Really off topic now... was: Re: Face down,nine-edgefirst(wherein all is revealed)
Dan Ingalls
Dan.Ingalls at disney.com
Fri May 12 03:21:34 UTC 2000
Russell Allen <russell.allen at firebirdmedia.com> wrote...
>The best thing about this computer is the memory - Mercury Delay Lines -
>which "stored data as a series of acoustic pulses in a 5 foot tube of
>mercury, about 10mm in diameter. A modulated pulse was generated by a
>transducer at one end of the tube, and 960 microseconds later it arrived at
>the other end of the tube where it was received by another transducer. The
>modulated pulse was detected, amplified, re-shaped and re-generated, being
>fed back into the beginning of the tube. "
Yes, this technology is about to resurface in the form of a "wearable computer" prosthetic for people who are getting senile. It simulates a 10-second delay loop, so whenever you lose your train of thought, instead of saying "Now, what was I saying?", you just listen to your headset, and get an infusion of short-term memory.
Now, what was I working on?
;-)
- D
More information about the Squeak-dev
mailing list
|