29 Feb
2008
29 Feb
'08
5:29 p.m.
On 2/29/08, der Mouse <mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca> wrote:
Me too - I'm curious about the same thing, that is, if anyone can
explain. Heck, I'm curious about why *I* want half the computer toys I
want; it seems to be an aspect of myself not very accessible to
introspection.
The answer, for me at least, is that it's so much more interesting
than 1 button and 1 LED. Useful? Maybe not. But so far, they haven't
ever taught me "Engineers must do only useful designs--fun is a sin",
so I'm going to keep wanting a pretty blinkenlights board that I can
play with. For now, at least, I think I'll look at ways of making
something for the serial port that I could try using with SIMH or just
some custom Linux software.
I've just returned from the Computer History Museum, where I got a
pretty good fix of huge beautiful control panels. SAGE was
particularly interesting, as was WISC with the bullet holes, and of
course the KL10 box.
John
--
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
I'm curious why anyone would want a front panel
with lights and
switches.
*blink*