62 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Did Western Union in 1965 “invent” the concept of the internet before ARPANET (1969) and Al Gore (1976?) did?
    The Future Role of Western Union as a Nationwide Information Utility, Strategic Plans, 1965
    “The computer ~ in its more than 20 years of development has now taken on certain basic and fundamentally similar characteristics in respect of capabilities, capacities and speeds so that ~ despite differing designs, techniques and methodology – there are no insurmountable problems which would prevent the installation of computers supplied by different manufacturers, in any one or a series of centers and the linking of such computers of varying makers to provide information just as an electrical energy system furnishes power to plants, offices and stores and people.”
    Any transcription errors are mine, the scanned text is kinda buggy. I guess OCR technology doesn’t work so well on ancient documents.
    For the complete PDF, see:
    http://www.governmentattic.org/2docs/WesternUnionStrategicPlans_1965.pdf
    [Sorry for the opportunistic dig at Gore, I just couldn’t resist]

  2. My girlfriend got herself a Blackberry. I hate that thing. I haven’t had an uninterrupted conversation with her since…

  3. I think the answer to your question, Piper Paul, can be found at the beginning of page 5 of the typescript you linked to (page 8 of the PDF), where it is written that “We envision, then, the expansion of the existing plant, offices, personnel, and nationwide operations of Western Union to transform it into a national information system”.

    That is not the Internet, because the Internet is vendor-independent.

    Sure, the concept of a network of networks (which is what the Internet is) goes back to the earliest days of human inter-tribal cooperation, certainly the ancient Persians and Greeks and Romans and British and other folks fought to master a network of networks; largely it comes down to a matter of when’s what.

    For me, personally, much as von Neuman’s modification of the ENIAC made the first actual modern-day computer (all we had before that were programmable calculators), for me the formal beginning of the modern Internet (not the concept, mind you, which I know you were talking about, Piper Paul) began with the publication of Cerf and Kahn’s famous paper, which you can read about if you scroll down to 1974 here đŸ˜‰

    Or, for your ease of reference: Vinton G. Cerf and Robert E. Kahn,
    A protocol for packet network interconnection, IEEE Trans. Comm.
    Tech., vol. COM-22, V 5, pp. 627-641, May 1974.

  5. I like that, vitruvius: ‘when’s what’. Neat image of a network of networks. No ‘where’ and no ‘who’. Nice.

  10. http://www.generationim.com/contact/
    A fine place to explain one’s own views on Global Warming, Private Jet Karbon Kredits, and the like.
    The link is off the page, but the URL is still serviced. They really ought to hire some decent programmers for this Global Warming/Climate change thing…

  12. Vitruvius, surely you are not saying that the first programmable calculator predated the first computing devices. Unless you were referring to…
    Oh, OK, I get where you’re going.
    I sense a fellow James Burke fan.

  14. Some wag recently used the phrase, “former economist Paul Krugman”. I know what he means.
    Here’s a review of Krugman’s book The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 in the December issue of FEE’s The Freeman.
    PASSAGE FROM THE REVIEW:
    In other words, Krugman is still the one-trick pony featured in the Times. Whatever the problem, his solution is always the same: inflation. It shows up in the example he uses throughout the book, a 1970s babysitting co-op on Capitol Hill.
    The baby-sitting “economy” is a co-op in which the couples agree to babysit one another’s children for coupons (babysitting credits) instead of dollars. But Krugman says this scheme ran into problems during the winter. The couples hoarded their coupons (that is, they refused to hire babysitters) while trying to get more coupons (sell babysitting services) so they would be able to go out more often in the summer.
    Unfortunately, with everyone pursuing the same strategy at once—trying to sell without buying—Krugman writes, the co-op went “into a recession.” But never fear: This babysitting “liquidity trap” ended when the directors of the co-op printed and distributed more coupons and everyone lived happily ever after.
    The problem with drawing general lessons from this situation should be obvious. A babysitting co-op in which a few people with similar preferences produce one good cannot be a model for a complex economy. But since Krugman—like other Keynesians—believes an economy is a crude, simple mechanism controlled by “aggregate demand,” this is the best he can do.
    Writing about this “fix” for the co-op, Krugman says, “Recessions, in other words, can be fought simply by printing money—and can sometimes (usually) be cured with surprising ease.”

