Mystery of Ancient Calculator Finally Cracked 241
jcaruso writes, "It's been more than 100 years since the discovery of the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, but researchers are only now figuring out how it works." From the article:
"Since its discovery in 1902, the Antikythera Mechanism — with its intricate and baffling system of about 30 geared wheels — has been an enigma... During the last 50 years, researchers have identified various astronomical and calendar functions, including gears that mimic the movement of the sun and moon. But it has taken some of the most advanced technology of the 21st century to decipher during the past year the most advanced technology of the 1st century B.C."
The question on everyones lips... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:3, Funny)
Physical Perl (Score:4, Funny)
Just imagine... (Score:5, Funny)
Beowulf cluster (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:4, Funny)
Olden days people.. Pssh. (Score:0, Funny)
'Hey professor Roy, have you figured out how that ancient calculator works yet?'
'Well no.. eh heh... It's sort of a mystery.. Those olden days people were a lot more cleaver than we gave them credit for. I think we might have to change our hypothesis'
'ARE YOU INSANE?! We'll be a laughing stock! I can imagine the headlines now... "Scientists Change Hypothesis: Community Laughs at Expense".. I can't go through that again! You remember the Stone Henge fiasco?! The Bloody Scots threatened to raise Fingal!!'
'...I'll get my gun'
Stargate plug (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:5, Funny)
It was designed by the famous Roman programmer Linicus Torivicus.
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:5, Funny)
Somewhat hard, given that it predates Beowulf [wikipedia.org] by at least 600 years.
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:5, Funny)
KFG
No, just an EULA (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, Debian. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:slownewsday (Score:1, Funny)
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:5, Funny)
Just Goes to Show (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nice! ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:0, Funny)
When will people realize that the whole moonwalk thing was a hoax?
Are even the astronauts so brainwashed that they believe they have been on the moon?
Some lunatics!
Re:stupid (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yes, Debian. (Score:0, Funny)
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Physical Perl (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:slownewsday (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:5, Funny)
The Antikythera mechanism is *not* user friendly, and until it is Antikythera will stay with >1% marketshare.
Take installation. Antikythera zealots are now saying "oh installing is so easy, just do hammer-dowel install package, or hit package": Yes, because hitting with "hammer" makes so much more sense to new users than double-whipping a slave that does "setups".
Antikythera zealots are far too forgiving when judging the difficultly of Antikythera configuration issues and far too harsh when judging the difficulty of slave storage issues. Example comments:
User: "How do I get Quake 0.03 to run in Antikythera?" Zealot: "Oh that's easy! If you have Redtoga, you have to smelt quake_3_rh_8_i686_010203_glibc.tin, then do chmod +x with a file.....
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:3, Funny)
Doesn't this [nott.ac.uk] run NetBSD too?
Evil Technology (Score:2, Funny)
Re:slownewsday (Score:5, Funny)
Fox News?
Everything is under control (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Physical Perl (Score:3, Funny)
Ummmmmm..... nevermind.....
Re:Like the Mormons' tablets... (Score:5, Funny)
1. There's writing on it, but it can't be read with certainty. Instead of making guesses to its contents, the researchers are leaving their speculation to its purpose, which can be more easily deduced. This can be because of:
1a. They actually can't read enough of it to gather the content of the message. (i.e. "Turn the
1b. They have a translation of some sort, but aren't sure that it is correct, and are waiting for confirmation.
2. The researchers made the annoucement subject to a non-disclosure agreement. These agreements are fairly common when making announcements prior to the publication of an academic article. You can make you're annoucement of your findings, but can give specifics about your findings until the article has been published. Just wait until the article is published, and then read the translation yourself.
Apparently... (Score:3, Funny)
Somewhat hard, but not impossible (Score:3, Funny)
2. Write an emulator for it
3. Think of ways to parallelize
4. Try it out in software
5. If it works, build all the hardware
Tada, here you go, a loosely-defined "cluster".
already had it figured out (Score:4, Funny)
Netcraft Confirms It... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nice! ... (Score:3, Funny)
And penned by no less than the great Greek legislator [wikipedia.org] himself!
Re:The question on everyones lips... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Like the Mormons' tablets... (Score:5, Funny)
Basically, they've found the EULA. They're worried the BSA will sue them under the PMCA (Pre-Millenium Copyright Act)...
Re:Most Advanced? (Score:3, Funny)
The actual decoded message (Score:1, Funny)
So Does This Mean...? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Getting less important (Score:2, Funny)
.
Re:Like the Mormons' tablets... (Score:3, Funny)
So you can read greek can you ? Hardly. It says "Insert coin here".
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:4, Funny)
There is, as any reasonable man can see, no american continent, the whole Columbus affair was a hoax, organized by the Portuguese government to cover up the fact that they are ruling the world.
I am sure you can appreciate the ingenuity of inventing a conspiracy theory to cover up a much more important conspiracy.
Warranty void if seal is removed (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Physical Perl (Score:3, Funny)
A spokesman stated "You can't program it. It's taken people 50 years to find out how it works. They had a monopoly on ancient calculating mechanisms and there was no documentation, so without proper interoperability we cannot morally allow them to continue anciently calculating in the European market without some form of punishment."
Re:Like the Mormons' tablets... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Somewhat hard, but not impossible (Score:3, Funny)
6. ????
7. Profit!