From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-10-04T00:29:08+09:00
Subject: Re: A Must Read!!!


On Oct 3, 2007, at 10:08 AM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

> Michael Glaesemann wrote:
>> On Oct 3, 2007, at 7:53 , Michael T. Richter wrote:
>>> (I have similar questions about people acting as if functional  
>>> programming -- '50s -- were the New Deal.)
>> Huh. I haven't seen many people claiming Roosevelt had much  
>> influence on computer science.
>> Michael Glaesemann
>> grzm seespotcode net
>
> Well ... he did fund the Manhattan Project, after all. Most of the  
> calculations for that, however, were done by rooms full of men and  
> women operating mechanical desk calculators, under the direction of  
> John Von Neumann and others. These men and women were known as  
> "computers", and in many cases had college degrees in mathematics.
>
> The genius of Von Neumann was that he saw that such calculations  
> could be done faster, more accurately and with lower cost  
> electronically. But it didn't happen until *after* the Manhattan  
> Project was over and FDR was in his grave.
>
Slide Rule