  15. The difference between a programmable calculator and a modern-day computer, Paul, is that before von Neuman bolted that instruction fetch-execute box onto the side of the ENIAC, it took a human to change a calculator’s program. I mean, someone had to flip switches or change wheels or something. Anyway, after von Neuman, instructions were stored in the same binary memory as data, instead of in binary physical toggle-switch hardware, which now meant that a write to memory of the result of a calcultion upon the instruction set of the self-same computer could, for the first time ever, cause a computer program to change its own behaviour.
    For me, you ain’t got that: you ain’t got no computer.

  18. Bull, I don’t think that Blackberries & iPhones and Cel Phones are the problem but rather they amplify the attention deficit disorder and bad behaviour of people.
    I’ve had a few friends interrupt in person conversations with me to engage in non-critical mobile phone discussions with who knows what. I often politely ask them afterwards, “Do you realize that what you just did is considered quite rude?”
    The saddest thing I’ve seen recently is observing couples sitting at a restaurant and one or both texting. I’ve also seen couples go on a walk together and both people be talking with someone else during. Truly Pathetic!

  21. Me No Dhimmi wrote:
    Writing about this “fix” for the co-op, Krugman says, “Recessions, in other words, can be fought simply by printing money—and can sometimes (usually) be cured with surprising ease.”
    That *can* be OK if you have no economic powers that can challenge.

  23. Vitruvius, decode this:
    01101001 00100000 01100001 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101
    [I pasted words into a supposed code generator; the words I intended were: “I agree” (without the quotes)]
    I have no idea if that’s what was actually communicated by the sequence of ones and zeros, do you?

  25. I’ve had a few friends interrupt in person conversations with me to engage in non-critical mobile phone discussions…
    This is because of the notion that “immediacy” is paramount.
    The fact that an *in-person conversation* was interrupted might indicate that your physical presence with them was secondary to “whatever important things they had going-on at the same time that you didn’t know about”.
    Unless a close relative has died or the tides are rising at an alarming rate, this type of “dismissal” (that’s what it really is) deserves a walkout.
    Seems to me to be more often like power projection vis-vis interpersonal relationships.
    I will refrain from a further rant.

  26. Paul, what you have there is a binary representation of ASCII characters. So your “I agree” translated into: 73 32 97 103 114 101 101
    Each decimal number is represented by it’s Base-2 equivalent.
    Reading from left to right, the possible multipliers for each digit are:
    128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
    Thus 10101010 = 128 + 32 + 8 + 2 = 170
    The capital letter “A” has an ASCII decimal value of 65. Breaking 65 down results in 64 + 1, which in binary is: 01000001

  27. Your guys talk of computers & calculators made me reflect back to my HP 41CX programmable calculator. It was a fine piece of engineering. While the programmability of it is child’s play compared to what we’re used to today, I loved it then and still love it now. In fact, it’s 16 or 17 years old and still works perfectly day. Made me a loyal fan of Hewlett-Packard!

  29. But, Robert, did the numbers I entered actually resolve to the words, “I agree”? I didn’t claim to understand machine code.
    I share your fondness for HP calculators. My HP-11c is still going fine but the HP-28 is dusty.
    Engineers worldwide have been bitching (is that the right term?) about the abandonment of Reverse Polish Notation in HP calculators.
    I suppose millions of engineers are wrong.

  30. Piper paul…yes
    There are eight bits to every byte, almost any character can be represented by a single byte.
    In your example, there are seven seperate bytes, the first represents the letter I…the second reps the space…the third reps the letter A…the fourth reps the letter G and so on.
    There used to be alot of math involved, decimal to octal to hexadecimal and back to binary but fortunately its all done for us, today.

  31. William In Ajax, I defer to your obvious superior knowledge of computer stuff. Also appreciated is the non-snooty reply.

  34. Dedication to HP/Reverse Polish is not limited to engineers. It’s the only notation that makes sense to many of us. Trying to use a “normal” calculator is an exercise in frustration. I cherish my only-relatively-ancient HP 48G+ (1993), and confidently expect that it will see me out. These puppies are built to last.

