Internet Obsession
Though there’s more to life than being online, sometimes it may not seem like it.
Wombania the Comic Strip
A Wombie's view of the world, updated Mondays and Thursdays
Latest Comments
on Fifty Year Guarantee: “You have to read the fine print. You made me laugh out loud. Never a dull moment here. Have a…” Apr 21, 11:44
on Happy Easter 2025: “You mean the bunny? I didn’t do it! He came that way! Happy Easter!” Apr 20, 18:58
Mind blowing to think about, but computers outdate us all. The first one (that I’m aware of) is in a museum on the eastern United States region, somewhere. It’s sole purpose was to navigate sailing ships safely through coastal waters. It predated vacuum tubes and used a complicated series of gears, ACTUALLY trying to operate in binary. Though a valiant project for it’s creator and a notion extremely far ahead of it’s time, the required amount of “ROM” (gears) needed to make it work proved too much for the designer and it remains at only a fraction the size needed to complete it’s intended task. We can only guess at how much tonnage the completed version required…and if the ships intended to carry this tool could have stayed afloat.
Some early machine looms that wove intricate patterns used changeable punch cards, which could be considered the forerunners of programmable computers. And there were some early geared calculating machines. But I’ve never hear of the navigation computer that you mentioned. Quite interesting!
I feel like Fraz does.
The internet is sucking our lives away!