[ubuntu-uk] $5 Computer

[Colin Law]

On 27 November 2015 at 16:02, alan c <aeclist at candt.waitrose.com> wrote:
> On 26/11/15 14:46, Simon Greenwood wrote:
>> On 26 November 2015 at 14:31, Alan Lord <alanslists at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 26/11/15 14:03, Alan Pope wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I remember my brother getting music magazines with promo plastic
>>>> records on the front :)
>>>>
>>>
>>> lol - *I* remember getting those bendy 45s on the front of magazines...
>>>
>>> ​
>> Me too - I still have a few in my singles case​. Getting a record player
>> set up is scheduled for some time next year...
>>
>> ​s​/
>>
>
> LOL LOL
> My first job needed a slide rule use a LOT... One day I needed to calc
> a large number of square roots. Went to a special large room
> (cupboard)  with only a table chair and a 10-digit nixie tube display
> mans powered calculator. Later on that day I went back to the shop
> floor where we made valves. (Valves are glass things like old light
> bulbs, only they had lots of stuff inside and lots of plug in
> connecting pins). Said hello to the glass blowers, and skirted around
> the mercury vacuum pumps, to get to my desk...
>
> Ah! Those were the days! #computing
>
> NB a slide rule is a special little stick with markings along it. Good
> for lots of uses including I suppose building the pyramids.

Have you still got yours Alan?  I have mine.  A classy Thornton's
plastic model.  My brother had a wooden one, mine was much smoother in
operation, most superior.  If you only need three digits precision it
can be almost as fast as a calculator and it forces you to think what
the numbers mean in a way you don't with a calculator.  Much easier to
make a stupid mistake on a calculator and never notice as you don't
get an intuitive feel for the numbers in the same way.

Colin