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John T

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Reading this thread http://www.satellites.co.uk/php-bin/forum/showthread.php?t=52582
reminded me:

Back in the '60s I worked on a computer which needed data for basic test programmes entered on keys in hex. We all became very adept at this, and could translate from decimal to hexy and enter it on the keys with barely a thought. Gave the brain a memory test, failed, another skill forgotten.:-doh!
 

Topper

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They say time is a healer
Obviously the passage of time can both heal and erase.
I suppose one could argue that it would be easier to learn the second time round. :-doh!
 

Llew

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...unless you've mislaid a bundle of brain cells along the way (only speaking personally of course) :(

Llew
 

John T

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Llew said:
...unless you've mislaid a bundle of brain cells along the way (only speaking personally of course) :(

Llew
SIGH! and for me sadly. :confused
Second time round is just that, certainly not exciting!
 

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Hex? That's advanced technology! I used Octal ...... (PDP11s etc).

Just can't get used to this new fangled base 10 counting, still prefer the Babyonian base 60 system ......
 

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Always wanted a PDP11 in my teenage years. Was going to attempt to get pictures form Meteosat and NOAA's, and they were acessible (almost) to the amateur/hobbyist.


L.:)
 

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Hey, yeah, I can remember when getting those pics from weather sats was the thing to do, lots of construction projects, etc. But, I certainly don't remember a PDP11 being required!

(then there were all those Morse TTY decoding projects ....).

Those were the days, (deep sighs) ......

PS, yeah, Alistair Sim. Green For Danger and Cottage to Let were on More4 the other week, but I forgot to mention it. Never mind.

(added) ooops sorry, when I said "pdp11", actually meant "pdp8", which had switch "triples" on front panel for entering Octal numbers.

PDP11 very different computer, Octal not much use with those ....

Here's a pdp8 pic, you can just about see that the switches are bunched into 3s .....

http://pix.paip.net/Conferences/Hackers/pdp8.jpg .
 

Channel Hopper

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John T said:
Back in the '60s I worked on a computer which needed data for basic test programmes entered on keys in hex. We all became very adept at this, and could translate from decimal to hexy and enter it on the keys with barely a thought. Gave the brain a memory test, failed, another skill forgotten.:-doh!

No thanks, I had enough with Motorola 6800s, machine code , accumulators and all that back in the early 80s. I cant see why anything from board programming 25 years ago is going to be of any use now.
 

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Channel Hopper said:
No thanks, I had enough with Motorola 6800s, machine code , accumulators and all that back in the early 80s.

Does this bring back any memories good or bad????
 

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Talking of base 10 counting reminds me that there are remnants other bases istill aound.

Base 12 is still commemorated when we talk about dozens and base 20 similarly when we talk about scores. In French there is even more base 20 in their numbering system as after 60 the numbering continues to 69 and then 60 + 10, 60 + 11 etc all the way to 60 + 19. Or 79 as we would call it.

80 is known as quatre-vingt, literally four twenties, and then the counting continues up to 99 as quatre-vingt dix huit, which equates to four twenties plus nineteen.

Anyone else know of any more ancient counting systems?
 

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The fathom would I suppose be a base 6 system

When it comes to chains however (base 22.5 ?) I believe that there might be some argument for standardising, though I still buy fuel in gallons (base 8), a litre is still too fereign for my taste
 

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Wasn't Stonehenge the caveman's calcuator, sorta giant abacus?

There's the Ishango bone:

www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/ishango.html .

(I think it's just tooth marks, perhaps ancient dog training?).

Here's the quipu, imagine your income tax return looking like this:

www.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum/laarch/inca/quipue.html .

(sort of, "knit your accounts" and careful you don't drop a stitch! Mind you, these have survived, how long will floppy discs last?).

Never mind "walk like an Egyptian", do maths like them too:

www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fractions/egyptian.html .

(actually, I wouldn't mind that bit too much, it's the having to "weave your own paper" out of reeds first ....)

And - of course - we all loved doing Roman numerals at school:

mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.roman.html .

That's not much used in MMV!

As for Motorola 6800, didn't that have the registers in external memory? Slowed it down a bit ....

Whenever my computer crashes, I still mutter "Int 21H"!
 
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