[HN Gopher] Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that wo...
___________________________________________________________________
Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you
color them
Author : todsacerdoti
Score : 222 points
Date : 2022-05-16 03:48 UTC (19 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ipfs.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (ipfs.io)
| rapnie wrote:
| This reminds me of DynamicLand [0] where Bret Victor [1] was
| (is?) involved. Looked very exciting but I don't know if that
| project is still active.
|
| [0] https://dynamicland.org/
|
| [1] http://worrydream.com/
| shreyshnaccount wrote:
| Was going to say the same. Is there any open source project
| that aids in building these types of interfaces? Do these
| images just transcribe to regular languages? How does this all
| work?
| antiterra wrote:
| It's cute but it just makes me miss the days where kids could go
| to the library and load up Rocky's Boots on an Apple ][. That's
| how I learned logic gates and it stuck.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky%27s_Boots
| Confiks wrote:
| These days that library can be found here:
| https://archive.org/details/Rockys_Boots_1982_Learning_Compa...
| jhbadger wrote:
| And even better in my opinion is the sequel Robot Odyssey
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Odyssey
|
| There's a disk image at the Internet Archive
| https://archive.org/details/msdos_Robot_Odyssey_1985
|
| And even a re-implementation for browsers
| https://robotodyssey.online/
| anselmschueler wrote:
| I don't know if using a single logic gate really helps in getting
| across the logic behind computer circuits
| ImSorryButWho wrote:
| That's entirely the point. A NOR gate is functionally complete:
| you can build any logic gate out of just NOR gates.
| Aardwolf wrote:
| Probably because it's easier to have to know only one rule.
|
| But... they got a character named "nory", having another
| character named "andy" could be fitting!
| anselmschueler wrote:
| You can, but then I don't see the point of making it a
| colouring book.
| cantrevealname wrote:
| This made me imagine an educational toy that allows you to make
| _working_ simple circuits by drawing: You draw with markers that
| have electrically conductive ink, then touch the contacts of a
| 9-volt battery to your drawing at a certain point and a bulb or
| LED that you 've taped to your drawing lights up. Maybe you'd
| supply prefabricated stickers that contain logic gates that you
| stick to the paper where you need a gate.
| msrenee wrote:
| As the other comment mentions, this is a thing already, but
| thanks for bringing it up. I'd completely forgotten about it
| and it seems like a good hands-on way to get a better
| understanding of circuits.
| erk__ wrote:
| It is something there have been around for a few years:
| https://interestingengineering.com/what-is-conductive-ink-te...
| enchiridion wrote:
| I used to do this with a graphite pencil, battery, simple 1
| transistor amplifier, and a piezo buzzer.
|
| Lots of fun. Makes me yearn for the days of radio shack.
| rgj wrote:
| The Dutch childrens magazine Donald Duck included a DIY cardboard
| 3 bit computer in four editions in 1980. It was powered by a
| marble and gravity and it included QA cards, like "What shall we
| eat? followed by three questions (hungry? Want sweet? etc) and
| then on the back of the cards there were eight answers. You set
| the switches to left or right, put in the marble at the top and
| looked up the answer corresponding to the place where the marble
| appeared.
|
| I was seven years old and at that moment I decided I wanted to
| become a computer scientist. It determined my life.
|
| http://rene.steetskamp.nl/2015/04/
| scrozier wrote:
| The DigiComp I did it for me:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I
| andrehacker wrote:
| That is very cool, a bit of Google Foo then gave me this:
|
| https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-V14n0_048hOUR1Ymdv...
|
| That and Google Translate will allow you to build your own.
| HellsMaddy wrote:
| I love the idea, but the instructions could be improved. There
| are a few places where I can imagine kids might get confused or
| lost.
| ars wrote:
| It's too general/abstract. Instead of a square color and circle
| color, just pick two colors and go with it.
| hybridtupel wrote:
| I guess the reason for that is making the instructions
| understandable even if printing in b/w.
| shaky-carrousel wrote:
| Also it works with colorblind people. This way they can
| choose the color combination that works for them.
| scrumbledober wrote:
| I think it's just so you can choose two colors that you
| have and fill in the instructions.
| jordanwallwork wrote:
| I think that's correct. If I were to do it for my kids I'd
| probably whip through and colour in the squares and circles
| beforehand to make it simpler for them
| woojoo666 wrote:
| I didn't even notice that it was hosted on ipfs until I saw the
| url
| Quequau wrote:
| Recently a friend showed me this, which I thought was pretty
| nifty: CARDIAC (CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation)
|
| "Back in the 1960's and early 70's Bell Labs made some very
| sophisticated educational kits available to high schools and
| colleges. Designed for classroom use, they included wonderful
| manuals written by some of Bell Labs best minds. One of these
| kits, introduced in 1968, was CARDIAC: A CARDboard Illustrative
| Aid to Computation."
|
| https://www.mikesmakes.ca/1960s/cardiac
| Scarblac wrote:
| Reminds me of Turing Tumble, marble powered computers
| (https://upperstory.com/turingtumble/). My 8 year old got one for
| his birthday and it's one of the very few toys he actually likes
| better than screen time!
|
| I assume that the kind of things you make when coloring are very
| similar to the marble computers, the rules of the Tumble
| components would translate very close to the coloring rules, I
| think.
| mwcremer wrote:
| Ah, the title is truncated
|
| _non-electronic computers that work when you color them
| according to a simple set of rules._
| dang wrote:
| Submitted title was "Coloring computers: non-electronic
| computers that work when you color them acco". We've lopped off
| the end bit above.
| dewlinedew2 wrote:
| I thought it was like art deco but art acco
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-05-16 23:01 UTC)