> Oh, boy. You're going to have fun. :) Some people actually discover that > they enjoy math once a physical component has been added to it. Besides, > it's a neat skill: many operations have "speed" variations, and can be > done with a reduced number of hand motions. A good abacus doing a long > problem looks like he's playing a small one-handed piano, and sounds > like castanets. ;)
Actually, Ben, I was down in Chinatown the other day and saw a store owner totaling up someone's bill with an abacus. His hands were a blur as he "played the castanets".... Amazing and impressive! S Steve Weinstein S/V CAPTIVA 1997 Hunter 376, Hull #376 Sailing out of Oyster Bay, NY All outgoing mail protected by VIPRE A/V ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Okopnik" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 7:29 PM Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Unnecessary Beads > On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 04:33:43PM -0500, Steve Weinstein wrote: >> Wow! Between you, Ben, and Norm and others I had no idea that the mere >> mention of "Abacus" would start a whole 'nuther thread! I'm sitting here >> in >> frozen NYC (about 19 as the 'high' overnight!!) and laughing my butt off! > > Oh - I was just in NYC a little while ago. We pass like ships in the > night. :) > >> I mentioned the abacus originally 'cause I was having a really bad >> 'technology' day. I was ready to toss the computer out my 8th floor >> apartment window and then calmed down, researched my issue (a >> mis-behaving >> program), took a (admittedly bundled up) walk with the dog, and came back >> in >> a much calmer state of mind. > > That's a good time to remind yourself that abaci beat computers at input > speed, a handful of uncooked spaghetti beats them all hollow at sorting > algorithms (just rap the whole thing lightly, one end down, and it's all > sorted by length), and a rubber band plus some stick pins can solve the > Travelling Salesman problem in one snap while the poor computer will > struggle endlessly. *We're* the ones with the brains, dammit! :))) > >> Having said that, I don't ever think I've actually seen an abacus. There >> were already "adding machines" when I was a kid in the '50s although they >> were huge and weighed many, many pounds! > > Right... the only place I've seen those (IBM tabulators, as I recall) > was in a museum of computing, somewhere in California. They also had a > mechanical computer that used a beautifully shaped cam for integration; > just great stuff, branches of development we ended up not following > because electrons were so much easier to juggle. > >> Anyway, just thought I'd chime in and say thanks, I learned something >> today >> about an abacus! Maybe I'll try to find one and learn how to use it and >> develop "mental math" - although having survived the '60s I'm not sure >> how >> much mental capacity I've actually got left! > > Oh, boy. You're going to have fun. :) Some people actually discover that > they enjoy math once a physical component has been added to it. Besides, > it's a neat skill: many operations have "speed" variations, and can be > done with a reduced number of hand motions. A good abacist doing a long > problem looks like he's playing a small one-handed piano, and sounds > like castanets. ;) > > > Ben > -- > OKOPNIK CONSULTING > Custom Computing Solutions For Your Business > Expert-led Training | Dynamic, vital websites | Custom programming > 443-250-7895 http://okopnik.com http://twitter.com/okopnik > _______________________________________________ > Liveaboard mailing list > [email protected] > To adjust your membership settings over the web > http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > To subscribe send an email to [email protected] > > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > To search the archives > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
