[RndTbl] transistor wall-clock (John Donovan)

jd jd at wcgwave.ca
Sun Oct 18 16:09:14 CDT 2015


Exposed components or not, I hope the instructions advise youngsters 
AGAINST taking their finished clockwork to Show&Tell **

"Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from 
magic."  ++
_ _

** Sept.15th news item:
Irving,Tx teen Ahmed Mohamed, repackaged a Micronta clock's guts into a 
size-small tech briefcase 'pencil case' enclosure, and trotted off to 
school with it.
The clock was received with [ahem] alarm(s).
Kid gets arrested, gets released, gets invited to TheWhiteHouse & to 
MIT, then gets (at least) $15k in 'support', etc.
In defense of Histrionics, any Hollywood SFX designer would vote that 
choice of enclosure, so..C'mon!
In defense of Kid: Those old Microntas never showed a CountDown mode, 
so..C'mon!


++ One of 130-or-so Murphy's Laws quotes&quips from a mid-80s dos 
freeware: " murphy.com "
Another example:
"If carpenters built buildings the way programmers built programs,
the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilisation."

Any time you execute murphy, it outputs a fairly random (think:fortune) 
selection on console.
Dan Keizer &/or Kelly Kitson were always handing me dos utils, like this 
- e.g: Vern Buerg's (still) excellent LIST.com, uEmacs, f32 filer, QT 
fuzzy clock ("it's around quarter to three"), kermit, etc.

Some say murphy was compiled (gathered) by a Canadian salesguy w/ Data 
General (Edmonton?).
I should have a vintage'85 CP/M 5.25" from Austin Codeworks, with source 
in murphy.ASM or _.FOR ..
It's gotta be somewhere around here .. [fumble] .. or in here .. 
[shuffle] .. or maybe in he..
[sound effect: "Fibber McGee & Molly" hall closet avalanche]


More information about the Roundtable mailing list