35 review for The Tinkertoy Computer and Other Machinations

1. 

   5 out of 5

   Dan'l Danehy-Oakes – Feb 14, 2018

   In 1984, after Douglas Hofstadter left the position, _Scientific American_ recruited Professor Alexander K. Dewdney - a professor of computer science at the University of Western Ontario - to run their column of Computer, then Mathematical, Recreations. He continued in this position until 1991. This book is a collection of (mostly) columns from _SciAm_ with a couple from _Algorithm_ thrown in for good measure. A lot of the pleasure of reading these columns at this late date is recognizing how far In 1984, after Douglas Hofstadter left the position, _Scientific American_ recruited Professor Alexander K. Dewdney - a professor of computer science at the University of Western Ontario - to run their column of Computer, then Mathematical, Recreations. He continued in this position until 1991. This book is a collection of (mostly) columns from _SciAm_ with a couple from _Algorithm_ thrown in for good measure. A lot of the pleasure of reading these columns at this late date is recognizing how far computers have come from ca. 1990. A couple of articles are on making music with computers, and are based on the monophonic, monotonic tone generators provided with PCs at the time. Others are on graphics, equally limited. Many of the articles contain pseudocode snippets from which eager students may write (the equivalent, more or less, of) the program described. The first section - "Matter Computes" - is about computing machines other than PCs though. The title article, for example, is about how some MIT folks built a device from TinkerToys which - while not exactly programmable - did play a winning (or drawing) game of Tic-Tac-Toe. The machine was taller than a human being, though smaller than the first computer to successfully play Tic-Tac-Toe. Another article in this section, written for an April issue of _SciAm_, tells of a wondrous computing machine made from ropes and pulleys by an ancient island people. "Matter Misbehaves" contains articles about things like chaotic behavior and how to model it on a computer (of the time). The standout here would be "A Portrat of Chaos," an article about making reasonbly serious art by graphing certain kinds of chaotic/fractal behavior. Secion three, "Mathematics Matters," and four, "Computers Create," continue in the same vein, with different emphases. But the truth is that almost any article in this book, except perhaps the first three, could just as reasonably be placed in a different section of the book. The writing is nowhere near as sprightly as that of Martin Gardner, nor as witty as Hofstadter's; indeed, I found it rather thudding in places. This is a pity, because some of the topics are quite fascinating on their own. I really can't recommend it. (Also: Two April Fool columns in one book is overdoing it...)

2. 

   5 out of 5

   Tony – Nov 01, 2017

   I'd heard about the Tinkertoy Computer some years ago. How in the heck did they make a tic-tac-toe-playing machine out of tinkertoys. Nutshell answer: they put wheels on shafts at various locations, forming a version of ROM. When various choices are made, various positions are checked and, when a position has a wheel in it, it triggers THAT as the next choice the machine should make. It worked. Well. Although, when they disassembled it, moved it and reassembled it, they couldn't get it working aga I'd heard about the Tinkertoy Computer some years ago. How in the heck did they make a tic-tac-toe-playing machine out of tinkertoys. Nutshell answer: they put wheels on shafts at various locations, forming a version of ROM. When various choices are made, various positions are checked and, when a position has a wheel in it, it triggers THAT as the next choice the machine should make. It worked. Well. Although, when they disassembled it, moved it and reassembled it, they couldn't get it working again. Meaning that the person who re-assembled it didn't understand how it worked, well enough, to be able to fix it. There are lots of mathematical puzzles in here. Those are enjoyable. But don't expect something explaining how the Tinkertoy Computer worked. Because, apparently, only the original inventor (Danny Hillis?) truly understood how it worked well enough to make it work. In that regard, I found this book to be rather disappointing.

3. 

   5 out of 5

   Ushan – Jan 14, 2012

   A collection of columns on computer science from the Scientific American; I must say that Martin Gardner and Douglas Hofstadter wrote on more interesting topics.

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   5 out of 5

   Brad –

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   5 out of 5

   Jay –

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   4 out of 5

   Serdar –

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   5 out of 5

   Rob Silverman –

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   5 out of 5

   John Moss –

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   4 out of 5

   Mitch Allen –

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    5 out of 5

    Jeff –

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    5 out of 5

    John –

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    5 out of 5

    psikonauta –

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    5 out of 5

    John –

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    4 out of 5

    Blackjackketch –

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    4 out of 5

    Brad Polant –

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    4 out of 5

    Peter Heinrich –

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    5 out of 5

    Steve Kosloske –

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    5 out of 5

    Sally –

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    4 out of 5

    Wade –

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    4 out of 5

    Brent Werness –

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    5 out of 5

    Rajasekaran –

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    5 out of 5

    Tyler Bindon –

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    5 out of 5

    csejnuprogrammer –

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    5 out of 5

    Wikimedia Italia –

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    4 out of 5

    Christoph –

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    4 out of 5

    Corey –

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    5 out of 5

    Charles Straney –

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    4 out of 5

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    4 out of 5

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    4 out of 5

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    5 out of 5

    John –

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    5 out of 5

    Niki Fontes –

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    5 out of 5

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    4 out of 5

    Julian Patton –

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    5 out of 5

    Brian P –