Sunday, June 15, 2008

Crunching Numbers By Real Crunches

Tam wrote of Babbage; Og goes from Persia to Armonk, NY in easy steps. Me? I give you The Meccano Brain. (Look around, he's done plenty).

Oh, don't thank me, go read Michael Flynn's In The Country Of The Blind or even Gibson and Sterling's The Difference Engine if you haven't already. Somebody I know has a handy Amazon link for the purchase of such books.

9 comments:

Turk Turon said...

Excellent biography of a fascinating man.

Alan Turing, The Enigma
by Andrew Hodges

http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turing-Enigma-Andrew-Hodges/dp/0802775802

John B said...

Hey I got it!
How about a Wooden Difference Engine.
oh right, they have those.
they're called a slide-rule.
or an abacus.

as your roomie sez

T'hee

Mark said...

That is the most wonderful thing I've seen all week. Wait, it's Monday... that's probably the most wonderful thing I'll see all week!

breda said...

or, you know, check them out from your local library.

Drang said...

Just picked up a book from the library, Jacquard's Web by James Essinger, sort of a Connections thing, from JM Jacquard's loom--which introduced punch-card programming--through Babbage, up to today. (ISBN-13: 978-0192805782)

Mrs. Drang being a fiber artist, and one of the features we're looking for in a new home being room for her spinning wheels and loom, I figure she'll enjoy it as much as me. Maybe more.

Tam said...

But Breda, I am my local library... ;)

Carteach said...

'The Difference Engine'... I have never met anyone else who has read it. Interesting.

Look around at todays world. What emerging technology has the ability to change everything?

breda said...

I wanted to make a joke about "checking out" the local library but I'll resist. ;)

Roberta X said...

I was thinkin' of the Bard of Avon, myself: "Get thee to a library!"