Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/05/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This is a shot of Steve in a lecture/demonstration of a PDP1 computer that volunteers at the Computer History Museum restored to working order. This was a three-year effort, taking place many years ago. This demonstration takes place twice a month, includes audience members getting to play Space War, which Steve wrote in the early 1960s. About the same period, another museum volunteer, Peter Sampson, wrote a program that enables the computer to play four-part music, sounding much like a pipe organ. Space War has two competing rocket ships, in the gravitational field of the sun, shooting torpedoes at each other. Because the computer did not have enough power to deal with the effect of gravity on the torpedoes, Steve decided to invent "photon torpedoes" unaffected by gravity. He also invented hyperspace, an emergency escape hatch, but claims that the hyperspace generator is defective and that no ship ever survived more than seven trips through hyperspace. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/P1010233.jpg.html Herbert Kanner kanner at acm.org 650-326-8204 Question authority and the authorities will question you.