Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Ok, boys and girls and those who are still making up their minds!

rejennyrated has suggested that we start a Q & A trivia contest here in the fun and games section devoted strictly to "greybeard" legacy (read antique) computer folklore.  To the uninitiated, Greybeard is the term given (mostly) lovingly to those old fart computer geeks who have seen it all or at least a good amount of it.  I shortened it to "grey" since this little girl doesn't have one any longer.

This was originally in the "What are you reading this on - PC or Mac/Apple?" thread and now moved here so that we don't hijack that religious controversy too much.

I originally asked what BUNCH stood for and Jenny correctly answered Burroughs, Univac, NCR, CDC, and Honeywell.

She responded with her own trivia question:

QuoteWhat was the title of the first computer generated music - or the name of the computer which generated it?

I suspect that she doesn't mean the Musique contrete that was popularized by the movie "Forbidden Planet".

I want to say that it was probably something out of RCA labs, but I may just be showing my colonies-centric nature.  I know the brits were doing some very interesting things with computer music in the mid to late 50's but I can't put my finger on it now.  BTW: This was all *way* before the idea of modern music synthesis had been imagined let alone designed, so Bob Moog had nothing to do with it.

-Sandy

and here I was thinking of the Mellotron, not a synth per se, but one of the popular early instruments...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron)

Quote from: FlanKitty on December 04, 2009, 07:31:03 PM
and here I was thinking of the Mellotron, not a synth per se, but one of the popular early instruments...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron)

I don't think she is referring to the Mellotron because she is asking about the title and computer that generated it...

Quote from: Sandy on December 04, 2009, 07:37:38 PM
I don't think she is referring to the Mellotron because she is asking about the title and computer that generated it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSIRAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSIRAC)
(Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer)
playing a bad rendition of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Bogey_March (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Bogey_March)
Colonel Bogey March
?

Ah... I am lost.  If you mean computer generated music, I think it was "Tron" when I head it first.  But then again I am not a computer geek.  ;) :D ;D



Hugs and Love
Janet

Spot on Sandy.

I was thinking of the famous Iliac suite which was indeed composed for a string quartet by the computer at CSIRAC and which I have heard performed as a "Lolipop" item at a classical music concert.

although the mellotron stuf is fascinating too and I had forgotten about the work done on Colonel Bogey - which of course we have to thank for all the beeps and farts that our current machines now emit.

Right - as winner Sandy to gets to set the next question. (Oh and personally I'm quite happy to be called a greybeard :) - think beards are lovely - for me they make a man look really sexy - Of course like you I had to ditch what little I had as they don't really go well with being female LOL!)

Actually, Flan is the one that came up with the answer about CSIRAC, so I will yield the floor to her.  But if she declines, I do have a few... dozen.

-Sandy

oooooh sorry Flan :icon_redface: I really must check my reading glasses.... actually I think I lost it somewhere inbetween the two threads. Then again my family would doubtless all tell you that I lost it years ago! ;D

Quote from: Sandy on December 05, 2009, 08:56:17 AM
Actually, Flan is the one that came up with the answer about CSIRAC, so I will yield the floor to her.  But if she declines, I do have a few... dozen.

-Sandy

Enjoy, unless you want to be asked about stupid computer trivia (first computer from Apple) :P

That would be the Apple I

Which was followed closely by the apple][

Ok, trivia buffs, what computer was named after a Star Trek destination, and for extra points; Why?

-Sandy

Quote from: Sandy on December 05, 2009, 07:03:09 PM
That would be the Apple I

Which was followed closely by the apple][

Ok, trivia buffs, what computer was named after a Star Trek destination, and for extra points; Why?

-Sandy

It was the ALTAIR, for some reason I remembered that, But I had to cheat on why so I won't answer that. (It bugged me so much I had to google it !)

Jamie

Yeah, it's hard to have a real trivia game with wikipedia on the net...

Yes, it was the altair 8800.  Named by the author of the article's daughter who suggested the name because of the destination that the Enterprise was going to go to.  The first version of design was built around Intel's 4040 series of chips (a 4 bit computer).  Which was followed quickly by the use of the 8008 chips (a first generation 8 bit architecture).  And they finally settled on the 8080 series when Intel came out it.  The 8080 became popular and was the foundation for the 16 bit series of chips as popularized by the original 286 machine.

Alright, let's take it up a notch.

This is for the big-iron jockeys who wrestled with the 1400/360/370 vintage machines.

