What is the first computer?

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Tue Jun 23 03:32:20 1998

Just to be different, I accidentally sent this to Hans instead of the
list last night. ;-)

P.

______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
Subject: Re[6]: What is the first computer?
Author: Philip Belben at PowerTech2
Date: 22/06/98 18:17


>> Was the Z3 like the Z4 in using old 35mm cine film for punched tape?
>> (don't try and read it with an optical reader!!!!)
>
> Never heard of opto-mechanics ? *g*
>
> In fact all early Zuse computers used old cine tapes.
> Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4.

Opto mechanics? Fine. That is, fine if you want your data to be
logically OR'd with the picture recorded on the film...

>> Irony of the week: the
>> Pascal calculator in the London Science Museum is a decimal model. That
>> in the Deutches Museum is a Pounds, Shillings and Pence model. :-)
>
> Afaik they also own a decimal one, but Pounds, Shillings and Pence
> ar _way_way_way_ more exotic :) - It gets a lot more attention than
> 'just' decimal calculaters, althrough the difference are only some
> of the wheels.

:-) IIRC, marked Livres, Solz, and Deniers. What's Solz an
abbreviation of? Solides? I thought shillings were Sous!

(off topic) I've always thought the single European currency should be
called a Pound because there's a word for it in almost all European
languages - Pfund, Livre, Lira, Peso(?) etc. Dollar would do as well, I
suppose (Thaler?). Or even Ecu (Escudo?). But Euro?!?!?!?

> Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
> HRK

What does "HRK" mean? I apologise for taking it as your initials - our
mail software strips off the header and you have to go and look for
things like the Sender's name or address. (The quotation is Descartes,
isn't it?)

Philip.
Received on Tue Jun 23 1998 - 03:32:20 BST