At 12:06 PM -0500 3/4/06, Tim Shoppa wrote: That's what it looks like to me. I've not seen the Smithsonian exhibit you're talking about (must have gone in after I left DC), but it definitely looks Naval. Zane -- -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

In article <200603040918070148.223F8A74 at 10.0.0.252>, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> writes: I think the big steering wheel is also photoshopped on :-). I can't imagine steering a nuclear reactor. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>

Snopes has a pretty good write-up .. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp Mike

Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote: A large steam valve is my understanding. BTW, Trains don't have steering wheels either :-). Tim.

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006, Tim Shoppa wrote: Yeah, but it makes for a helluva game controller ISTR that Decwriters had a slot at the bottom for paper, and will tend to jam if you try to front-feed them like that.

"Charles E. Fox" <cfox1 at cogeco.ca> wrote: Oh, yeah, it also reminds me of a spot from the Simpson's last night of a much younger Prof. Frink teaching some Springfield Heights Institute of Technology students about the computer: "I predict that in 100 years that computers will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them". Apu then goes on to describe his ten years of work on his Ph.D thesis, comprising 20,000 punched cards and being a Tic-Tac-Toe program capable of beating all but the best human players :-). While the picture is obviously a fake, it's more fun that reading those old Tom Swift stories. (I grew up on 'em, do kids read them anymore?) Tim.

At 12:31 PM +0000 3/5/06, Philip Pemberton wrote: It probably never made it across the Atlantic. First series 1910-1930's Second Series 1950's through 1960's (still being sold in very early 80's) Third Series 1980's Fourth Series (not sure when this came out or if it's still going). The best two series are the first two, and the third is set in the future with really no tie in. The Tom Swift of the first series, is the father in the second. Basically it's a series of "Scientific" adventure books for boys. I managed to complete my set of the second series while I was still in school, and I'm now about two-thirds, to three-quarters of the way through finishing a set of the First series. Both of the first two series would probably be considered to be very dated, and downright humorous by todays youth. Hopefully when the time comes, my kids will read my collections of Tom Swift, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Happy Hollisters, and others. I've got over a full sized bookcase of the genre packed away from when I was a kid (including two different versions of many of the original Hardy Boys stories). Zane -- -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

I thought it was Hardy Drew and the Nancy boys...... ;>) Geoff.

Kevin Handy wrote: Someone sent me the June 2005 edition of "Singing Wire" (a mag for telephone collectors) and by a curious coincidence p9 has a photo from "Tom Swift and Hist Photo Telephone" 1914. The photo appears on p125 of the original, for those of you with complete collections :-) Antonio -- Antonio carlini arcarlini at iee.org

Greetings; You know, while you folks happen to be on the subject of this - I was wondering if anyone could help me out with something I've been pondering on for a couple of years now. When I was a kid I used to read a series of boy adventure books that I simply cannot recall the name of. The books were older than I was (When I say "A kid", I'm talking the 80s) I'm sure of it, but I'm not sure by how much. There were three boys, I believe. The head kid was called something like "Hercules", either as a first name or a nickname. He was a "chubby" kid, and when he was a toddler was in a series of TV adverts, or perhaps a programme, which is recurringly mentioned in the books. Their clubhouse was in a junk yard one of their fathers owned, where they built things to help them go through their adventures. I remember they had a printing press they repaired from the junk in the yard. I think the clubhouse was an old trailer home, or perhaps a caravan? This has been one of those things that has been on the tip of my brain for a long time and I just can't remember what in the heck the books names were. Please, can anyone alleviate this brain rot of mine? Thanks all! JP

Indeed - quite correct. Dan Veeneman caught this one first, but thanks to you both for decyphering my garbled memories to result in precisely what I was looking for! Alas, these are not on Project Gutenberg... :) Thanks! On Mon, 6 Mar 2006, Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner wrote:

On Monday 06 March 2006 03:56 pm, Chuck Guzis wrote: Cool! :-) I remember a number of those, still... -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

On Tuesday 07 March 2006 12:57 pm, Chuck Guzis wrote: Now that you mention it I do remember something of the sort, though I can't recall any details at the moment. It was in one of those columns that they discussed the trend toward miniaturization, and how eventually it was going to get to the point where the "user interface" (knobs and switches and such :-) was going to be the limiting factor in things. And we can all see how the mfrs are trying to push the envelop with regard to that... I didn't read those that much, but I do vaguely recall some garage-oriented stuff of the sort. Not that those were nearly as much fun as the electronics-oriented stuff, though. -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

On 3/7/2006 at 11:40 AM Roy J. Tellason wrote: One that's sort of special to me (but not reproduced on the web site) was titled "The Educated Nursing Bottle", which introduced me to the fascinating subject of nuclear magnetic resonance. More of a curiosity back then, but big business today. Cheers, Chuck

Tim Shoppa wrote: What you want there is an elderly Citro?n. Sadly they're thin on the ground on the left-hand bank of the pond. Gordon.