Choose any one of the following questions to answer:

• What does TIC mean in the series: Seek/Search/TIC/Read? Hint: It had to do with CCCHHRR (extra EXTRA points for that one)
• What was RAMAC?
  
• What was the big advancement that separated the 360 from the 370 architecture machines?

These are very esoteric questions and I imagine that no one else could answer these.  And I suspect that my butt could be beaten by person similarly familiar with Sperry-Rand machines.  So I apologize.

There are quite number more people who lived during the great booming times of the hobby computer so we can just keep it there with this one:

Before the S100 buss machines, as popularized by the altair, so dominated the microcomputer hobby industry, there were many other micros out there vying for the top spot.

Who made the COSMAC?

Try not to wiki that one.  I haven't so I can't tell you what it stood for, but if you can come up with that great.

-Sandy (where did I put that beard???)

Quote from: Sandy on December 06, 2009, 12:17:02 PM
-Sandy (where did I put that beard???)

next to your "portable" computer :P
http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5100.html (http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5100.html)

well I know two of the answers

The cosmac was the RCA 1802 MPU chip - it was actually a better design, in my opinion, than the 8080 but never really took off. No idea why it was called cosmac though - I'd have to google that one.

A RAMAC was, as I recall a very early winchester drive - winchester! - blimey the beard is regrowing as I even say that word.

TIC and CCCHHRR do ring bells somewhere I think to do with either punch tape or accoustic couplers - but I'm in the dark over those two.

It's making me recall the joys of front panel booting toggling in about 60 instructions by hand just to get the bootstrap loader into core to run the punch tape reader!

I used to work a lot with TI chips which were popular with people like NASA. I wrote a full 32 bit real time control multi tasking operating system which ran on a 99105 chip and was part of a piece of hardware we sold to NASA.

So here is a question - what is HARVARD ARCHITECTURE?

oh and another one for any fans of the 6502 chip

Early versions had an instruction which went by the initial memnonic HCF - What do the initials HCF stand for? what was the instruction meant to do? what did it really do? and why did it get that name?

HINT - if you know what it DID as opposed to what it was supposed to do the answers will become obvious.

That is correct, the COSMAC was RCA's 1802 entry into the micro market.  I googled COSMAC and it referred to the CMOS nature of the chip, which at the time was revolutionary.

Yes, the RAMAC was a 14xx peripheral with a twenty platter single arm access that would travel up and down the platter stack to access the data.  It could hold a revolutionary 5 million characters of storage.  They could be ganged together to create a 20MB super RAMAC.

TIC is Transfer In Channel.  It was a channel program operation that would transfer the data found in the Search command and cause the Read to execute next.  I believe, it's been a *very* long while since I wrote an EXCP command.  The 360/370 machines had IO processors that accessed data independently of the CPU and would use Channel Programs to control them.  Standard equipment on all but the most rudimentary of micro controllers these days.

CCCHHRR=Cylinder/Head/Record.  It was used to address data on 360/370 DASD.

The revolutionary change between the 360 and 370 was the introduction of Virtual Storage which allowed for memory to be mapped to DASD and swapped in and out as it was needed.  Thus a machine could run programs that were larger than the physical storage and only page in data as it was needed.  The hardware to facilitate that is now standard on all current CPUs used in everything from laptops to mainframes of every stripe and color.  IBM claimed to be one of the first to implement it, though CDC was using something very similar for years prior.

I haven't a clue about Harvard Architecture.  Stumped me on that one I'm afraid.

I'm not as familiar with the 6502 as I am with the 6800, but I seem to remember that the 6800 had some very peculiar instruction that was used as a half-adder to do decimal rounding for calculations.  I'll take a stab and say that HCF performed something similar.

-Sandy

I'll let a couple of others take a guess and if no one get's in tonight I'll post the answers and a new Q. in the morning.

---

Post Merge: December 07, 2009, 07:35:13 AM

---

Ok as no one has bitten in 24hours

Havard Architecture is where data and program are stored in two separate address spaces. This allowed faster execution and also prevented the accidental execution of data.

The 6502 contained an early op code which was supposed to tri-state the data and address busses. This was an early attempt at facilitating multi processing. However an error in the micro code meant that what the instruction actually did was internall connect the supply rail to ground. Hence the memnonic HCF which statds for Halt and Catch Fire - which is precisely wat happened if the processor ever executed that op-code.

It was hastilly removed from later production runs!

