mike | Shared With: Everyone - Apr 13 2008 | apollo, technology, history, computers, space, charles simonyi, design
Charles told me about this book last night.
Quoted: In each of the six Apollo landings, the astronaut in command seized control from the computer and landed with his hand on the stick. Mindell recounts the story of astronauts' desire to control their spacecraft in parallel with the history of the Apollo Guidance Computer. From the early days of aviation through the birth of spaceflight, test pilots and astronauts sought to be more than "spam in a can" despite the automatic controls, digital computers, and software developed by engineers. Digital Apollo examines the design and execution of each of the six Apollo moon landings, drawing on transcripts and data telemetry from the flights, astronaut interviews, and NASA's extensive archives.
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Dec 05 2007 | computers, math, mathematica, excel, algorithms
Really insightful article about the difficulties of writing correct software - particularly in the realm of numerical calculation.
Also references an Excel 2007 calculation (display) error where the formula 850*77.1 is displayed as 100,000 (instead of 65,535)!
refaving darrellp
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Nov 14 2007 | ram, computers, memory, shopping
Quoted: Discount memory prices on Crucial, Kingston, PNY, and generic RAM. Shoppers find the lowest priced desktop and laptop memory for Apple, Compaq, eMachines, HP, Sony and Dell. Shop and compare cheap RAM prices for Dimension, Inspiron, Mac and Presario. dealnews adjusts for shipping so you can compare prices accurately to find the lowest shipped price.
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Oct 13 2007 | microsoft, computers, news
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Jul 20 2007 | checkers, ai, computers, game theory
Checkers is now a "solved" problem. This computer player cannot be beat by any strategy. To build Chinook, the developers started at the end of the game, and calculated the best strategies for every position involving 1 piece, 2 pieces, and so on up to 10 pieces.
At that point, they proved that they cannot be beat, no matter how you arrive at the 10 piece configuration.
Every game of checkers is a Draw if played by two perfect players. It has taken 18 years to do the development and computation to prove this result.
There could still be improvements made to Chinook in the sense that against an imperfect opponent, Chinook will sometimes Draw, where a improved algorithm would achieve a Win.
Quoted: Chinook is the World Man-Machine Checkers Champion.
See also:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/07/20/computer.checkers.ap/index.html - mike | Shared With: Everyone - Jul 11 2007 | apple, ipod, history, computers
I had a few of these...cool graphic history of the Apple product line from Apple I to iPhone.
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - May 23 2007 | ibm, computers, vintage, history
I have an IBM 5100 in my garage. It still works! This $20,000 personal computer was something I drooled over when I was in high school in 1977.
Quoted: IBM Archives: Exhibits: IBM Personal Computer: IBM 5100 Portable Computer
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Apr 05 2007 | piracy, copy protection, computers, video, funny
click to playRidiculous anti-piracy video from 1992.
Quoted: Extra special HIGH QUALITY version of the 1992 anti-piracy video we all know and love! Exclusive to YouTube! You've tried the rest, now try the ...
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Mar 24 2007 | computers, history, data general, dec
I read this when it first came out. It's pretty ancient history - but interesting story of a skunk-works team working in the context of a corporate bureaucracy. The story would be more interesting if Data General would have become a more predominant supplier.
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Jan 03 2007 | internet, web, computers
Online back reviews by Walt Mossberg.
Mozy - $55/year (2G free) - Walt Prefers Mozy
Carbonite $50/year - simpler but more limited
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Also, Mike Dunleavy is a cheater. Tell your friends.
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