Excellent?
It's Sub-lime...
Posted on 07/16/2019 10:04:37 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
In no way can the excerpt can convey the fun, excitement, history... The photos...
And surprising to me, two of the protagonists Margaret Hamilton and Saydean Zeldin are very easy on the eyes.(later to be business partners.)
I could not find it beyond the paywall?
This article is the tip of the iceberg, so much more just on this small group.
spaced penguin
Software used to be fun when it typically involved only a few people making a closed system just work...
Software had to be efficient and elegant to run effectively within the limited parameters of the hardware which existed at that time.
Today it’s written sloppy as heck and they compensate by speeding up the processors.
A couple of trending languages that I think will be historically significant: Julia, and Rust. Both are very suitable for "fun" projects.
The combination of the Atom editor, Sublime (the Julia plugin) and Julia is excellent. I recommend running on Linux.
The next attempt at putting Affirmative Action figures on the moon by Affirmative Action engineers and technicians is going to be disastrous. Bet on it.
SO TRUE!
"Spaghetti Code" had a solid basis in efforts to be ever more efficient in getting the max out of the hardware.
Ping.
"Apollo 11-What We Saw" by Bill Whittle
I just watched this last night...love it. I heard someone say that the backdrop for his speaking part is part of the real original NASA Mission Control that he purchased (haven't verified if that is true or not)
Besides being (In my mind) the most eloquent conservative voice we hear today, he is a pilot and all around aviation nut!
His description of the software that was used on the LEM was brilliant and understandable, and he put it in context with the famous error message they had on their way down to the lunar surface.
One of the things I loved about it is the cultural context of the moon landings. Normally, if you were watching on PBS or one of Leftist places, "cultural context" would have meant racial discord, the Vietnam War and protests and so on.
When I say "cultural context" referring to Bill Whittle's work, his context includes...things like toys. Cap guns. Gi-Joes with the space suit and capsule, etc. Model rockets. Slide calculators.
I think part two just came out, I am going to invite a few friends over to re-watch part one with me!
If you sign in, scroll down below the video and the story is there. Fascinating stuff.
Seems like there are about 10 layers of virtualization separating the written code from the hardware.
bookmark
Excellent?
It's Sub-lime...
C on ARM is great!
I use C on AtTiny84A for fun little projects....70 cents and at 20Mhz as powerful as an old IBM 360 mainframe was at less than 1 MHz.
https://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine?Keyword=AtTiny84A
Yup.
I'm a retired chip-maker (started in 1967) and I can tell you that all of todays fantastic electronic products can be traced directly to the effort to land man on the moon. They would have come eventually but, the products we enjoy are decades ahead of where they would otherwise be.
They were invented and developed by high-achieveing individuals without much assistance from anyone...a perfect example of free-market capitalism.
The infant chip-making business was terribly difficult and expensive and mostly governments could afford the most sophisticated chips of the time.
BTW, Texas Instruments invented the chip in 1958. In 2000, Jack Kilby received the Nobel Prize in physics for that invention.
"Kilby is also the co-inventor of the handheld calculator and the thermal printer, for which he has the patents. He also has patents for seven other inventions.[3] "
I remember reading in the 90’s that companies liked to get programmers from Russia because they had such crappy computers with little memory that they wrote very efficient code. (They probably were cheaper than our programmers too.)
i crashed and burned many a quarter on that game...
Fascinating stuff.
OH yes! and I almost tossed the paper!
Then on second thought, I’d look at the Apollo11 section.
Amazing stuff!
And if I recall correctly, there was an article about the same Margaret Hamilton and Lorenz attractors here on FR???
Half of me thinks it cannot be recreated, the PC BS damages everything.
My other half believes free thinkers will overcome the BS?
PMA!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.