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From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
Subject: Re: Brainiac in memoriam (was "algorithmic" vs "heuristic")
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Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 17:44:09 GMT
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ba672@lafn.org (Arthur T. Murray) writes:
>Brainiac?  Mirabile dictu!  Someone remembers the old Brainiac?!!
>Being twelve years old at the time I received the toy Brainiac at
>Christmas in 1958.

      Now there was a frustrating machine.  It was basically
six multipole rotary switches and a few lamps, with no active
components at all.  The rotary switches were really tacky; they
were Masonite disks with lots of holes turning against a Masonite
base.  "Programming" was performed by inserting 6/32 round-head machine
screws into the holes and connecting them with hookup wire.
The screw heads were the contacts.  The disks were attached
to the base with a long screw and a foam-rubber washer, to provide
enough play to ride over the screw heads.

      I got most of the simple "programs" to work, but the 
tic-tac-toe program was too complicated; there were so many 
screws they wouldn't all stay in contact at once.

					John Nagle
