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Think of it this way: What Scotty knows about engineering and such is in the context of his time period, which in that movie was pretty far displaced from "now". True, he probably does know of older computer technology, but most of his day-to-day knowledge centers around the technology available to him in his own time. It shouldn't be any wonder that he might make a few mistakes and take a little bit to "get up to speed" when faced with what to him was a very old piece of technology.

I don't know if you have ever had a chance to visit a well stocked computer museum, but if you ever do, you will be amazed. Take a look at an old IBM card sorter or card punch - these were two of many devices used to communicate with computers in the 1950's and 1960's - even if you know what they do, and have read about how a Hollerith or IBM card is formatted, you would still be stymied by both of the devices (though the sorter is easier to understand, and becomes even easier to understand if you operate it with a real deck of unsorted cards). Here we are only talking technology 50 or so years old. Most people don't even know how to properly load an open-reel 9-track tape into a vacuum column drive...

Go back a little further to the plug-board era of ENIAC and other machines, and things get really hairy. Go back further to the 1930's and you see analog differential analyzer devices which had to be set up by positioning belts and motors and wheels and such (knife edge wheels on glass disks, etc) - to get a calculation output from that (in the form of graph on a 2-axis pen plotter if you were lucky) requires a lot of knowledge in many different areas that most people don't even have today. Go back a little further, and you are back in punch-card territory with Hollerith tabulation machines (which were used not only for census tracking, but in some cases warehouse inventory tracking and purchasing tracking - some of the first credit processing systems were done with Hollerith tabulators). Go back much further, and you are talking devices made by Pascal, Napier, and others for simple mechanical-based calculations - while a Pascaline is fairly easy to operate (although very finicky and fragile), your first time setting up a calculation for multiplication might give you pause.

I have only scratched the surface here, too - the history of computation and calculation using machinery and mechanical/electronic means is long and varied, and not nearly as large a time span as that between "today" and the time period Scotty hailed from. So, no, I don't find the scene as unrealistic as some imagine it to be, given the examples I have explained above...

the first computer bug was not found by ada lovelace.
uit was found by Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, USNR, (1906-1992)

http://www.maxmon.com/1945ad.htm
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers- h/g-hoppr.htm
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h96000/h 96566kc.htm

she was an excellent speaker who could make anybody understand anything, a real gift.

Even the most elementary exercise with your brain would ahve allowed you to figure why it couldn't have been Ada Lovelace.

"Eh, Sorry Pinky, but here in America, where these computers were born, we put the month first, so today is 8/2/6!"

Why do Americans think they invented everything? The computer was thought up by Babbage in the 1800s, and the first computer with electronic memory was invented at Manchester uni in 1948 and was called "The Baby" - although you could probably claim any nation had the first working computer depending how you define a computer right back to the Chinese/Babylonians with the abacus.

Well, if by "light bulb" you mean electric light, the phenomenom was well known in scientific circles back in 1820, as the folowing quote from "Oersted and the Discovery of Electromagnetism" at http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/fgregory/oersted.htm
shows:

"Since I expected the greatest effect from a discharge associated with incandescence, I inserted in the circuit a very fine platinum wire above the place where the needle was located."

In other words, a current through a thin wire made electric light.
Not very practical though, only known power source was galvanic batteries (Which quickly ran down), and needed expensive platinum wire to keep the filament from melting or burning up right away.

The obvious solution was to encase a cheaper filament in a vaccum (ie: bulb), but good vaccums were difficult to achieve, and good filaments were also a problem at the time. They needed to be cheap, very thin, mechanically strong, electrically conductive, (but not too much) and with stand high temprature, not an easy combo to come by.

After some twenty years of research, English physicist and electrician, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan successfully demonstrated a true incandescent bulb in 1878 (a year earlier than Edison) http://www.maxmon.com/1878ad.htm

Not that they were the only two working on it, just the first two to produce a practical version that got public attention. (As I recall, a German and a Canadian also demonstrated similar lights at about the same time, but I can't remember their names.) }:-P

Fuck that, they should have delivered it all on these.

sounds just like the Mercury delay line memory from the old days. Where they used sound pulses travelling in the mercury to represent presence or abscence of bits...

I wa just about to build a replica of the ENIAC, but the cost of the 1000 square feet was quite discouraging :/

Incidentally, Aiken was the one who predicted that only six electronic digital computers would be required to satisfy the computing needs of the US.

• Harvard Mark 1 (1939 - 1944) - semi-programmable electromechanical computing machine.
• Zuse Z3 (1938-1941) - small general purpose relay computer. Good architecture, but limited by relay speeds to a 5Hz (yes, Hz) clock. First floating point unit. No jump instruction, due to a low budget. The later Z4 (1945-1949) had jumps and conditional branches.
• Atanasoff-Berry (1937-1942) Programmable, electronic arithmetic, binary, but memory was a rotating drum of capacitors.
• Colossus (1944?) Special-purpose key-testing machine.
• ENIAC (1943-1946) - plugboard-programmed tube machine. No general purpose memory, just registers. Tube ALU.
• IBM 603 Electronic Multiplier (1946) - first commercial electronic computing product. Punched card I/O, not truly programmable, but electronic multiplication and division.

Most of these machines had electronic arithmetic units. The big problem was memory. There were no good memory technologies yet, and none of those machines had much memory. They all basically had a few registers, like a calculator. Each bit of memory required a relay, a tube, or a discrite capacitor and switchgear.

Finally, the memory problem was solved. EDVAC, (1947-1952), had 1K of mercury-tank delay line memory. This was a lousy main memory technology (you had to wait for the word you wanted to come around, like a disk), but allowed reasonable memory sizes. It was clunky, but at last, there was memory.

With the memory problem partially solved, various groups started building machines. Pilot ACE, ACE, and IAS date from this period.

The UNIVAC I (1948-1951) had it all - memory (1K words, in mercury tanks), console, tape drives, console typewriter, programmability, electronic arithmetic, a reasonable instruction set, and self-checking. It was built, sold, and used. UNIVAC I was the first of these machines that a modern programmer would consider usable.

John Vincent Atanasoff was credited with the invention of the computer, following a lengthy court battle, built 1939 to 1942, predating the Colossus by at least one year. The Z3 was begun the year before the ABC was finished per this page, so if the court decision is to be believed, America gets credit for the computer.

It wasn't untill in the 40s, when someone at the Bell Labs (forgot his name) suddenly found out that the Boolean Algebra can be used in digital systems, specifically in implementing digital circuits.

It was Claude Shannon in 1938. (c.f. this article) "Possibly the most important master's thesis of the 20th century"

As the page indicates (for the click-impared), the programming language ADA was named after her.

Often, one has to stop and think where we are with technology, and how far we've come. Considering that this seemingly "advanced" bulb is ages away from the prototypes of Edison and Swan and to think where we will be (or where our grandchildren will be), in another 100 years from now, is fascinating.

Take a look at Andre Lamothe's books. I know lots of programmers flame his books. However, I think his books are great for hobbiests. I think they're great for kids. I think this kid would love the Xgamestation. From what I have seen, Mr. LaMothe seems to geniunely want to help his readers.

I started to studying programing (C and a little ASM during the summer of my high school graduation) by reading his old Tips and Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus.

You might want to take a look at the Bebop to the Boolean Boogie as well.

"Which Americans do you think invented the computer?"

Eckert and Mauchly.

ENIAC was not a stored program machine, and was inferior to COLOSSUS, which preceded it. EDVAC was Eckert and Mauchly's first stored program machine, but was not completed until significantly after Baby had first run. All these machines depended crucially on Turing's 'On Computable Numbers'.

So if you think ENIAC was a computer, COLOSSUS beat them to it. If you think that ENIAC wasn't a computer, Baby beat them to it. COLOSSUS, Baby and, of course, Turing, were all British.

So hopefully the US will recognise that Joseph Swan invented the lightbulb next.

