1st Analog Computer is Sicilian, Can't Run Vista

1st Analog Computer is Sicilian, Can't Run Vista

Thursday, July 31, 2008 - by Gregory Sullivan
The Antikythera Mechanism was salvaged out of a shipwreck in 1900. It's the original HotHardware -- the first known example of an analog computing device. Scientists estimated it was made in 100 BC. Researchers are still trying to find out exactly what the device can do, and identify who might have made it, but according to an article in the journal Nature, newly deciphered markings on the crusty old thing's dials suggest it was likely made in Syracuse, a Sicilian city that was then a colony of the Greek city of Corinth

The mechanism’s connection with the Corinthians was unexpected, the researchers said, because other cargo in the shipwreck appeared to be from the eastern Mediterranean, places like Kos, Rhodes and Pergamon. The months inscribed on the instrument, they wrote, are “practically a complete match” with those on calendars from Illyria and Epirus in northwestern Greece and with the island of Corfu. Seven months suggest a possible link with Syracuse.

Inscriptions also showed that one of the instrument’s dials was used to record the timing of the pan-Hellenic games, a four-year cycle that was “a common framework for chronology” by the Greeks, the researchers said.

So far, researchers have determined that the device can predict solar eclipses, keep track of the calendar, and chart the four year cycle of the Olympics. The picture of the condition of the device when it was discovered testifies to the inferiority of analog computers -- the device hadn't been used in two centuries but it needed to be defragged. Oh well, it was still better than a Heathkit EC-1.
Via: New York Times | News Archive | Tags: Vista, computer, can, Lian
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Comments

By Lev_Astov on Jul 31, 2008

Great title. I've heard about this a few years ago. It's good to see they're making progress on it. This thing's pretty sweet, actually. It really makes me wonder where we'd be today if those ancient Greek and Roman civilizations hadn't fallen.

By nECrO1967 on Jul 31, 2008

Great report. Goes to show that people back then weren't as slow as some people think.

Hmmm. I wonder if it has storage and if so if there is porn on it? :)

By recoveringknowitall on Jul 31, 2008

nECrO1967:
Hmmm. I wonder if it has storage and if so if there is porn on it? :)
 

~Courteously picks nECrO's mind up out of the gutter.~ lol

 

By nECrO1967 on Jul 31, 2008

Hey! Leave my mind in the gutter. There's lots of cool stuff here. I found a perfectly good copy of Windows For Workgroups yesterday! You should join me!

:::C'mon in, the porn is fine:::  :)

 

Seriously though, this just goes to prove that mankind is no smarter now than we were then. The only thing that limits inovation and progress is the tools we have to study, explore and create.

By adamplays on Aug 3, 2008

meh... i tend to disagree with that... as i feel that the term smart generally is how much you know, not really how well you can learn.

By chrisanonym on Jul 31, 2008

Great Designs from Great people!

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