Category: Tech

Digi-Comp 1 — The First Home Computer

When I was a kid, it bothered me that most people were more interested in the ads in comic books than in the stories. Most of what was sold was junk, of course — the notorious X-Ray Specs for example — but once in a while a legitimately interesting product was offered. So, in acknowledgment of that, here’s an ad from a 1967 Marvel comic book. It’s the Digi-Comp 1!

If not exactly the first home computer, the Digi-Comp 1 was a working binary counting machine. Here’s a Digi-Comp 1 in action, counting from 0 to 7 in binary. It’s even done twice, in case you miss it the first time. 😉

Exciting, huh? But compared to the comic book ad the Digi-Comp 1 must have been a disappointment. First, there’s nothing electronic about it, and the atomic symbol would seem to imply it’s nuclear in some way. But at least the Digi-Comp 1 is described accurately as being a “mechanical analog of a binary computer.”

I hope the person who wrote the ad copy didn’t use a Digi-Comp 1 to figure out the price, because it’s listed first at $4.99, then in the coupon at $4.98. Oh well, they didn’t claim “down to the penny precision!”

The Digi-Comp 1 has, as you might expect, something of a cult following. Original units are often auctioned in eBay, and there is a replica of it available at Minds on Toys.

NOVA: Marathon Challenge

October 30, the evening after American Masters shows the Charles Schulz program, NOVA on PBS will present Marathon Challenge.

NOVA wanted to investigate these questions through the “Marathon Challenge,” and with the help of a dozen enthusiastic recruits, we set out to see if “ordinary people” could transform themselves into marathoners in just a matter of months. The results were extraordinary.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/OCT07/NovaMarathon.flv 400 300]

The timing of this program is interesting, because a runner died in the Chicago Marathon this past Sunday; not from the 84° heat, but from a pre-existing heart condition. I have completed six Boston Marathons, under a wide variety of weather conditions, including a day when the temperature hovered around 90°F. And take it from me, it’s not something you want to try unless you’re totally in love with the idea of doing it and are prepared to do the work to get ready.

Does the idea of heading out the door to run 16 miles, even when it’s raining, because that’s what the training schedule says to do, appeal to you? No? Then forget marathon running.

The NOVA participants benefited from expert guidance throughout their 40-week training — hmm… the same number of weeks it takes to have a baby. The idea that anybody can run a marathon is simply wrong. Jon Krakauer is a favorite author of mine, and in his book Into Thin Air he is critical of people who want to believe that anybody can conquer climbing Mt. Everest with proper training and adequate equipment.

WALKING the Boston Marathon course is do-able, with proper preparation. A good friend of mine did exactly that recently. But if you aren’t already a runner, and you’re more than ten pounds overweight, and you’ve never jogged more than three miles, I strongly suggest that you not get it in your head that 26.2 miles is nothing more than 13.1 miles times two, because doubling the effort it takes to do 13.1 miles occurs at about 19 miles. And you still have another 7 miles to go.

Hot Links Stink

I’m being hotlinked. Argh. I knew it would happen eventually, and for still pictures I don’t care. But videos are another matter.

Hotlinking is when a Webmaster uses a picture or video from another site, by referring to its absolute address, rather than taking it by downloading and putting it on their own server. It’s bandwidth theft, and bandwidth used to be so precious that a hotlink to a lowly JPG was annoying. Nowadays, it’s video that’s a concern.

Some FLV files I posted have been hotlinked for streaming video. The owner of the site is using Dreamhost, the same service that hosts Mark Evanier’s sites, so it isn’t as if this guy is short on storage capacity or bandwidth.

Up to now I haven’t tried to block hotlinking, because I assumed people would download the files. That’s now changed. I’ve edited the .htaccess file for the site with some code that should greatly cut down on the potential hotlinking of FLV files. It won’t prevent it entirely, and I’m not about to say under what circumstances it doesn’t block. With a little more tweaking I should be able to tighten the screws some more.

The MMMS Records Remastered

Since it seems I’m the primary provider on the Net for the audio from the two flexi-discs that Marvel Comics produced in the 1960’s, I thought I’d offer them with superior sound compared to what I posted five years ago. Here they are, remastered for the best possible audio fidelity.

The Voices of Marvel

Scream Along With Marvel

Technical notes:

  • Technics turntable, Shure cartridge, AGI pre-amp, AKG headphones.
  • Captured using Audacity from pre-amp line level output.
  • 24-bit resolution, 48 kHz sample rate.
  • Click removal used sparingly. No other noise reduction or equalization.
  • A dimple in the flexi-disc causes a recurring thump between 3:15 and 3:35.
  • The left channel in each recording was deemed better, forced into 2-channel mono, then exported as lossless WAV files.
  • WAV files converted to MP3 at 256 Kbps CBR.

JW Flash Player 3.11

I took the site offline for a little while to update the JW FLV Player from 3.6 to 3.11. At the same time I updated the WordPress plug-in I use for it, FLV Embed, to version 0.3.2.

It’s working, but I have the same complaint I had before, when trying to update to JW FLV 3.7. The parameter $flv_overstretch: fit doesn’t work. It’s my assumption for now that it’s a problem with the plugin not properly telling the player what to do. I’ll pursue that angle again, like I did last time to no avail. For now I’ve gone back to JW FLV 3.6 and everything is once again AOK.