masswerk

38 ms·

481.
by masswerk 3y ago
However, it took less than 60 years of commercial nuclear power generation for that black swan event to occur. (Compare hydro-engineering, where it's common to design for 100-year events and even 500-year events. Also, compare tsunami
482.
by masswerk 3y ago
The probably first reported hacking incident (in the modern sense, as in computer assisted phone phreaking) was at MIT using a PDP-1 to connect various tie-lines between MIT and Harvard, and reaching out on tie-lines to the Millstone Radar
483.
by masswerk 3y ago
And this is, where the cooking parallel is that great: How do you become a decent cook? Well, there are recipes, but this is neither your judgement, nor your technique, or maybe art, you're just following along, hoping for the best. Th
484.
by masswerk 3y ago
I think, it wasn't so much for speed as for then expensive extra circuitry. (On the few vintage instruction sets using ones' complement, I know, addition and subtraction still executes in the same time as any other internal ALU in
485.
by masswerk 3y ago
Update: 2 hours later, still not loading with Safari/Desktop. (Is there any QA, at all?) FF works though and immediately goes to an otherwise blank page with a log-in dialog.
486.
by masswerk 3y ago
It's down for me too, loading aborts due to more than 20 redirects. Apparently, any kind of access is now deemed adversarial. ;-)
487.
by masswerk 3y ago
So is it down just for me? Since for about an hour now site loading is aborted for more than 20 redirects. That is, not logged-in. – But, how do you log in, then?
488.
by masswerk 3y ago
I guess, this may become quite natural with practice: eliminating contradictory variants. So it may be well a matter of first glance… (since it's really a matter of tautology and observations like "M = 1" aren't really a
489.
by masswerk 3y ago
"S" must be 9, since, if it was 8, "E" had to be 9 + carry, giving "N = 0", which is already occupied. So: 9END 10RE ------- 10NEY Let's have a look at "E + 0 = N", there must b
490.
by masswerk 3y ago
I believe, Triple-I was initially founded as an AI firm, powered by Ed Fredkin's own PDP-1. (I guess, since the first commercial CAD system by Itek and Adams Associates was also on a PDP-1, the transition happened quite naturally. Ben
491.
by masswerk 3y ago
Also, advertising on reputable media sites had become much too cheap. (Had it been in the ballpark of what they made with print advertising and own advertising departments before, they should be thriving.) In general, advertising is much to
492.
by masswerk 3y ago
Ed Fredkin, once known as "world's best programmer", passed away on June 13, compare the Tweet by Dag Spicer (CHM senior curator). This links to Ed Fredkin's oral history [0], which is full of amazing stories and well wo
493.
Ed Fredkin has died(twitter.com)
123 points by masswerk 3y ago|31 comments
494.
by masswerk 3y ago
To make this a fair questions, please include, "how many cheap Teslas are there to date?" (It somewhat boils down to, US firms have something which may be called "anticipatory marketing", which is deemed rather off-limit
495.
by masswerk 3y ago
I'd mention the DEC PDP-1: most of what is not batch processing and many software tools with some linage to things still used today starts there.
496.
by masswerk 3y ago
If I recall this right (it's been a long time, since), initially we marked the column where the carry went by a dot above the minuend. (I guess, it was the same with addition?)
497.
by masswerk 3y ago
Interesting cultural differences here: the way I learned it, you increment the next digit of the subtrahend (the lower number) on digit underflow, rather than borrowing from the next digit in the minuend. (So it's rather a carry than b
498.
by masswerk 3y ago
I think, it may be worth keeping in mind how important it was to have an intuitively accessible representation in the era of console lights and toggle switches. Ones' complement and octal grouping (it's easy to interpret a triplet
499.
by masswerk 3y ago
It's really, because it's were we came from. Early computers used ones' complement and there had to be extra circuitry to fix the -0 issue. Two's complement was explicitly introduced to fix this. – So how do you explain
500.
by masswerk 3y ago
I think, it's more an aesthetic than a technical annoyance. But, since there was ones' compliment first (implemented in about every early computer), it may be worth mentioning that there was something lost, as well. (So, for a byt
501.
by masswerk 3y ago
Or, for another Tesla comparison, take Citroën (that is, Stellantis): While Tesla keeps on going about how there will be an affordable EV someday, thus they are saving the world now (without anything like this even being in sight), Citroën
502.
by masswerk 3y ago
Fixed. (I will do this error anytime.)
503.
by masswerk 3y ago
I think, you can't address two's complement without mentioning ones' complement. So what is ones' complement? Simply all bits flipped. (XOR the word length – each bit becomes its complement.) There's a simplicity an
504.
by masswerk 3y ago
Well, startups are not actually a mainstay of European cultural tradition… ;-) On the other hand, more traditional enterprises, like, say, Mercedes Benz, will be quite cautious with claims about their R&D, until they have their level II
505.
by masswerk 3y ago
Just adding: The above is actually basic epistemology. Anytime you design a study, you are supposed to ask, what is considered a fact, in what framework is it considered a fact, how is it defined in that framework, what is the claim and rea
506.
by masswerk 3y ago
I guess that will happen, when they have a functioning system, i.e. a product. (Showing off with some in-between, not fit for purpose stage may be deemed somewhat embarassing, compare cultural differences.)
507.
by masswerk 3y ago
An observation in the context of a specific frame of reference (and only in this context). As a frame of reference is mostly a social construct (or an idea anyways), it mostly relies on social consensus, which is both fundamental but also l
508.
by masswerk 3y ago
I hear, the British Heath Robinson version (by Tommy Flowers) was quite fast… ;-)
509.
by masswerk 3y ago
Let's assume, 10 milliseconds = 1 CPU year. (If dogs can have their own years, why not CPUs, as well?) So, there you sit, waiting hundreds and hundreds of years…
510.
by masswerk 3y ago
I think, the most important factor isn't so much the CPU, but loading binaries from disk. And that (I/O) improved quite massively over the 1990s. (And anything written for spinning disks will start nearly instantly using solid sta

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