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Twenty years ago today via the wayback machine...

142.79.101.139

Posted on September 13, 2020 at 13:43:56
E-Stat
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I observed what some here seem to not understand about the review process. I will, however, have to correct something I said - sometimes reviewers have been exposed to gear that they choose not to pursue for publication. I saw a couple pieces of Halcro gear at Sea Cliff that were never reviewed. He was not a fan of their sterile character. ;)

Naturally, I feel spoiled in that I was privy to knowing the preferences of three reviewers and could place their individualized observations in context.

 

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Please: "WABAC", posted on September 17, 2020 at 19:40:38
John Marks
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It was a pun on "UNIVAC."

The vacuum-tube computer.

In the early 1980s, I had a girlfriend (and y'all are... Shocked... SHOCKED!) who actually was a math whiz (and y'all hit the floor).

She was out of a job, and she applied for one that seemed possible. The people who interviewed her, she reported, seemed... apologetic.

It was a defense-related operation that perhaps had as its mission to use various technologies to track potentially threatening foreign submarines.

So they talked back and forth, and eventually, one of the interviewers said (this was, remember, the early 1980s), said, "Awww, we might as well show you what you have to work with."

They led her out the back door of the modern office building to a Quonset hut. Inside the Quonset hut, there were huge electric fans on stanchions pumping damp near-ocean air over... racks and racks of vacuum-tube computer components.

It seemed that the customer (the US Navy) never wanted to pay the money to have the old software re-coded for a modern mainframe, so... they did their calculations on vacuum-tube hardware.

But then again, critical calculations for the Manhattan Project, especially the estimation of the "starting states" of the reaction, were done on paper with pencil; and when there was disagreement about what the starting state should be deemed to be, one of the scientists pulled out a handful of pocket change, and dropped it on the table.

That story is, IIRC, from the book linked to below.

atb,

john



 

well -- yes and no, posted on September 19, 2020 at 05:50:10
mhardy6647
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When we're talkin' Mr. Peabody and his boy, Sherman, yes, it is as you say.
But when we're talkin' internet -- no.

Revisionist history's like that.
... or maybe copyright (or trademark) law.

;)




all the best,
mrh

 

RE: Please: "WABAC", posted on September 17, 2020 at 20:45:59
it's really about the man in the mirror isn't it?

 

RE: Please: "WABAC", posted on September 17, 2020 at 20:03:39
Bill the K
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Hi John

Did they use tube computers when Amstrong went to Moon?

Bill

 

No, but the Soviets kepts vacuum-tube avionics for a long time., posted on September 20, 2020 at 13:46:38
John Marks
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Location: Peoples' Democratic Republic of R.I.
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They also used wooden stud framing on the interiors of their subs.

Budget issues.

Sigh.

jm

 

hmm, there were certainly no budget issues for their capacitors... some mil spec superior in every way ..., posted on October 11, 2020 at 11:57:44
Cleantimestream
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to what we made. Furthermore, there rocketry is without peer... right now.
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.

 

So did we, the FAA in particular didn't go to solid state radios til late 80s. Nt, posted on September 27, 2020 at 07:50:25
Nt

 

RE Didn't Know Morgan Made Subs. (nt), posted on September 26, 2020 at 16:48:04
goldenthal
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Location: Ontario
Joined: March 28, 2003
n

 

I'm enjoying, posted on September 25, 2020 at 14:47:44
E-Stat
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some 6H30s in my ARC preamp.

Thanks to inmate Victor K. for introducing those and 6C33s to the audio world. :)

 

And that's why there never was a 'space race'..., posted on September 21, 2020 at 19:08:03
Ivan303
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at least as far as a manned landing on the moon.

The computer necessary for control of the lunar lander used chips made by Rockwell Semiconductor (they called them ELSIs or LSIs at the time) with 40 pins. The Soviets had no computer technology snall enough to fit inside a landing craft and the time delay between earth and the moon was too long for earthbound computers to be of any use.

Those Rockwell chips?

Shortly after the mood landing that technology, paid for by American Tax Dollars, was sold to the Japanese and came home to us as Sharp electronic calculators


First they came for the dumb-asses
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a dumb-ass

 

No, posted on September 18, 2020 at 11:38:25
E-Stat
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IBM was the supplier and used a large System/360 for tracking purposes and a custom hand built module using core memory for the onboard instrument section.

Here's a video with one of the former engineer's explaining its operation:








View YouTube Video

 

NASTRAN, posted on September 19, 2020 at 21:17:14
Bill the K
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In late seventies, we used a NASA mainframe with a program called NASTRAN for some of our Finite Element analysis of structural slab systems. We had little terminals into which we fed our punched cards and the results came from Omaha. The girls used to make mistakes in the punching and the whole thing would bomb. It was tough to find good punchers so nobody was let go! The Space Frame analysis was what I loved most.

Cheers
Bill

 

Thanks (nt), posted on September 18, 2020 at 21:23:01
Bill the K
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Joined: June 3, 2006
nt

 

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