Re: Counting on yer fingers

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1 total messages Started by Greg Goss Mon, 15 Oct 1990 04:20

#5273

Author: Greg Goss
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 1990 04:20

34 lines
1507 bytes

> i...@cac.washington.edu writes:
> 
> Msg-ID: <92...@milton.u.washington.edu>
> Posted: 15 Oct 90 06:23:58 GMT
> 
> Org.  : University of Washington, Seattle
> Person: Il Oh
> 
> Incidentally, this is a little bit like simulating a column on an abacus
> with each hand.
> 
> il
> 
> --
> a clever .sig file



I wonder which inspired which?  I wonder if the more efficient finger counting
inspired abaci (real word?) efficient enough to survive into the modern era, or
if the use of a dual-base abacus inspired the use of the hands as such an
abacus?

Not that this has anything to do with folklore, so...

-------------------------------
ob-folk.  People are talking about counting errors.  I once put the period at a
division boundary in the wrong column in a fairly large (in a school
environment) COBOL program.  From that point forward, I received between 3 and
6 error messages for each line in the program, well over 500 overall.  This was
on a XEROX (Honeywell) 560 computer running CP/V and who remembers what brand
of Cobbled?

.../greg

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