I dont want to flame but an american did not invent the tv "Philo Farnsworth"-who?? im sorry but ill bet he was american , he did not invent the tv John Logie Baird as stated above was the inventor he was working in Dublin ( Ireland ) at the time i believe

You are absolutely correct that Philo Farnsworth didn't invent the concept of television. He invented the first all electronic television.
link

The other individual you mentioned invented a functional Television first, however it was mechanical.He later much improved on the electronic design, and for that deserves much credit, however Farnsworth did invent television in pretty much the form we use today.

, just like americans didnt invent the Computer , no the English didnt either , a German beat them all to it just before the begining of WW11

Gee I always thought Charles Babbage was English, and in every CS book that mentions the history of the computer, Babbage is credited as it's inventor. I also thought he invented it in the 1830's, long before the First World War, let alone the second, although it is true that Babbage may not deserve all of the credit for inventing the first real computer.

I found Konrad Zuse (not 'zuze'). His machines were rather remarkable. He had paper paper tape (although he used old movie film because paper for paper tape or punch cards was in short supply), he used binary, and considered using vaccum tubes instead of relays, but found relays to be more plentiful. His machine also predated the Harvard Mark I(IBM ASCC), however that machine was apparently invented independantly, and the fact that the Z3 had predated it was not found out until after WWII. All of this information is here.

However, several full fleged computers predated Zuse's machine, including Babbage's machines, and the Turnig machine.

The jet fighter was the English , who were gracious enough to lend there jet tech to America.

Gee, my history books always said it was Germany. They were at least the first to use them AS fighters during WWII.

From here
1939 First jet aircraft is flown, Heinkel HE 178 Heinkel Germany
1942 First operational jet, ME-262 Messerschmitt Germany

It kinda looks to me like it wasn't the British, but actually the Germans who deveoped the first Jet.

Nothing againts America I still think its a great country but not everything is invented in america!.ill be moded as offtopic i presume , who cares , what i said is still true.

It's nice of you to say that we're a great country, and that you have nothing against us, (some of your aside comments would indicate otherwise, but I'll take you at your word), but what you say isn't really true. You failed to make even the most cursory of checks using google for any of the claims you made.

sometimes a bug actually is a bug. there is some debate as to whether or not the first time a "bug" was mentioned that it actually was a bug or not. this link clears up some of the confusion. (there was a bug, a moth, found inside a computer, but the word was in use before that time).

Ohh.. sour grapes, you always get these stories come out the word work when a US inventor isn't credited for inventing heaven and earth, this is analogous to Edison who everyone today in certain parts of the world credit him with inventing the light bulb even though he just ripped off Joseph Swan's work, Swan's products predate any of Edisons amazing 'discoveries'.

I have made a port using Napier bones . Perhaps you can build off of my work. I also don't have ethernet running but perhaps we can work together on that!

I want to answer the original poster's real question, and not just tell him to take the child out for socializing. Other people have made that clear.

How does the child like to learn? Does he like books or teachers; both perhaps? If books, then make sure you know the best books/sites out there. He doesn't have to read them, just let them be there if he wants to look through them. Eventually, he will, reading little parts as he is interested. I hear this book is entertaining for children, and he can read it if he tires of the adult tone of other books.

As for teachers... let him go to the nearby large university to visit.. Speak with a department head. Perhaps he can hang around the science grad/undergrad students doing their little projects. He can find out what people are doing, and hang on for as long as he feels like.

Of course, he can't be shut out from his peers. The goal is that he should be as comfortable with humans as with books, or at least have the chance to be, if he isn't wired that way. There are many arenas in life he should be able to feel comfortable in; I have personally known people who've been advanced a little too quickly, and they've turned.. sick in certain ways. Without an oar. Don't fawn over him for the one attribute. He is not to be a trained performing dog.

There are other places to ask, if you want more in-depth information by people who've gone through this.

BTW, my pseudo-values for the high-order nybbles follows from the zone punches that were overpunched. The top row was the "Y" zone, then came the "X" zone, and then the "zero" zone.

BTW, my pseudo-values for the high-order nybbles follows from the zone punches that were overpunched. The top row was the "Y" zone, then came the "X" zone, and then the "zero" zone.

Both of you err.

It is a joke. He made fun of the first name mentioned ("Johann") instead of the commonly used "John" because he seems to think it is wrong.

In fact both names are appropriate as this link might show.