Talk:The Difference Engine
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re- analog vs digital
I thought Babbages difference engine was analog bc it depended on the rotational values of gears for stored numbers. The fictional version might be different though I dont recall. vroman
- No, not accurate. As envisioned, the machine employed columns of "discs" painted with the ten digits and able to move in fixed increments. That sounds like the very definition of "digital" (just not binary).
- Agreed. Both Babbage's difference engine and his analytic engine were digital computers; decimal digital computers rather than binary digital computers but undoubtedly completely digital. Analogue computers are incapable of reaching the accuracy that Babbage's machines were theoretically capable of. In fact there are few if any modern computers which are capable of reaching that accuracy without software emulation. The final version of Babbage's analytic machine design was a 50-digit machine. In modern terms that is a 166-bit machine. -- 134.132.67.103 01:20, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] Yeates
Is the guy who helps Sybil out of the kino theatre John Butler Yeats? We need a full list of referenced people!!... -- NIC1138 00:50, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
A lot of this stuff is in the The Difference Dictionary
Cheers, Pete Tillman 21:57, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Effect of Popular Culture
I cleaned up all the spelling, grammar, and diction mistakes, but I still think that section is worthles. It sounds like a Bill Bailey fan trying to intellectualize the object of his devotion.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.149.58.156 (talk • contribs)
- I agree. Recommend DELETION of this section. Pete Tillman 21:59, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
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- It's gone. No more Bill Bailey. He's history. Unless someone puts him back, of course. Then he's not. History, I mean.
Gardener of Geda 22:42, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
- It's gone. No more Bill Bailey. He's history. Unless someone puts him back, of course. Then he's not. History, I mean.
[edit] Punched Cards...
It's odd. After reading this book, i got the impression that the punched cards were an early computer virus, not related to the Incompleteness Theorem? - Peter Bjørn Perlsø 00:56, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
- The cards do relate to the Incompleteness Theorem, but, yes, I always thought there was more to them than that. It's been a while since I've read the novel, but I seem to remember thinking that the authors were trying to suggest, at the end, the emergence of some kind of nascent artificial intelligence.
Gardener of Geda 12:27, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
- If you're referring to how the French "Grand Napoleon" gets all messed up in the book, I think it was eventually (like near the end) explained that the punch cards sent the engine into a self-referential recursive loop and that's what made it not work. So the cards did do some harm, like a virus, but that was only due to the limitations of the engine they were run on, not by the design of the program. Mooser323 (talk) 04:27, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] "Americas as America": ¿Worthy of mention?
The article as written reads "Additionally, all land in the Americas are colloquially referred to as America" and goes on with a quote for illustrating that point. I don´t know how it´s refered in the UK or other english-speaking countries, but pretty much everywhere else not in the U.S.A. "America" ( specially here in latin america ) denotes the entire continent from pole to pole, not the U.S. of "it". Therefore I think it´s not an Alternate History fact, but a real and common fact about the world we live in; and so nothing to note here. Plus, most people from "the Americas" tend to find that distinction offensive... See, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette_in_Latin_America ( Brazil section ).
I don´t edit it myself because i haven´t read the book and so i´m not 100% positive about the use of the word in there.
Gorsh ( haven´t signed yet to wikipedia )
