Thursday, October 26, 1967
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Grad student 'dials' a computer program
By Tim Jones Kansan Staff Reporter
Tom Eagle, electrical engineering graduate student, did his homework for Computer Softwear in Lee's Summit, Mo., last Friday.
His assignment—to run several programs through the KU Computer Center's GE 625 computer system—doesn't sound too extraordinary.
The fact that he programmed the computer from a remote teletype in Lee's Summit is out of the
ordinary. It's the first time the university's computer has been used remotely from another state.
The assignment represents the first in a planned sequence of steps to extend the computer's capabilities to many remotely located input terminals.
The computation center recently installed equipment which permits authorized persons to call the computer from anywhere in the world through the use of a
teletypewriter and regular telephone lines.
Although present capability in this respect is limited, by August, 1968, it will be possible for programmers to "converse" with the computer from remote teletype terminals.
In this "conversational" method of operation, a dialogue is carried between the user and computer, permitting the user to obtain partial results and other information
while constructing his program.
The significance of conversational programming is in allowing the user to exploit the computer's capabilities in the early stages in the analysis of a problem.
This contrasts with the present method in which the user must program a problem solution before he approaches the computer.
Conversational does not imply direct oral communication with the computer. The user must type his messages on the teletypewriter.
A number of remote terminals will be installed on campus in the near future.
Researcher to address Sigma Xi
Robert H. Dicke, national lecturer for Sigma Xi and the Scientific Research Society of America, will give a public lecture Wednesday at KU on "Einstein's Theory of Gravitation—50 Years Later."
The talk will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Kansas Union Forum Room.
Dicke, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett professor of physics at Princeton University, will give the same lecture in Kansas City Tuesday and at Kansas State University next Thursday.
He has done research in gravity, relativity and cosmology the past decade. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1946 after five years at the Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He holds more than 50 patents in microwaves and atomic resonance devices and is the inventor of the microwave radiometer used with radio-telescopes.
Dicke describes gravitation as the weakest, the most universal and primitive of physical interactions. Because of its connection with the structure of space, gravitation makes contact with all the physical sciences.
KU visiting prof to speak at WU
Jerry Stannard, visiting KU professor of history, has been invited to give two lectures this week at the University of Wisconsin.
A specialist in the history of science, Stannard today will deliver the William Snow Miller lecture in medical history for the Wisconsin School of Medicine. His subject will be "Dietetics and Therapeutics in Ancient Medicine."
He will be guest lecturer for the history of science department Friday, discussing "Principles of Ancient Taxonomy."
DIAL-A-COMPUTER?
Love may support Romney
A computer operator punches out a program being fed into a distant computer reached by dialing numbers. The unique program, part of the services offered by the KU Computer Center, is handled by regular telephone lines.
The only way to catch the Road Runner is at your Plymouth Dealer's.
The new Plymouth Road Runner now at your Plymouth Dealer's where the beat goes on.
Great Party Fun Before and After The Game
The Stables
the Republican presidential nomination shortly after Love gives up his chairmanship of the Republican governors in December.
Meet old friends and new ones at the home of the KU student. Avoid hectic driving and parkingTake the Stables' Bus to the Game.
WASHINGTON—(UPI)—Gov.
John A. Love of Colorado may
give Michigan Gov. George Romney
a badly needed push toward