[ubuntu-uk] $5 Computer

[alan c]

On 27/11/15 16:17, Colin Law wrote:
> 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
> 

Hey yes. A mini slick plastic jobby in a swish leather case, (mobile),
for the top pocket, along with several pens :-) and the desktop model
wood and plastic faces a foot long (That I never fully fathomed out
all it functions LOL). This one is robust. On the last day of college
I accidentally drove my banger (car) back over it, squashing the outer
case. Probably improved it... :-)

Ahhh those were thay days....

-- 
alan cocks