JPHiP Forum

General => Akihabara => Topic started by: Foxy Brown on December 01, 2006, 03:36:17 AM

Title: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
Post by: Foxy Brown on December 01, 2006, 03:36:17 AM: A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone.

But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece. Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C. (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/science/30computecnd.html?ex=1322456400&en=4dd0f1ffb387158c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)
Title: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
Post by: shadowstar on December 01, 2006, 05:20:36 AM: "Windows 350BC"? XD
Title: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
Post by: Carisear on December 02, 2006, 06:33:16 PM: i saw pictures of this in the papers -- that's pretty damn cool. there have been some brilliant andextremely skilled people in history
Title: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
Post by: reyfer on December 02, 2006, 06:39:50 PM: The Antikythera Mechanism, yeah, I remember people called Erich Von Däniken crazy when he said it was an ancient computer used in astronomy, but now, 20 years later, scientist prove he was right :D
Title: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
Post by: Foxy Brown on December 02, 2006, 07:21:28 PM: I don't see the point of it, though. How exactly would you look at pornography or cat pictures on that thing?
Title: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
Post by: ~Dan~ on December 02, 2006, 07:55:52 PM: Quote from: reyfer;248864
The Antikythera Mechanism, yeah, I remember people called Erich Von Däniken crazy when he said it was an ancient computer used in astronomy, but now, 20 years later, scientist prove he was right :D

Yeah it's not new news, I've known about it for years, but I guess the methods on analysing it have improved in the last 20 years. Now they can see inscriptions on it which they weren't able to do 20 years ago. I expect the reconstruction of how it works is more accurate compared with the one they made 20 years ago too.
Title: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
Post by: frutillo on February 12, 2007, 06:36:01 AM: it comes with a 0.0000000000000000000000043 microHz intel cpu.

how many ram does it come with?
Title: An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists
Post by: xerony on February 12, 2007, 05:35:49 PM: This really is an impressive piece of science. Of course it was made for calculating. Not for porn
And why is everyone referring to companies that didn't even exist back then :D