdc.navy.mil < different | is that trouble shoots back. crash!malloy@nosc.navy.mil < systems |