Ok here's a new question (unless someone else would like to play - in which case just post a new question and ignore mine)

In 1975/ 1976 Which famous programming partnership invented the computer role play adventure game and what was their first creation called?

(Hint it originally ran on a DEC PDP-10 and spelunking forms a large part of the action.)

I have lost so many hours to "adventure" that it was almost named as a co-respondent in my first divorce.

Adventure, as I ran into it was a really clever Fortran program that I ran under TSO.  It was so heavily used and so much productive work was lost that we added code to prevent it's use during work hours.

The real name of Adventure was called Colossal Cave, and I'll be damned if I remember the authors.  But reading the Fortran code was a joy.  It was well written and the comments read like a comedy routine ("Oh dear, he's awakened the dwarves...")

I know that it was an inspiration to Scott Adams to create his line of adventure games.  And BTW: if you typed it the magic word xyzzy to Zork I the response was "Cretin".

Anyway, I hope I get partial points, I refuse to google my answers so I am very curious about what you have to say!

-Sandy

Yeah I think I'll allow you 7 out of 10 there and a chance to set the next question.

5 for knowing the name 1 for knowing that it was written in Fortran and 1 for knowing about xyzzy

The authors were Crowther & Woods and there is short but interesting note on the evolution of such games here:

http://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/html/s46.html (http://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/html/s46.html)

Otherwise I am apt to come up with something crazy like "who wrote the computer software used to control the machines which carried out the testing protocols for the famous O rings which failed when the Challenger blew up" Hopefully you wouldn't know the answer... but as it happens it was me!  :embarrassed:

Not exactly my finest hour even though my data analysis software was not found to be at fault!

Quote from: rejennyrated on December 07, 2009, 09:50:38 AM
Not exactly my finest hour even though my data analysis software was not found to be at fault!

I feel your remorse.  Even though your software was not a contributor, I know that everyone associated with that tragedy carries sadness to this very day.  And, no, I didn't know that.

Ok, here's an easy one:

What does VTOC stand for and how is it used?

-Sandy

Quote from: Sandy on December 07, 2009, 11:43:34 AM
I feel your remorse.  Even though your software was not a contributor, I know that everyone associated with that tragedy carries sadness to this very day.  And, no, I didn't know that.

Ok, here's an easy one:

What does VTOC stand for and how is it used?
-Sandy

Ok now were getting into some of the stuff that I can remember (mind is good but memory is short ! )

Volume Table Of Contents, If I remember correctly it showed you the Volser # and listing of the location of the data files,and size on the DASD.

Ok so here's another easy one what was VTAM and what was it used for ? and what was used before VTAM ?

Jamie

Quote from: jamie lee on December 07, 2009, 06:51:35 PM
Ok so here's another easy one what was VTAM and what was it used for ? and what was used before VTAM ?
Jamie

Virtual Telecommunications Access Method.  It was used to communicate between the mainframe and the terminals (running mostly CICS and TSO) originally, then it was enhanced and expanded to allow peer-to-peer communication between mainframes.

Before VTAM was TCAM, used primarily to run TSO.  There was another time share program (not from IBM) called WYLBUR which was pretty much just a file editor, job submitter, print retriever.  TSO was more versatile, but like most IBM programs, was very expensive in resources to run.

I was both a TCAM and VTAM sysprog.  I was working in the basement of MVS for quite a while.  I think I could still code an ACB if I needed to (I feel the grey beard hairs starting to grow out of my face!)

Ok, let's go into folklore.  Why did Gene Amdahl start AMDAHL, and what could an AMDAHL computer do that IBM series computers couldn't do?  Hint: It had to do with another company that was not located in the US.  (I worked for AMDAHL too.)

-Sandy

Why did Gene Amdahl start AMDAHL,


Disgruntled with IBM?

Hint: It had to do with another company that was not located in the US. Hitachi? (googled that part)

Quote from: LordKAT on December 08, 2009, 01:46:46 AM
Why did Gene Amdahl start AMDAHL,
Disgruntled with IBM?
Hint: It had to do with another company that was not located in the US. Hitachi? (googled that part)

Well, yes he was.  But I was looking for a little bit more information.  Dr. Gene Amdahl while working for IBM had been given Fellowship status by IBM.  He was responsible for the design of many 360/370 machines. An IBM fellowship is only given to those whose achievements are truly stellar.  Quite a feat for a company that, at the time, had more technology patents than any other company.

