OT:techology

Jules> On Mon, 2005-03-07 at 21:20 -0700, woodelf wrote: Jules> Argh, don't ask things like that. Jules> You've got gravity. Dry sand flows pretty well. Bamboo is Jules> hollow and so can be used to channel dry sand Jules> around. Different lengths of bamboo could be used to introduce Jules> delays. Doubtless you could make basic logic gates. Slightly different, but... many years ago I read some articles about "fluidics" -- a clever no-moving-parts technology for creating the equivalent of simple logic gates powered by gas or fluid flow. The basic idea is that you can guide a jet of fluid or gas into one of two outlets by sending it a steering pressure from one side or the other. Presto changeo, a "form C" relay, or if you wish, a buffer/inverter. I thought of building some logic with that, but being only about 12 years old at the time I didn't have the facilities. Anyway, clearly building a small computer out of those parts is a good exercise for the student. paul