  35. I bought my HP48S when I was still in high school…took months of my allowance, and most of my meagre savings to afford it. It wasn’t available in stores and had to be ordered in by the HP distributor. I got it after I had returned a TI calc that I had filled the memory on in less than a month. I remember that at the time (very early 90’s) it cost me over $300 including the software and cables to work on your computer. Everyone thought I was crazy to spend that much money on that calculator…it cost a third of what I spent on my first car.
    That calc got through a year and a half of high school, 5 years in university and 7 years at about job sites around North America. It survived a memory wipe during diploma exams because the teacher could not figure out how to reset the calculator…I was the only one in my school with a graphing calculator. It was with me in -40 degree winters, working a night shift where I needed to use a maglite held at the right angle to see the numbers. It survived hours in the back seat of a truck in +40 degree heat in the middle of a desert. When the “on” key quit functioning many of the numbers were almost worn off and computers had changed enough that I couldn’t install the software due to the change in data media over the years. I was sad.
    I immediately contacted HP from my jobsite, but was informed that they had “gotten out of the business” of calculators.
    I bought a TI. I just could not get used to a calculator without RPN. That calculator, while still an excellent machine, is sitting unused in my basement gathering dust.
    Several years ago, a sibling got himself some schoolin’, and as part of that bought himself an HP48GX I think. Unbeknownst to me, HP had “got back into the game”. When he offered to let me have it (he had completed his schooling) I jumped at the chance.
    But I just couldn’t develop a bond with that new calculator. It didn’t have all the custom programs I had written for it…a history of my education. Economics calcs, quadratic factoring algorithms, every thermodynamics forumla necessary for my third year “closed book” final exam, they just weren’t there. And it was too shiny and new, it didn’t feel right in my hand.
    While I carry that new HP around from job to job, I rarely use it. I have moved on. It was too easy to get one of the junior engineers to “run the calcs”, too convenient to plug all my numbers in a massive spreadsheet where I could come back days, weeks, or years later and review what I had done.
    I miss that old calculator…

  36. Mao Stlong say, agleed.
    My nephew Boob Lae for Plime Ministel of Canada.
    Time fol crimeate change in Riberar Palty.
    Signed, Hope $ Feal.
    …-
    “Liberal MPs plot early retirement for Ignatieff”
    “It all started after a gathering to mark the retirement of Liberal Senator Jerry Grafstein from the Hill. Among those present were Ignatieff and Rae.
    After they had all feted the popular senator with great words of love and affection, some MPs – invited by Rae for a drink – moved “100 yards away from the Hill” into the Château Laurier. Here the façade of unity vanished, the true face of today’s Liberal party materialized and the real work of politics, which no longer takes place on the Hill, was in full swing.
    Glen Pearson, an MP from London and one of those present for the nightcap with Rae, said that in his opinion Ignatieff was losing the loyalty of the party and Rae was “the only one the party trusts.” Carolyn Bennet, also present at the meeting, said that David McGuinty, Justin Trudeau and others are already planning their leadership runs and it was time for Rae to do something.
    Then the conversation shifted to some concrete proposals. In particular, they told Rae that many MPs believe he should become “the deputy leader with authority to manage all the files in the House of Commons,” basically a kind of CEO. They also said that Ignatieff shouldn’t be asking questions in the House but travelling throughout Canada “attending functions.”
    Some also said that Ralph Goodale should be removed from his House responsibilities because, they said, he brings no added value to the party, no expertise, no financial wherewithal and doesn’t deliver seats in his own province.
    Rae also was critical of the performance of the leader but said he was not interested in a coup d’ĂŠtat. However, he added that his loyalty is solely to the Liberal party.
    Ruby Dhalla said that loyalty is a two-way street and accused the party of not doing enough to nurture the next generation of leaders. During the conversation, it was suggested that a group of MPs should meet with chief of staff Peter Donolo and present some of these proposals as soon as possible.
    This was not an isolated meeting between a few MPs – it’s the dominant theme of discussion among almost all Liberal MPs uncertain about their future.
    I wouldn’t be surprised if Ignatieff were to reconsider his political future and go back to his beloved academic world before the end of the year.”
    http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/734749

  38. MSM/TORedStar in Liberal denial.
    No use mention of the word ->Liberal.
    But, “At Queen’s Park, he was known as an activist minister and a savvy communicator.”
    No Liberal PET Cemetery for Liberal Bryant, yet.
    …-
    “Michael Bryant joins top law firm as adviser
    Former attorney general, facing criminal charges from car accident that killed bike courier, will work with Ogilvy Renault’s energy law team in Toronto”
    http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/734781–bryant-joins-top-law-firm-as-adviser?bn=1

  39. Any day PiperPaul…crawling piperacks is a good time…although it’s been raining for a couple of days in Saudi and the pipes are on the slippery side.

