"Obviously, computer accuracy depends on the quality of the information it receives". So true.
Why not do some math to fix it?
Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
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Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#52In 1989 I was a data systems tech on a Destroyer going through some overhaul at the shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi. Moored right next to us was the battleship Wisconsin. Huge relic from WW2 but still going through modernization. A bunch of us that worked on combat systems got invited for a tour of their fire control systems. Wow. Just wow. All mechanical computers calculating fire control solutions for the big 16…
My uncle was on the Wisconsin and operated the big guns during the first Gulf war. I never really had context as a kid for how large that ship is, and was just astounded by the distances they would shell.
This was right before the gulf war so I may have met him! Assuming he was a gunners mate, that crew had a lot of moments of touching history. Besides mechanical computers, it’s a really dangerous place since they had to handle massive bags of flash powder.
My ship was near the USS Iowa when turret two went up. A sobering experience when you think how much risk the turret crews are in just by doing their jobs.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#53The US Navy's old training materials are fantastic for learning about various technologies. I think their masterpiece is "Basic Hand Tools" a handbook written in plain English that describes the use of practically every hand tool ever invented. "Basic Hand Tools" on the hammer: >Whoever conceived the idea of cracking a nut with a rock unknowingly invented a tool. When a later genius tied a stick to the rock, he inven…
NEETS is another to add to the list. A quite literal full stack guide to electronics from the basis of matter up.
I found the "textbook", but is there a video series associated with it?
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#54The US Navy's old training materials are fantastic for learning about various technologies. I think their masterpiece is "Basic Hand Tools" a handbook written in plain English that describes the use of practically every hand tool ever invented. "Basic Hand Tools" on the hammer: >Whoever conceived the idea of cracking a nut with a rock unknowingly invented a tool. When a later genius tied a stick to the rock, he inven…
I just downloaded (thanks to other commenter below) and would question the "use" part. What is the "peen" end used for? Having read the section on hammers I still don't know. (Just re-skimmed the section and I still don't know.)
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#55When my great grandfather was drafted in WWI from the chemistry department at Berkeley to Annapolis, they put him on a ship as an ensign doing targeting.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#56Modern educational videos/films feel lower quality (in terms of content) even with all the modern tech at their disposal. Better technology doesn't seem to improve education. The quality of the content is 99% the skill of the teacher.
Domain experts and instructional designers working together, in close proximity, in both time and space, produce the best educational content in my opinion. Without iteration and feedback loops between these groups we end up with the shallow content that is so prevalent in the e-learning industry.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#57Thought it was very interesting to see the precursors of modern computers and how they achieved the various mathematical functions mechanically
And fascinating too that, unlike digital computers where operations take clock cycles, calculations in an analog computer are effectively instantaneous.
Not instantaneous on any scale a digital system would regard as important. You can't turn a shaft very far in a nanosecond, and you are in general limited by the inertia of the mechanical system as well as quantities such as bearing overheating, lubricant viscosity, the maximum force that can be applied through any particular component, and so on.
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#58The US Navy's old training materials are fantastic for learning about various technologies. I think their masterpiece is "Basic Hand Tools" a handbook written in plain English that describes the use of practically every hand tool ever invented. "Basic Hand Tools" on the hammer: >Whoever conceived the idea of cracking a nut with a rock unknowingly invented a tool. When a later genius tied a stick to the rock, he inven…
Is the original this one?
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Made me look up the origin of 'garbage in garbage out. Interesting that GIGO descends from LIFO and FIFO.
More info: https://wordhistories.net/2022/12/05/garbage-in-garbage-out/
Re: Basic Mechanisms In Fire Control Computers (1953) [video]
#60"Obviously, computer accuracy depends on the quality of the information it receives". So true.
That made me think of a quote from Charles Babbage, arguably the inventor of the mechanical computer. I wonder if it was added intentionally as a reference:
> On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
– Charles Babbage in Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)