Hello World and Happy Labor Day!
For all new students, welcome! For all returning students, welcome back! The Media Archeology Lab is once again open to visitors for the semester.
New Open Lab Hours
As is typical at the start of a new semester, our open lab hours have been updated. You may find the updated hours at the end of this letter, or on our website’s home page!
New Website
We’ve had an informational webpage up in the past, but over summer we designed and finalized a complete website! You can visit us at https://labs.utdallas.edu/mediaarchaeologylab/ and find information about upcoming events/exhibits, items in our collection, as well as read every archived newsletter entry.
Upcoming Events: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!
Tomorrow (Sept. 3) at 7pm in room ATC 3.705, the lab is collaborating with the Games & Media Library to host a movie screening! More details are provided in the poster below.
Demo of the Week
This week we will be demoing Prince of Persia on the iMac G3 Grape!
Object of the Week
The object of the week for this week is the Star Adding Machine!
The Star Adding Machine is an analog calculator from around 1925. This machine is definitely heavier than it looks; I was not able to weigh it, but it felt about the same weight as one of our iMac G3s. In order to use it, it seems that you would find the digit you want to add and then pull it down to the bottom. This number is then added to the top register; if you pull down a digit in the same column as one you’ve already added, it will add that number to the top register, automatically handling carrying digits as needed. The red lever on the right resets the register to 0.
If you’re interested and want to learn more, this page by Jaap Scherphuis explains how it works and showcases a video demonstration. You can also find one located in our lab! 😊
Lab Hours and Room Number
We are located in ATC 1.705, right next to ATC’s welcome center. Our open lab hours are:
Monday: 2:00pm-4:00pm
Tuesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm
Thursday: 1:00pm-3:00pm
Friday: 2:00pm-4:00pm
Thank you for reading our newsletter! We hope to see you soon and wish you a stress-free week.
Sincerely,
The Media Archeology Lab
The University of Texas at Dallas
