Hollywood Star's Wartime Secret Becomes a Screenplay

NY Times (Science Times) ^ | May 4, 2004 | KENNETH CHANG

[Doctor Stochastic]

Also Hedy's father and brother were electrical engineers I think. She picked up a lot of information without much formal training. There's an issure of the IEEE Spectrum that interviews her and discusses her contributions.

[breakem]

Jennifer Connelly has the looks, but don't know about the IQ

[hobbes1]

Most perfect woman ever born ping.


But Really, who could do her pictorial justice on Film????

[Billthedrill]

I'd heard her story but I flat refused to believe it. Nobody should be that smart and that beautiful.

I do think that the statement that she hadn't reached her potential is just a little unrealistic. A very large number of very brilliant people are denied recognition because their work is classified - it's one of the sacrifices people make for their country during wartime. Other equally talented people end up bleeding to death in muddy trenches.

[Ditto]

Highly unlikely, as the IC didn't exist until, what, the late 60's at the earliest?

Late 50s -- invented by a guy named Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments. In the early 60's they already had hand-held caculators on the market.

[SevenofNine]

OH WOW you mean THESE Hedy Lamarr invented basic of cell phone ALRIGHT

Rack ittt

[Sam the Sham]

Funny you mention Jennifer Connelly.

She, too, is a highly intelligent woman who has struggled successfully to avoid being typecast by her dark, smouldering, beauty and her boobs (I was wrong. Jennifer Connelly could credibly play Hedy Lamarr, too. Not just Catherine Zeta-Jones.). Jennifer Connelly has managed to make full use of what God gave her and still be a credible actress.

Viewing this extraordinary woman from the composer's viewpoint is interesting as well. He would not be a subsidiary character but a major source of dramatic tension. How do you work alongside a woman that desirable ? And we have a woman who flatly rebelled against being anyone's kept trophy. A woman who refused to view her beauty as a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder, as very many beautiful women do. A woman who doesn't want to use her beauty as a weapon to manipulate others. A woman who doesn't want to be lazy and spoiled and manipulative but to do something good and constructive.

[summer]

Thanks for posting this fascinating article! :)

[eastforker]

and the caption for that image is " Go do the voodoo that you do so well!!"

[Constitution Day]

I know!

I have had a copy of Blazing Saddles for years. ;)

[eastforker]

I know that movie by heart I think.Whenever I get a bit down and need a lift I pop it in.

[-YYZ-]

"Late 50s -- invented by a guy named Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments. In the early 60's they already had hand-held caculators on the market."

Well, it's still sloppy to talk about "computer chips" in the late 50's, unless one considers a fairly simple IC to be a computer chip, and even those didn't really see production until the early 60's. A hand help calculator or any other device capable of somewhat sophisticated calculations in the 60's would have required quite a few ICs on a circuit board, still nothing that you could really call a computer chip. The first memory and processor chips (microprocessors appearered in the early 70's). Nice little concise history here: http://www.icknowledge.com/history/history.html

[Pharmboy]

Yep--Zeta Jones would be my choice. Good pick, my man...

[Constitution Day]

LOL, I'm pretty sure I know it by heart as well.

I bought the VHS for my late grandpa years ago.
He was a huge fan of westerns, and thought it was hilarious.
He watched it too many times to count, just as I have.

Hollywood could never get away with making that movie today, which is just one of the reasons I love it so much.

[Pharmboy]

I would also nominate Salma Hayak...she is gorgeous and able to look quite intelligent.

[Steely Tom]

Late 50s -- invented by a guy named Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments. In the early 60's they already had hand-held caculators on the market.

No, no, no. Unless you were The Incredible Hulk.

If you don't believe me, consider this...

In the Apollo "command module" there was an "on board computer" that cost more than $20 million. Its operator display was big (like 8" by 12") and had several lines of big seven-segment numerals.

That computer had approximately the same processing power as the HP-65 programmable calculator that came out in about 1973, for $695. But the Apollo computer was designed in the mid-'60s, and was one of the reasons chips were invented (yes, I know there were others, but one thing at a time).

Believe me, if NASA could have put a hand-held calculator into Apollo, they would have.

In about 1966, Wang came out with a desktop calculator that was all-electronic. It could do square roots, IIRC. It had four little identical workstations that plugged into a central processor by means of thick cables. The central unit was about the size of a modern-day PC. They had "nixie tube" displays.

(steely)

[BossLady]

Old Hollywood Zing!!! Good article!

[Sam the Sham]

Yes. Salma Hayek, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Connelly. We are short of movie stars who are 40's screen goddess beautiful.

[-YYZ-]

And the HP-65, in its original iteration at least, contained NO ICs at all. All discrete components. Later versions used ICs. LSI packages don't appear to have been available or used until the mid 70's.

[Ditto]

No, no, no. Unless you were The Incredible Hulk.
If you don't believe me, consider this...
In the Apollo "command module" there was an "on board computer" that cost more than $20 million.

The first hand-held calculator --- The year was 1967 --- the same year the first Apollo flew. NASA could not incorporate much in the way of "new" technology once their design window closed. It's way too expensive and dangerous to start backfitting things. The Shuttle is loaded with some "ancient" technology.

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Jack Kilby and his Calculator

It's All in the Marketing

Scientists might come up with great ideas for new technology, but it doesn't make much of a difference unless manufacturers start using the ideas. In the case of the integrated chip, industry was pretty slow on the uptake. The new chip, with its collection of transistors all made from a single crystal, could miniaturize practically anything -- if only someone was interested.

To snag the world's attention, Texas Instruments needed a marketing gimmick. They wanted a flashy product to showcase the IC. A calculator seemed just the thing. In a mere two years, a TI group including Jerry Merryman and James Van Tassel, and led by Jack Kilbydeveloped a calculator small enough to be held in your hand. Just over six inches tall, this portable calculator certainly surpassed the all-transistor calculator released just a year earlier -- that calculator weighed 55 pounds and cost $2,500.

Resources:
-- "Team of Three Texas Instruments Engineers Invented the Portable, Hand-Held
Electronic Calculator in 1967", Editorial backgrounder, Texas Instruments
-- "The Chip that Jack Built Changed the World," Editorial Backgrounder, Texas Instruments

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