[Leica] noctilux factoid of the day

[len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier)]

Frank,

It's highly unlikely but possible for Leica to rent time on an IBM  
mainframe running Fortran in 1966. That was the year I was exposed to  
a computer in college. Unfortunately it was a very brief introduction  
in one of my math or EE courses and only lasted about two weeks where  
we had a class project to solve what I recall was not a very  
complicated equation. Booking time on the computer was very difficult  
to get as the profs got 1st dibs. My next exposure to computers was  
when my company was given a prototype IBM pc for the purpose of  
developing a modem for it. I think that was about in 1980. Shortly  
after that I got my Apple II.

Len

On Apr 24, 2008, at 10:24 PM, Frank Filippone wrote:

> Computers were virtually unavailable till the 80-'s.... most of  
> them before
> around 1980  were used for accounting purposes.....  PC's were  
> first common
> around 1980.. ( TRS80 ) and useless for lens design.  ( No programs)
>
> The Noctilux first appeared in 1966.. before computers ( mini or  
> PC) were at
> all common.
>
> It was designed using slide rules ( and long division......)
>
> PS:  Do kids learn Long division in school any more?
>
> PPS: Rei.. My wife was raised in Harrington Park, and my Brother  
> lived in
> Ridgewood......His Ex still lives there......
>
> Personally, I was raised in Bloomfield....
>
>
> Frank Filippone
> red735i@earthlink.net
>
>
>
> i was reading puts to learn about the design of the noctilux and
> how much of a role computers played in its design (someone here had
> intimated that it was designed by slide rule.)  the book (and other
> sources) intimate that mandler did embrace computer technology as a
> tool but nothing specific about the noctilux.
>
>
>
>
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