During that fellowship, he designed a machine that would take advantage of then current technology, be faster, cheaper to build and have a smaller heating footprint.  The powers at IBM declined to produce the new design as they felt that it would compete with the equipment already being sold.

That is what caused the split between IBM and Dr. Gene.  He went on to found AMDAHL and market the first truly "plug compatible" 370 architecture series of machines called the 470 V6/V7/V8.

AMDAHL partnered with Fujitsu, not Hitachi, to produce the chips for the 470, which used ECL logic which was incredibly fast technology when compared to IBM's TTL based SLT technology.

Additionally, nervous datacenter managers wanted assurances that their million dollar investments in a company with no track record, competing against a corporation that was larger than most governments on the planet would be preserved in case AMDAHL was pummeled out of existence.  Fujitsu pledged to support the equipment in that case and the 470 machines could be converted to run Fujitsu code if that need ever arose.  So the 470 was built with two different architectures.

Alright, I will step aside for a bit and let some one else pose the next question.

-Sandy

Ok people I can see that no one else is going to ask a question so:

Digital Equipment Corp are famous for two ranges of ground breaking equipment, the PDP range and the VAX range (although the latter was actually a perfection of an idea frist introduced by Data General in it's NOVA range of machine.

But what do PDP and VAX stand for and what do they mean?

Quote from: rejennyrated on December 09, 2009, 12:05:00 PM
Ok people I can see that no one else is going to ask a question so:

Digital Equipment Corp are famous for two ranges of ground breaking equipment, the PDP range and the VAX range (although the latter was actually a perfection of an idea frist introduced by Data General in it's NOVA range of machine.

But what do PDP and VAX stand for and what do they mean?

PDP was Program Data Processor, I think it was Digital first Mini to compete with the main frame, and I believe VAX was Virtual address extension and was a 32 bit replacement for the PDP ? 
I remember my company looking at that technology but I don't know what for, we ended up getting a 4341 mainframe to replace our system 3.

Spot On Jamie Lee

Vax was the first (well actually second because Data general had a primitive form of it used in the NOVA series) computer to use the form of virtual memory extension which is used to this day in all PC's and Apple macs.

Now how about a question from you? I'm sure you have a few that could streach us.

I never had any experience with the any of the DEC series, though I did think they were interesting.

Tracy Kidder's book "The Soul of a New Machine" was fascinating.  I got a real feel for all the things that go into creating new machine and all the personalities that make the process work.

-Sandy

Ok - while Jamie lee is warming up here is a temporary question.

What is the connection between the BBC Micro (an early british personal computer made by Acorn) and the modern chip manufacturer and networking expert Broadcom?

Hint there is a thematic connection to this whole forum. (So for extra points why might I say that?)

Quote from: rejennyrated on December 10, 2009, 03:57:09 PM
Ok - while Jamie lee is warming up here is a temporary question.

What is the connection between the BBC Micro (an early british personal computer made by Acorn) and the modern chip manufacturer and networking expert Broadcom?

Hint there is a thematic connection to this whole forum. (So for extra points why might I say that?)

I think you got me on this one I never heard of Acorn,I'm just guessing  that it all has to do with the pc's we use today.  Is the BBC the same British broadcasting Company ? did they make computers?

I'll have a new question after I see your answer sometime tomorrow. (Usually don't get on the laptop until the grandkids go to bed)
Jamie

Just shooting from the hip and not typing anything that refers to the mathematical quantity of one followed by one hundred zeros.

The BBC Acorn was originally designed to go along with the series that the BBC did to introduce the populace to personal computing.  I seem to recall it was a kind of hands on training.  The Acorn got some acceptable reviews as I recall.  That is about all I really remember from on this side of the pond.  Though I kind of wish I had a chance to play with one at the time.

The only way I think I could draw any sort of corollary, is that I seem to recall that the acorn was built around an ARM chipset.  The ARM chipset is a RISC architecture and as such could easily emulate any other architecture system.  So it could "transition" to another type of chip architecture??

I believe that the ARM is used in Broadcom's backplane in it's line of switches and routers.

And all of this has nothing to do with Sir Clive Sinclair's ZX81 which he licensed to Timex as the Timex-Sinclair 1000 or the TS1000.  Which BTW my son in law gave me as a gift for Christmas last year.  He found one in the attic of a friend still in the original box!  It still makes me smile.  It doesn't work after all these years, but I just love looking at it.

Alright, give me the answer, Jenny, this is driving me nuts!

-Sandy

Ok the connection is a person.

