Whatever happened with Ralph Merkle's mechanical nanocomputers? http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2001/11/48278 At 12:04 PM 9/11/2014, Mike Stay wrote:
There's this wooden ternary calculator from a contemporary of Babbage, who seems to have been denied funding because Babbage's efforts didn't pan out. http://www.mortati.com/glusker/fowler/
------------ TEA lasers are surprisingly low-tech. They're not directly related to computation, but I'm sure it would make certain things easier. http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/tealaser/tealaser7.htm
Quote:
I used to tell people "There is no such thing a true home made laser. There is always a requirement for exotic parts that can only be obtained from a laser manufacturer, and - or there is the requirement to perform exotic high vacuum, glass blowing and gas mixing processes. This would defeat much of the satisfaction of building your own laser."
When I read about TEA lasers recently though, that all changed. Here is a laser that is built from aluminum foil, a dielectric and some pieces of aluminum. It is amazing to think of a laser project where a simple 4 to 6 KV DC power supply is the most elaborate component.
------------ Scientific American had an article about analog computation in its June 1985 issue: http://www.softouch.on.ca/kb/data/Scan-130202-0003.pdf
------------ Adi Shamir's TWINKLE factoring device is amusingly analog. http://web.archive.org/web/20010615145445/http://porsche.ls.fi.upm.es/Materi...
------------- The best steampunk comics:
The Thrilling Adventures of Babbage and Lovelace! http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/stories/
Girl Genius http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104
---------- An excellent site for all things steampunk: http://brassgoggles.co.uk/blog/ http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/
On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Dave Dyer <ddyer@real-me.net> wrote:
I nominate Turing's analog computer to find zeta function zeros, described in the Hodges biography.
Also, obviously, the concept of physically realizing Turing machines using punched tape and mechanical reader/writer mechanisms.