Popular Electronics 1959-1960?

Googling on...

produces many hits

...Jim Thompson

-->

Yes, 11 pages of them to be exact, none of them having anything to do with the article I'm trying to find.

And, googling on

"thompson" AND "integrated circuit" AND motorola

likewise produces TEN pages, only one article of which has you in it.

Jim

Sno-o-o-o-ort ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I think I vaguely remember an article on flip flop circuits and simple logic from that time frame. Only in my head, don't have any paper or links. Is that the kind of thing you seek?

Only a few years later (66?) I witnessed a program playing music by driving the feed of multiple big tape drives, and more impressive, another program that played music on an AM radio placed near am IBM 1401 computer running a special program. Oh yes, I just remembered the music from the hammers on the big IBM printers (1403?) too.

Very creative stuff in these early days.

rex wrote: (snip)

I never saw the AM radio demo. you mentioned but I remember the line printer "music". Yes, a 1403 did the honors, though I seem to recall witnessing 3211(?) versions. Programs were loaded from well-worn decks of punched cards! At Christmas time, when the lab was opened to employees' families for parties, etc., one or another old timer would dig out his prized stash of music card decks. We burned through many boxes of paper, despite running each one through multiple times (a good stacker was a must).

Years later I played the assurance role on the 4248 line printer, which _really_ went through paper (~5,000 LPM?), compared to 1403. Never knew anyone to write a music program for

x-no-archive:

were you thinking of the game called "NIM?

see:

Nope. The rules of this game were that you could light one, two, or three lamps with your turn. The "computer" then could do the same. You could "program" it so that either you or the computer took the first turn. The player forced into lighting the 21st bulb was the loser.

It was really quite simple. All you had to do was complete a sequence of 4 to win. Once you got yourself into a spot where the computer was doing the sequence, you were toast. Trivial, really, but to a high school senior it was really magic to see a machine beating the bejesus out of you until you discovered the logic behind it.

Jim

were you thinking of the game called "NIM?

see:

Saw the AM radio thing done in four part harmony on a 7094. I think everyone made chain printers sing. Then there was the Alfred E. Newman (and Playboy) posters done on 1403s.

"music". Yes, a 1403

were loaded from

to employees' families

music card decks. We

times (a good stacker

I don't ever recall an open house where families were allowed in. Maybe there was one in the '00s, but the brat was grown by then.

_really_ went through paper

for 4248. By that

ree

uld

he

of 4

the

Dang..I remember that!!!!

I built one in grammer school, just a piece of wood, some nails, wire, flashlight bulb and battery. The secrest to win was you had to let the computer go first and you then choose 5-N as your answer where N was the number the computer chose. If you went first the computer would ALWAYS win. I don't have a copy of the article but I remember how the circuit worked, it should be hard to replicate that... If you do find a copy, I'd like to see it too...

Mark

That's not fair; you can't smell the burning resistors with a PIC.

Be happy I'm not doing it with 6SN7s and 1N914s.

I could, y'know.

Jim

"RST Engineering (jw)" wrote: (snip)

Was similarly impressed by a tic-tac-toe playing computer at Chicago's museum of Science and Industry in the early 60's. Typical of that time, glass separated the computer from humans. The interface was a dial mechanism from a telephone. R-r-r-r-r-r....... tic-tic-tic. :-)

three

could

=A0The

e of 4

ng the

it

you

typo I meant to say it SHOULDN'T be hard to replicate