If you google Sophie Wilson - who currently chief technology officer (Director) of Broadcom you will find that she was once Roger Wilson, one the main designers of the original BBC Micro and indeed as you so rightly identified the chief architect of the ARM chip. She is openly Trans too, so I'm not outing her.

As an aside, I know that in the states that you have the likes of Lynn Conway, but it always seems to me, listening in on the forum from the UK, that despite the fact that the UK legal system was so hostile until the 2004 Gender recognition Act, over here, being Trans has never been such a big deal as it seems to be on your side of the pond.

We genuinely seem to have so many more Transpeople in high places, and I do mean really high! Captains of industry, Academics, politicians both local and national, senior governement officials even a couple of serving military officers and one Judge.

And of course one little known side effect of the 2004 act, besides the ability to alter our birth records, was that it actually technically became a criminal offence for anyone to "out" us without our written consent! (I had a small input to the act's drafting process so I know it pretty well.)

Anyway - end of aside - I'm looking forward to being driven equally nuts by Jamie Lee's question later on.

Sorry ladies I forgot that this was a weekend we were going to visit some friends in Wisconsin !

Anyway I was racking my brain for a question and I couldn't come up with much.
I think too much wine this weekend.

So how about something easy again.
When I was a lonely operator/programmer in the early 80's we had something called RAIDWhat does RAID stand for, how did it help to keep downtime to a minimum ?

Jamie Lee

PS Jenny nice new Avatar   :) !

I think that would be

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

a system which transformed the lives of IT managers and video editors alike (both of which jobs I have in the past done).

Ok here's a new challenge. Hopefully this one is fairly easy. What is CRC and how is it used? Oh and for extra points how is CRC connected to Reed-Soloman codes and how are they used?

"Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks"

Yay!! i feel a  slight bit not so dumb. I thought it had something to  do with an array.


Yes, I'm showing my ignorance but you folks are making learning interesting.

JBOD is another term for raid arrays.  Just a Bunch Of Disks.  RAID's have been transformed now into SAN's.  Storage Array Networks.

CRC would be cyclic redundancy check which is used to check the validity of data from just about everything from DASD, tape, and telecom.

As far as they are connected to Reed-Solomon, I am stumped.

I will pass on asking the next question, because, while I have a whole alphabet soup of acronyms, how about one regarding history of computers.  Perhaps something Hollerith-ish or arcane?

-Sandy

reed-soloman codes extended CRC from error checking into data recovery. They are widely used in DVD's CD's and indeed digital video tape as they not only reveal that there has been an error, but where the error is small can usually recover the missing data as well.

Ok one from the archives: ( and this one is going right back to the dawn of computing)

Who is widely acknowledged to have been the world's first computer progammer and for extra points what is the connection with Lord Byron?

Quote from: rejennyrated on December 14, 2009, 05:59:16 PM
reed-soloman codes extended CRC from error checking into data recovery. They are widely used in DVD's CD's and indeed digital video tape as they not only reveal that there has been an error, but where the error is small can usually recover the missing data as well.

Ok one from the archives: ( and this one is going right back to the dawn of computing)

Who is widely acknowledged to have been the world's first computer progammer and for extra points what is the connection with Lord Byron?

That would be Lady Ada, Lord Byrons niece, I believe.

She "wrote" programs to be utilized on Babbage's Analytical Engine.  Unfortunately the Analytical Engine was never built during Babbage's lifetime due to the weak metal used at the time.  However his Difference Engine, a glorified comptomoter, and precursor to the AE was very successful.

I believe that Lady Ada's intension was to write programs that would calculate odds for horse races as the three of them were avid gamblers.

Ada was later glorified with her own compiled language called ADA.

I also seem to recall that the British Science Museum eventually made a functional version of the AE, but my memory is vague on that point.

-Sandy

Full marks Sandy - and yes the Science museum did indeed build just such a machine. It work's too, and they ran one of Ada's programs.

Now... is there anyone else lurking out there who would like to set us a question? I'm starting to dry up.

We could perhaps expand the topic slightly to cover vintage technology in general - rather than just computers if that would encourage anyone else to have a go...

Quote from: rejennyrated on December 15, 2009, 09:43:14 AM
We could perhaps expand the topic slightly to cover vintage technology in general - rather than just computers if that would encourage anyone else to have a go...

Ok, I'll take the point with the vintage tech question:

Before OLED,
before plasma,
before LCD,
before Trinitron, and
before RGB

What was the first method of televising color (or colour, Jenny) images?  And how did it play a role in the space race?

