Computer dinosaurs

[David Ecklein]

At the risk of being even more irrelevant, I suggest checking out my very 
dated website for a real dinosaur (15 ft high) of a computer (EMAG-III) I 
built as a high school science fair project back in the sputnik-era fifties.

www.diacad.com

After being exhibited a few years at Boston Museum of Science, it was junked 
in the late sixties; I still have a few parts (including a couple dozen 
tubes) and many good memories.  I think it was the largest amateur computer 
ever built (in size), but I have been unable to verify that.  Definition of 
computer might be argued - it was not a Von Neumann machine, but was wired 
to play a legal game of checkers - much like those little chess and checker 
computers Sears used to sell for $30 or so. If anyone knows of any other 
scratch-built computers from that era, please get in touch with me, perhaps 
off-list.so that meta-discussions don't cause the clutter here.

Dave Ecklein


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Coleman Kane" <cokane at cokane.org>
To: "Kent Johnson" <kent37 at tds.net>
Cc: "Greater NH Linux User Group" <gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 12:24 PM
Subject: Re: Computer dinosaurs


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> Kent Johnson wrote:
>> Sheesh. It's bad enough we have threads about "when I was a boy, we
>> had to punch paper tapes by hand, uphill both ways!", now we have a
>>  meta-discussion about other people talking about the old days.
>>
>> Sigh.
>>
>> Kent
>>
>> Shawn K. O'Shea wrote:
>>> Along the same lines, I actually have met the guy that owns this
>>> site (and most if not all the computers on said site)
>>> http://trailingedge.com/
>>>
>>> -Shawn
>>>
>>> On Nov 6, 2007 11:08 AM, Ted Roche <tedroche at tedroche.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It seems we all love to discuss our fond memories of computers
>>>> long past, so here's a photo album I think many will enjoy:
>>>>
>>>> "Gallery: Ancient Marvels Abound at Vintage Computer Festival"
>>>>
>>>>
> http://www.wired.com/gadgets/pcs/multimedia/2007/11/gallery_vintage_computers
>>>>
> Back when I lived in the SF Bay Area, I went and visited the Computer
> History Museum located in Mountain View. If you ever have a trip to SF
> or SJ CA, you should drop by and check it out. They had a Xerox X
> terminal! They also have a number of the old Crays and all sorts of
> other goodies!
>
> - --
> Coleman Kane
>
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