@RUTGERS.ARPA,@MIT-MC:MDC.JANICE@MIT-OZ (04/21/85)
From: Janice <MDC.JANICE%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA> The short story about Andrew "Slipstick" Libby is called "Misfit." It can probably be most easily found in the Heinlein collection called "The Past Through Tomorrow." The most amusing feature of this story, for me at least, was the scene where two major characters are doing some calculations on a computer, and in order to do so they have to convert all the numbers using log tables. Janice -------
@RUTGERS.ARPA:hester@uci-icse (04/23/85)
From: Jim Hester <hester@uci-icse> > ... The most amusing feature of > this story, for me at least, was the scene where two major > characters are doing some calculations on a computer, and in order > to do so they have to convert all the numbers using log tables. At the end of the story Libby was assigned to a computer, which broke down and he had to mentally calculate the answers. But the story gave no indication of what form the computer output was, so we must assume from the firing data mentioned ("tube thirteen, seven point six ...") that this was the form of the output. The only mention on logs in the story was when they first discovered his ability and were testing it: he didn't know what a log was until they explained it to him, at which time he calculated some for them. You have confused this with another Heinlein story, a novel: "Starman Jones". This involved the scene you described, where people stood by with books of tables translating computer input and output. I only recall binary-decimal conversions, since that was the mode of input/output the computer used, but wouldn't be suprised if logs were looked up too. My favorite story of this type was "Superiority" (Arthur C. Clarke), where a warship housing a 'Battle Analyzer' computer had to be accompanied by a (vulnerable) passenger liner containing a "team of five hundred technicians to maintain and operate it". You see, the Analyzer had "just short of a million vacuum tubes". Jim
dpm@edison.UUCP (Dave P. McClurg) (04/26/85)
> From: Janice <MDC.JANICE%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA> > > The short story about Andrew "Slipstick" Libby is called "Misfit." It > can probably be most easily found in the Heinlein collection called > "The Past Through Tomorrow." The most amusing feature of this story, > for me at least, was the scene where two major characters are doing > some calculations on a computer, and in order to do so they have to > convert all the numbers using log tables. > > Janice > Have you ever taken NUMERICAL METHODS? Computer math is tough stuff. :-) Dave at VA TECH