From dave at horsfall.org Tue Aug 6 10:13:27 2019 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 10:13:27 +1000 (EST) Subject: [COFF] In Memoriam: Edsger Dijkstra, and happy birthday Jon Postel! Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908061010060.38830@aneurin.horsfall.org> We lost computer pioneer Edsger Dijkstra in 2002; he gave us ALGOL, structured programming, semaphores, and ranted against the GOTO statement (much to the distress of the Fortranites and their spaghetti coding). Oh, and a certain Prof. Goto used to complain that everybody wanted to eliminate him :-) However, we gained Jon Postel in 1943; with umpteen RFCs to his name, he could pretty much be described as the Father of the Internet (but note that he edited most of the RFCs, not authored them, but deserves credit all the same). -- Dave From dave at horsfall.org Tue Aug 6 11:03:36 2019 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 11:03:36 +1000 (EST) Subject: [COFF] Happy birthday, WWW! Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908061102570.38830@aneurin.horsfall.org> In 1991 Tim Berners-Lee outlined plans for something he called the "world wide web". -- Dave From dave at horsfall.org Wed Aug 7 08:59:54 2019 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2019 08:59:54 +1000 (EST) Subject: [COFF] Harvard Mk I Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908070856090.81938@aneurin.horsfall.org> Dedicated on this day in 1944, it was conceived by Dr. Howard Aiken; the Wikipedia entry for it has a fascinating history, and it's a wonder that it worked at all! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Mark_I -- Dave From cym224 at gmail.com Wed Aug 7 12:46:42 2019 From: cym224 at gmail.com (Nemo) Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 22:46:42 -0400 Subject: [COFF] Happy birthday, WWW! In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908061102570.38830@aneurin.horsfall.org> References: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908061102570.38830@aneurin.horsfall.org> Message-ID: <CAJfiPzwZ2grQZvBorkR6VVpFGAM8tih+kW+u9qHc-Ey+Xb7i3Q@mail.gmail.com> On 05/08/2019, Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote: > In 1991 Tim Berners-Lee outlined plans for something he called the "world > wide web". > > -- Dave Can anyone guess what machine ran the first web server outside CERN and what language it was written in? (Answers may be found in Sir Tim's book.) N. From dave at horsfall.org Fri Aug 9 14:41:03 2019 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2019 14:41:03 +1000 (EST) Subject: [COFF] Happy birthday, Marvin Minsky! Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908091440270.81938@aneurin.horsfall.org> We gained Marvin Minsky on this day in 1927; he was an AI researcher, computer scientist, invented neural networks etc, and is now thought to be cryogenically preserved. -- Dave From thomas.paulsen at firemail.de Fri Aug 9 16:26:32 2019 From: thomas.paulsen at firemail.de (Thomas Paulsen) Date: Fri, 09 Aug 2019 08:26:32 +0200 Subject: [COFF] Happy birthday, Marvin Minsky! In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908091440270.81938@aneurin.horsfall.org> References: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908091440270.81938@aneurin.horsfall.org> Message-ID: <dcd84bc412ff1db1fc55235be5a6e40d@firemail.de> Marvin really was very important! He died at the age of 88. RIP. --- Ursprüngliche Nachricht --- Von: Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> Datum: 09.08.2019 06:41:03 An: Computer Old Farts Followers <coff at tuhs.org> Betreff: [COFF] Happy birthday, Marvin Minsky! > We gained Marvin Minsky on this day in 1927; he was an AI researcher, > computer scientist, invented neural networks etc, and is now thought to be > > cryogenically preserved. > > -- Dave > _______________________________________________ > COFF mailing list > COFF at minnie.tuhs.org > https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coff From jpl.jpl at gmail.com Fri Aug 23 06:24:52 2019 From: jpl.jpl at gmail.com (John P. Linderman) Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:24:52 -0400 Subject: [COFF] Minsky and Epstein Message-ID: <CAC0cEp-WGBLrYbNFpguNma15O01KUNFYEdSexm4F2OH9dfR3gg@mail.gmail.com> Two names I never expected to appear in one article. <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/business/media/mit-jeffrey-epstein.html?searchResultPosition=2> Very sad, whether true or not. I knew Minsky in the way students know their professors. He was on my thesis committee. I liked and admired him. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/coff/attachments/20190822/2f5aa491/attachment.html> From dave at horsfall.org Fri Aug 30 12:30:21 2019 From: dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 12:30:21 +1000 (EST) Subject: [COFF] Happy birthday, John Mauchly! Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908301224390.12543@aneurin.horsfall.org> We gained computer pioneer John Mauchly on this day in 1907; he was best known as the co-inventor of ENIAC, one of the world's first computers. -- Dave From luvisi at gmail.com Sat Aug 31 05:08:16 2019 From: luvisi at gmail.com (Andru Luvisi) Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 12:08:16 -0700 Subject: [COFF] Happy birthday, John Mauchly! In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908301224390.12543@aneurin.horsfall.org> References: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908301224390.12543@aneurin.horsfall.org> Message-ID: <CAObyg6bga=-tK7QwTTvafL6KcXUDFsyhdmoHyfthGwBAGdbZiA@mail.gmail.com> We can split hairs about which early computing devices first implemented which automatic computing ideas, but I hope I can make 2 statements without much controversy. The ENIAC was the first device to be automatic, electronic, general-purpose, and digital. That combination contained synergies that were more than just the sum of the features. In particular, the ENIAC advanced the state-of-the-art in computing speed by 3 orders of magnitude, from 5 or 6 additions per second to 5000 additions per second. I gave a talk in 2012 about early computer history, and a substantial portion was dedicated to the ENIAC. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS_yVXcK_aM Here's the handout: http://web.sonoma.edu/users/l/luvisi/somehist/somehist.pdf Andru On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 7:30 PM Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote: > We gained computer pioneer John Mauchly on this day in 1907; he was best > known > as the co-inventor of ENIAC, one of the world's first computers. > > -- Dave > _______________________________________________ > COFF mailing list > COFF at minnie.tuhs.org > https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coff > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/coff/attachments/20190830/65ee5339/attachment.html>