Slashdot Mirror
Linguistic Clue Pushes Back Origin of "World's Oldest Computer"
Calopteryx points out a piece at New Scientist which suggests that the Antikythera mechanism may be even older than previously thought; an ancient Greek word on of the device's dials suggests the device may date to the early second century BC. The article is accompanied by a great animation of its (deduced) workings, too.
Watch, next thing you know that dial is how they got their ancient IP addresses.
"They confiscated everything, even the stuff we didn't steal!"
A computer? That's the hot chick who crunches numbers for me.
My gut says someone is already thinking of adding this device as part of a movie plot. sigh...
Really? Mine generally just growls.
One day in the far future:
"I've finished! The last peice of source recovered. We now know how this ancient artifact called Linux worked"
"Linux, what's linux?"
"Its a very old but staggeringly advanced computing system devised *before* the dark age of Microsoft. Its amazing to think that hundreds of years ago people had the ability to listen to music and watch videos whenever and whereever they wanted without being bound by the draconian licencing schemes, blue screens, poor driver quality and cost we have had to put up with for so many many years"
"Interesting, just think how advanced our technology would be now had Microsoft not had all heretics burned"
"Yes, it's a terrible terrible shame. What were they thinking?"
This not a free form stick and sand device.
"GNU/Stick and Sand" has the Four Freedoms.
Squirrel!
If by prolific you mean terrible then I agree :)
But does it run Linux?
(Don't worry; I hated typing that joke as much as you hated reading it.)
No existe.
The Spanish Inquisition is the one we usually think of when we think of the term "Inquisition"
I call BS.
If everybody thought of the Spanish Inquisition whenever they thought of the term "Inquisition", they wouldn't go around talking about how nobody expects them!