<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/plakboek/452358986/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/211/452358986_99bb77214b_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);">
</a> <br> <span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"> </span><div align="center"><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/plakboek/452358986/">Inside the machine</a> - by Plakboek
</span><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"> </span></div></div>In
the Melbourne Science Museum there is an analogue computer that plays
the game naughts and crosses. I have fond memories of playing this as a
child when it was located in the Melbourne Museum when it was located
in the middle of the city of Melbourne, next to the state library. Back
then, a visit to the city with my friends always included a quick
detour and excursion to play with this computer.<br><br>We were not
really trying play this game to beat the computer. Most kids figure out
that nobody can win at playing naughts and crosses if they they make
the right first moves. Even the computer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOPR">WOPR</a> quickly figured this out in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames">1983 film War Games</a>. Instead,
whilst watching the flash of lights and clicking of circuit breakers, I
was trying to figure out how a panel of circuits could compute a
response and make a decision then display it on this crude interface.<br> <br>Here you can see an <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/plakboek/tags/noughtsandcrosses/show/">analogue computer slideshow</a>
that I assembled after a recent visit. Kind of ironic that it was
relocated to the kids science area, close to where my children now play.<br><br>With
the literal explosion of virtual worlds that we now take for granted,
it is easy to forget how far we have come with computers and their
interface today. <a href="http://www.kolabora.com/news/2004/12/12/multiuser_collaborative_virtual_worlds_enable.htm">Kolabora explores this further in his blog</a>,
asking what we would do if we could have built these features into the
operating systems of 20 years ago, drawing attention to the FLOSS operating
system <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_project">Croquet</a>. I rather like the following quote that he includes in this blog entry:<br><blockquote>"<b><i>Existing operating systems</i></b><i>
are like the castles that were owned by their respective Lords in the
Middle Ages. They were the centers of power, a way to control the
population and threaten the competition. Sometimes, a particular Lord
would become overpowering, and he would declare himself as King. This
was great for the King. And not too bad for the rest of the nobles, but
in the end -- technology progressed and people started blowing holes in
the sides of the castles. The castles were eventually abandoned</i>" -David A. Smith<br></blockquote>As WOPR said in War Games "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."<br clear="all"><br>--
<br>Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College<br><a href="http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au">http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au</a><br><br>"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead