*** Ideas needed for developing interactive displays....

[Jason McBrien]

A paperclip computer might be nice..
http://www.computermuseum.20m.com/alcosser.htm

I was lucky enough to pick up the book from a charity book sale for $1. It's
pretty neat, and explains the basics of computers very well (Registers,
memory, ALU, etc...) An oversized version using knife switches and lamps
would be neat.

P.S. Anyone play with the "Pro" version of this thing?
http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/toy/paperclip/ct650lab.jpg

Impressions 5 science museum in Lansing, MI used to have a "Design your own
car" exhibit that ran on an IBM PC (Boring) But attached to the PC was a
PDP11 controlling a GIANT table plotter, at least as big as a snooker table,
donated by Ford. The design your own car part was boring, most kids would
just input anything to watch the giant plotter work. Man I wanted that
thing.

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI used to have a really cool exhibit
showing how assembly lines work. It was a big, two story tall contraption
which would send colored balls around various chutes and conveyors. About
ten kids would have to work together to "Harvest" the balls, sort and
seperate them into various bins. It was a lot more fun that it sounds. Kind
of like a giant Rokenbach playset. Not really computer related, but a good
example of making a (relatively) mundane topic interesting.

Slightly OT, the Henry Ford museum is super cool, well worth the trip if
anyone is in the Detroit area. It's what got me interested in machines, and
computers, in general. I had an obsession with steam engines when I was
young, mostly because of this thing:

http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/mia/highlandpark.asp

.. not to mention this thing:

http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/transportation/allegheny.asp

It's even larger than the picture makes it out to be. They also have the
only intact Bucky Fuller Dymaxion house in existance:

http://www.hfmgv.org/museum/dymaxion.asp

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ed sharpe" <esharpe at uswest.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 12:03 AM
Subject: *** Ideas needed for developing interactive displays....


Most of our displays here at the museum are pretty static.....

we are looking for ideas on  introducing some interactive component... ideas
folks?


Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC

Please check our web site at
 http://www.smecc.org
to see other engineering fields, communications and computation stuff we
buy, and by all means  when in Arizona drop in and see us.

address:

 coury house / smecc
5802 w palmaire ave
glendale az 85301