Re: So what exactly do scientists know about global warming?

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 13:40:08 +0000, Oz <Oz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>sarah <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
>>Oz <Oz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> John Beardmore <wookie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
>>>
>>> >Pretty impressive, but I doubt it was 3055s. In the mid 70s I was still
>>> >seeing transformer coupled germanium designs !
>>>
>>> You might, but you should have chosen better design sources.
>>>
>>> Silicon came in when I was at school. I can remember getting (failed)
>>> microchips (hey, they had 3 transistors, metallisation could be seen with
>>> a hand lens) whilst at school. I would guess from the dorm in the 5th form
>>> so 1965.
>>[-]
>>
>>Wow. You went to a *posh* school.
>
>Hardly. Wireless World had an advert from ferranti offering chips FOC.
>Almost certainly failed chips as yields were very very low. They
>probably had tens of thousands of them.
>
>>I can remember being taught how a
>>computer worked in c. Grade 6 (1968?) using a cardboard sheet punched
>>with holes and little cardboard ladybirds to represent (I think) the
>>change from 0 to 1.
>
>Computers were never mentioned at my school to my memory.

[Just catching up with uba]

You are all very young aren't you!

I started working with (repairing) mainframe computers in 1959.
These were valve (vaccuum tube) machines -- Ferranti Mercury. Then in
1960 I was transferred to the team developing the Ferranti/Manchester
University Atlas at MU. That used discrete semiconductor components -
transistors, diodes, etc.

For me it was just a case of being in the right place, at the right
time, with the right mental aptitude.

Sarah's mention of cardboard ladybird computers shows just how simple
and easy to understand a basic computer can be.

I was very aware that those of use dealing with logic design, handling
1s and 0s, had the easy jobs. The real wizards were the circuit
designers who coaxed imperfect valves and semiconductors into producing
reliable 1s and 0s for us to work with.
--
Peter Duncanson
UK (posting from ukba)
.

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