[Info-vax] OT: book from George Dyson.

[Rich Jordan]

On Apr 6, 6:40 am, Neil Rieck <n.ri... at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Attention Computer Technologists. George Dyson (son of Freeman Dyson)
> just published a book titled "Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the
> Digital Universe" which appears to be a must-own gem.
>
> book:http://www.amazon.com/Turings-Cathedral-Origins-Digital-Universe/dp/0...
>
> video:http://ww3.tvo.org/video/173792/george-dyson-origins-digital-universe
>
> I've been working in the computer industry since 1976 and had not
> heard the story about Williams Tube memory (1024 lighted areas of war-
> surplus oscilloscope cathode ray tubes). You connect 40 of these
> together to make 5 KB of memory. As the bits (screen phosphors) begin
> to fade they need to be refreshed. This is not much different than
> what goes on in modern DRAM where charges leak away from internal
> capacitors.
>
> Neil Rieck
> Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
> Ontario, Canada.http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/

One of the engineering grad students at my college did "101 things you
can do with a dead sillyscope" as a senior project.  I wonder if I
still have the handout from that (I was a freshman at the
presentation).  I don't recall one of the 'things' being use as memory
though.

Sounds like a neat book, thanks Neil.