You had to have a lot of moxie in the 60s to try to make Moore's ideas into
real technology. It was amazing what they were able to do.
I wonder where this old junk is now? Should be in the Computer History Museum!
Cheers,
Alan
>
> From: Martin McClure
>To: Fundamentals of New Computing
>Cc: Viewpoints Research
>Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:26 AM
>Subject: Re: [fonc] Talking Typwriter [was: Barbarians at the gate! (Project
>Nell)]
>
>On 03/14/2012 09:54 AM, Alan Kay wrote:
>>
>> 1. Psychologist O.K. Moore in the early 60s at Yale and elsewhere
>> pioneered the idea of a "talking typewriter" to help children learn how
>> to read via learning to write. This was first a grad student in a closet
>> with a microphone simulating a smart machine -- but later the Edison
>> division of McGraw-Hill made a technology that did some of these things.
>
>Now that reference brings back some memories!
>
>As an undergrad I had a student job in the Computer Assisted Instruction
>lab. One day, a large pile of old parts arrived from somewhere, with no
>accompanying documentation, and I was told, "Put them together." It
>turned out to be two Edison talking typewriters. I got one fully
>functional; the other had a couple of minor parts missing. This was in
>late '77 or early '78, about the same time I was attempting
>(unsuccessfully) to learn something about Smalltalk.
>
>Regards,
>
>-Martin
>
>
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