The first computer - a bone

[fingal]

Actually it's not really a computer, but I bought a book about the history of computing (it was going cheap ... no-one else wanted it!) and it has a picture of some bones dating from about 20,000 years ago.

The bone is thought to have been used as part of a tally system to keep track of supplies (food etc.) by our ancient ancestors. For some reason, I love this idea so I found a link about it: http://www.maxmon.com/20000bc.htm

Can't find any acutal pictures though. Computer history is quite interesting.

[sether]

That's pretty awesome. I think I'm going to start using a bone as my personal computer. Think about all of the advantages of using a bone over a modern PC:

*Low cost
*No security vulnerabilites or bugs
*Requires no electricity
*Easy to use
*Fits in your pocket
*High "cool factor"
*People will think you're eccentric

The list goes on....

[fingal]

That's pretty awesome. I think I'm going to start using a bone as my personal computer. Think about all of the advantages of using a bone over a modern PC:

*Low cost
*No security vulnerabilites or bugs
*Requires no electricity
*Easy to use
*Fits in your pocket
*High "cool factor"
*People will think you're eccentric

The list goes on....

You've just invented the mobile bone! We could always start a flame war about which bone is better ...

[winter]

you mean they had the zx spectrum back then?

[benjamin20]

would the mobile bone be able to play vorbis files?

[budman7]

I just want to know how you can get X to run on the bone?

Kind of gives new meaning to a "bare-bones system".

[fingal]

I just want to know how you can get X to run on the bone?

Kind of gives new meaning to a "bare-bones system".

You just carve an X into it and that's it! X is running. He he ... "bare bones system". )))

[fingal]

would the mobile bone be able to play vorbis files?

No but bones are also musical: http://www.world-beats.com/musicalbones.html