-Sandy

YUV?

No idea what it means. something about lithium and chrome or something like that

Quote from: LordKAT on December 16, 2009, 02:38:30 PM
YUV?

No idea what it means. something about lithium and chrome or something like that

No -YUV was a component video system used in Betacam (which is actually a professional development of Betamax and became a widely used cassette system for professional use) The YUV system uses a luminance signal (Y) which is made up of R+G+B and two weighted chrominance difference signals, U which is B-Y, and V which R-Y. The missing G signal is reconstituted at the display by subtracting weighted versions of the Y U and V signals.

I think what Sandy alludes to is the earlier attempts at field sequential colour in which alternate video fields transmitted either R G or B. This was eventually superceeded by the NTSC system in the US and PAL in europe.

The two systems both rely on phase difference quadrature modulation, the only difference being that with PAL on alternate lines the phase encoding is inverted thus allowing for some degree of self correction of phase distortion resultant from reflection in the transmitted signal path.

There were also some early attempts at color made by Baird using a mechanical scanning technique with a three coloured Nipcow disk. However these were never perfected as the rival electronic scanning technique developed by Farnsworth became the universally used system.

The only other thing I can think of is that I think the space race need for lightweight cameras contributed to the development of the Plumbicon camera tube, which, on account of its extended spectral response rapidly became the mainstay of color television cameras. Earlier tubes such as the image Orthicon suffered in that they were too large, too heavy and too fragile.

There is of course also the development of colour recording techniques an replay compensators like timebase correctors that were used in the early AMPEX quadruplex VT machines (of which I was one of the last expert engineer/operators in the BBC)

Trouble is, I can't really connect all of that very well to the moon landings per-se... other than the fact that using one of the QUAD machines I once managed to accidentally cut one of the last surviving original recordings of the moon landings into confetti! OOOPS  :embarrassed:

Would you care to enlighten us all Sandy?

Very good Jenny!

That'll learn me not to muck with an ex-BBC engineer!

You were very close.  A Baird type of camera was used on at least the first moon landing for reasons of weight and reliability.  So the first color tv camera used on the moon was an electo-mechanical type.  The signal had to go through a conversion to be used on commercial tv.  I suspect that was one of the reasons that the pictures seemed a bit grainy even for tv.

I too thought that the betamax was a much better system than VHS since it had so much in common with commercial Umax systems.  The picture quality was great.

With that detailed explanation of the differences between NTSC and PAL, you must have a whole lot of arcane trivia questions backed up.  Let's have one from you, Jen!

-Sandy

Ok lets stick with TV. A three part question - extra sweeties for those getting all three parts...

AMPEX are best known for making professional video and data recording aparatus. But :
1. what do the letters A M P E X stand for?
2. What is the connection to Ladies hair styling?
3. What is the "Russian connection" to all this?

Semi guessing

Alex M Pontaff(sp) EX......something

He was a russian who made first video tape of hair product commercial.

(Semester of Puter class trivia, yay. bad memory tho)

Ding!

And at least part points go to LORDKAT.

Alexander M. Poniatoff EXcellence 

Poniatoff was a Russian emigree who had come to the states with his family after the first world war. He was an electrical engineer and inventor.

His first successful product was a pair of electrically heated curling tongs used widely in ladies hair salons at the time.

This was the product which made his fortune and allowed him found the company which would eventually become AMPEX.

Lordkat would you like to ask a new question?

Otherwise I'm going to have to think of one!

Yay, I got at least a partial!!!!!


I am not in the same league with you ladies. I do appreciate you letting me take off the wall guesses tho. I think I will pass on the question asking as it would seem as child's play to you all.

I did not even have a clue on that one, Jenny.  Congratulations Kat!

My brain is full of cobwebs right now, Jen, please feel free to send us another.

-Sandy

Ok then - right back to the dawn of computing, what was a Williams Tube, how was it used and why was it vital to early computers like Eniac and Manchester Baby?

Quote from: rejennyrated on December 18, 2009, 03:51:44 PM
Ok then - right back to the dawn of computing, what was a Williams Tube, how was it used and why was it vital to early computers like Eniac and Manchester Baby?

Ok I know it was a CRT that could store binary data. Now I'm just guessing about why it was vital...was it because we could now display the data ?  :eusa_think:

Full marks that girl  :)

It was indeed the very first type of core memory.

now can someone else take a turn as quizmistress or quizmaster at your preference please. I need a recharge.