A while ago on a whim, I did a somewhat deep dive into the abacus. I thought it would be interesting to learn about a device that is sometimes credited as an ancestor of the modern computer.
I've come to be of the opinion that it's not really a fair comparison though. An abacus is not a computer... at least not a full-fledged computer. It doesn't compute anything. Your brain does that. I think it is fair however to compare it to memory, though.
An abacus is essentially an array of memory cells. Instead of storing bytes, it stores digits, but that's a trivial distinction. You even have to allocate those memory cells to accommodate the structure of the data you are operating on, just like you would with the memory in a computer.
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I hate that modern ICs aren't hand-solderable. I mean, I get why that is, but I still hate it.
Edit: typo
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Board Selection - BeagleBoard
Board selection guide. Which Beagle open hardware computer is best for me? Learn more here!Beagleboard.org
My mother-in-law overestimates my command of the Spanish language (though knowing French is admittedly helpful).
She claims that I understand 80% of what I hear. It's closer to 30%, but I can piece a lot together through context.
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publius
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Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to publius • •@publius I did not know that. I did know that an earlier incarnation was basically a sandbox though (the so-called dust abacus). It was a box with a thin layer of sand that could be drawn on with your finger or a stick (like a chalk board).
Later iterations involved carving grooves into a hard material and placing stones in them. I imagine the tablecloth spawned from this idea perhaps? (Or maybe the other way around?)
It wasn't 'till later that someone had the idea to put a hole through the stones and thread a rod through them so you wouldn't lose them.
drhoopoe
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended…
hypothesis of debated testability, curriculum: active externalism, based on the active role of the environment in driving cognitive processes
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Jonathan Lamothe
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