It's cool to see Chris Staecker's channel getting some love, he brings a a kind of joy I miss from the old internet. I know it's still around, but it certainly feels more difficult to find and suppressed in many ways.
professoretc 13 days ago [-]
I think the algorithm recommended Chris to me because of his topology videos, and from there I watched all his "old computing devices" stuff. Something about the Boston accent, the dry humor, and the occasional audio jump-cut make his stuff quite funny.
I had one! One of my favorite possessions in elementary school. It came with a nice booklet introducing the theory. Because I studied that booklet, I was probably the only brat in my 2nd grade who knew about number bases. I entertained myself by converting decimal numbers into binary.
andrehacker 13 days ago [-]
Reproductions are still produced, see the wikipedia page.
Jörg's automation of the machine is truly fun :) The mechanics of the machine are really clunky and giving it an external clock made it function so much more smoothly iirc.
rramadass 10 days ago [-]
I am still not clear on how exactly it works :-( Need to read some more and maybe sit with pen/paper to see how it can calculate and/or evaluate some logic conditionals.
Computers are mainstream but the concepts behind computing are still "magic" to most. We automatically assume that it can only be realized in the current complicated form (microchips/architecture layers etc.) and forget that the concept is just a "machine" which you can build in many different forms.
I bought one of these from Edmund Scientific when I was a kid. I wasn't able to figure out how it worked. I've thought about it occasionally over the years. Enjoyed the video
drfuchs 13 days ago [-]
Wait til you see the DigiComp II! It has flip-flops driven by marbles and gravity. Truly astounding.
WalterBright 13 days ago [-]
I learned binary computing from that machine.
a1o 13 days ago [-]
It looks amazing! Thanks for mentioning it!
13 days ago [-]
rustcleaner 13 days ago [-]
Really cool! Will we ever construct Babbage's Analytical Engine?
This reminds me, a CNC wire bender is on my list.
Computers are mainstream but the concepts behind computing are still "magic" to most. We automatically assume that it can only be realized in the current complicated form (microchips/architecture layers etc.) and forget that the concept is just a "machine" which you can build in many different forms.
Leonardo da Vinci himself had a design for a mechanical calculator - https://www.educalc.net/page/197481/ and http://www.computer-timeline.com/timeline/leonardo-da-vinci/
https://groups.io/g/DIGI-COMP/topics