Re: Some hoorays for the slide rule Message #32 Posted by Ren on 9 Jan 2009, 3:19 p.m., in response to message #1 by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.
The following is a file I saved off the 'net many years ago.
Unfortunately, back then I trimmed the header and lost information about who authored it.
Ren
dona nobis pacem
Reasons Why a Slide Rule (and Paper Pad) is Better Than an X Workstation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- A Slide Rule doesn't shut down abruptly when it gets too hot.
- One hundred people all using Slide Rules and Paper Pads do not
start wailing and screaming due to a single-point failure.
- A Slide Rule doesn't smoke whenever the power supply hiccups.
- A Slide Rule doesn't care if you smoke, or hiccup.
- You can spill coffee on a Slide Rule; you can use a Slide Rule
while _completely_submerged_ in coffee.
- You never get nasty system messages about filling up your entire
paper quota with pointless GIF pictures for the root window.
- A Slide Rule and Paper Pad fit in a briefcase with space left over
for lunch or a change of underwear.
- A properly used Slide Rule can perform pipelined *and* parallel
operations. (Okay, you need a guru for this.)
- You don't get junk mail offering pricey software upgrades that
fix current floating point errors while introducing new ones.
- A Slide Rule doesn't need scheduled hardware maintenance.
- A Paper Pad supports text and graphics images easily, and can be
easily upgraded from monochrome to color.
- Slide Rules are designed to a standardized, open architecture.
- You can hold a Slide Rule at arm's length, to hit the obnoxious
person at the next seat over.
- a Slide Rule is immune to viruses, worms, and other depradations
from hostile adolescents with telephones.
- Additional Paper Pads can be integrated into the system seamlessly
and without needing to reconfigure everything.
- Nobody will make you feel bad by introducing a smaller, faster,
cheaper slide rule next month.
from the frustrated, system-crashed desk of bob,mon.
|