peter303

13 ms·

91.
by peter303 4y ago
For a while in the 2010s I read a magazine called CPU I picked up MicroCenter. It's glossy about all aspects of computing aimed at gamers. It was written at the Scientific American level- not too technical like ACM Communications and n
92.
by peter303 4y ago
To also learn how the drawing was executed. Original sketches may underlay the final paint. Van Gogh was a rapid painter and didnt paint in stages that much. But someone like DaVinci who worked on the same painting for years, if not a decad
93.
by peter303 4y ago
Besides often being broke, Vincent had a strong compulsion in his final years to complete a painting every day. Sometimes he was forced to reuse canvas then. (Part of his final style too to get the paint on as fast as possible with large st
94.
by peter303 4y ago
In the early days of computers some character systems were stroke-based because that used less memory than a 32x32 bit map. A kilobit of ROM (one character) could cost $10. Currently stroke-based systems are used for calligraphic effect. Yo
95.
by peter303 4y ago
I am hoping Ive contributed to development of Apples forthcoming Reality Glasses. Existing VR/AR spectacles are so clunky. I am hoping for something almost light are regular vision glasses.
96.
by peter303 4y ago
I read the count of "observed" galaxies is 170 billion, i.e. extrapolating the deep field count. Certain assumptions about faint and redshifted galaxies increases that number to about trillion. Early galaxies may not look as regul
97.
by peter303 4y ago
A lot goes to fund a military that gets almost as much as the worlds other militaries combined. And the 2023 budget is being held up because some thinkthe annual increase is too small.
98.
by peter303 4y ago
The VLA is still there in New Mexico and impressive. As of 4/22 they have not reopened the visitors center. But you can see the miles long rows of them from the road. And if you lucky you may see all of them change pointing in unison t
99.
by peter303 4y ago
Genealogists have worked out most American Presidents 800 years or so. A couple interesting facts include (1) about everyone one of them is at least 10th cousin to every other one and (2) a large fraction descend from King John of England.
100.
by peter303 4y ago
Japanese emperors back to 600 BCE.
101.
by peter303 4y ago
Onward to zettaflops around 2037, assuming an order of magnitude every five years. Thats been pretty much the case for 60 years.
102.
by peter303 4y ago
Oak Ridge still consumes 20 megawatts. However older technology was appearing to require a gigawatt.
103.
by peter303 4y ago
Our PDP 11/34 UNIX ran on 256 KB core and 6MB disk. With room to run apps.
104.
by peter303 4y ago
Reminds me of the 1930s with regular banks routinely collapsing and losing customer deposits. 1600 US banks collapsed in early 1990s and 500 in 2009. Most customer deposits were insured.
105.
by peter303 4y ago
How does the efficiency of ion-drive compared to electric motors?
106.
by peter303 4y ago
Why didnt many human civilizations like Egypt, Rome, China, etc have an industrial revolution? Many of the technologies like steam engines and clocks were in Rome and China. However they were mire curiosities and never scaled up.
107.
by peter303 4y ago
Like the nightmare language IBM OS DDL? (data definition language) I recall you have specify the physical layout of data files on disk. In UNIX this info is embedded in the file system and generally not needed to run a program.
108.
by peter303 4y ago
New hHorizons will eventually overtake them because it had the goal of reaching Pluto in the lifetime of its investigators.
109.
by peter303 4y ago
According to this months US employment figures, 36.3% of the working age population (16-64) are neither employed nor seeking work. This includes students, housewives, disabled, financially independent, etc. So good fraction of the populatio
110.
by peter303 4y ago
Nuts. There goes my catalytic converter "recycling" business.
111.
by peter303 4y ago
I was hoping to the long-awaited Reality Glasses this keynote. Something like a M2 on each lens could drive a 90 fps 2K display. The libraries are hinting at howAR/VR will be done-Metal-3, lidar, etc.
112.
by peter303 4y ago
Fusion hype is like fission hype in the 1950s. "Clean" compared to fossil fuel. " so cheap you wont need to meter it".
113.
by peter303 4y ago
The board should start with Mr. Musk.
114.
by peter303 4y ago
One petaflop DP linpack achieved in 2008. Supercomputing "Moores Law" is doubling speed every 1.5 years, order of magnitude every five years, a thousand-fold 15 years. Pretty close to schedule. Onward to a zettaflop around 2037?
115.
by peter303 4y ago
You may be right. Somehow 6 ns stuck in my memory, while internet lookup said the 7400 series was 10 ns. I just recall you had to slow down everything considerably to make it human-viewable.
116.
by peter303 4y ago
InSight recently recorded its largest earthquake a M5. And it was far enough away that it might have passed the Martian core, constraining its diameter. I think there have been six quakes large enough to determine the location, i.e. a dista
117.
by peter303 4y ago
A MIT researcher recently devised an electrostatic solar cell cleaner. https://news.mit.edu/2022/solar-panels-dust-magnets-0311 EDIT: sorry this is a repeat link
118.
by peter303 4y ago
I implemented Conways Game of Life in TTL and oscilloscope for my 1975 MIT digital circuits lab. The clock was 6 nanoseconds or 166 MHz. The limiting chip was one kilobit RAM which was in tight supply and expensive. I think we used two for
119.
by peter303 4y ago
Tech people may not be immune this time. There are already hiring freezes and layoffs. Last tech employment slowdown was after dot.bomb in 2001. Surplus of web developers. College computer science enrollments even dropped.
120.
by peter303 4y ago
I have been through seven bear markets since the late 1989s. Sometimes I capitulated and sold. But not the most recent two.

More ›