  40. my HP45 only fried about 5 years ago. I think it was 28 years of continuous use. the 32S will see me out.

  41. maz2, I really appreciate that you’ve got Boob Lae’s and his Uncr Mao Stlong’s wicked number, bearing nothing good for Canada or Canadians.
    A reminder to all that this is the Second Sunday of Advent in the calendar of the Christian Church, a season for quiet contemplation and preparation. From a commentary by Henri Nouwen, late theologian, spiritual director, and member of L’Arche Daybreak:
    DON’T LET YOUR MIND BECOME ‘THE GARBAGE CAN OF THE WORLD’
    This is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Philippians 1: 9-10
    Through spiritual reading we have some say over what enters into our minds. Each day our society bombards us with a myriad of images and sounds … each image or word demanding our attention in all sorts of sizes and colours and with all sorts of gestures and noises. The words yell and scream at us: “Eat me, drink me, buy me, hire me, look at me, sleep with me!”
    Whether we ask for it or not is not the question; we simply cannot go far without being engulfed by words and images forcibly intruding themselves into our minds.
    But do we really want our minds to become the garbage cans of the world? Do we want our mind to be filled with things that confuse us, excite us, depress us, arouse us, repulse us, or attract us whether we think it is good for us or not? Do we want to let others decide what enters into our mind and determines our thoughts and feelings?
    Clearly, we do not, but it requires real discipline to let God and not the world be the Lord of our mind.
    Prayer: O LORD, help me this Advent to reduce my daily input of distractions, and to see and appreciate the realities of faith, to treasure the things that really matter.

  43. My brother is an engineer who needed a new calculator. I as an apparent idiot economist told him they had many scientific calcs. at an electronic store where I had just bought a new business analyst. He said he needed a Reverses Polish Notation “who knew”, and they were not available. I looked it up and told him they are apparently available in the U.S. only.

  45. Google-for-News search turns up just four different sources for info on this slaying, which took place on Friday. Cover-up by Big Old Media… again? Or do they just not know about it, like they don’t know about ClimateGate, ACORN, CAIR, THE CZARS, you name the big stuff they don’t want us to know about?
    Muslim Student Slays Jewish Professor In Own Office
    http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2009/12/muslim-student-slays-jewish-professor.html

    The victim is Richard Antoun, 77, professor of Middle Eastern studies and the author of “Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements.”
    The man in custody is Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, 46-year-old Saudi national.
    The attack took place Friday afternoon when the student entered the professor’s office and stabbed him, according to an eyewitness. Campus police tackled the assailant to the ground, while emergency service workers rushed to Antoun’s side.
    (…)
    “He dedicated his life to trying to understand the people of the Middle East,” the professor’s sister Linda Miller, of Holden, Mass., told the New York Times. “He never said an unkind word to anyone in his life. “Miller’s husband, the Rev. David J. Miller, said that Antoun had been married to his wife, Rosalyn, for 17 years and had a son, Nicholas, 40.

    My commentary at the post.

  48. A little more info on Canadian Sentinel’s post. The top cop says;
    There is no indication of religious or ethnic motivation,” said Mollen in a printed statement Saturday. The roomates say; “Both apartment-mates felt Al-Zahrani put them down for their religious beliefs — both are Christians.” http://www.topix.com/city/johnson-city-ny —Nothing to see here folks,just another’isolated’ incident.

  49. Correction on an earlier post: My HP 41CX is 26 or 27 years old, purchased in either 1983 or 1984. Man am I getting old!
    I’d like to contrast my earlier praise of HP with what they’ve done more recently. I learned from a print cartridge expert that they deliberately re-engineered their inkjet cartridges so as to make them only last 3 or 4 refills. Why, you ask? Because by reducing the amount of printer cartridge reuse, they’ve been able to maintain inkjet ink as one of the most expensive liquids on earth. All the other manufacturers have followed suit.
    I am indeed a capitalist but what has gone on in this arena of our economy is not competitive capitalism!

  50. The Carbon Tax on Everything – The Cons Christmas gift to all their partisans – who loathe the Libranos for a shameless tax grab, but adore those cute little Cons when they do it.
    Now pay the tax, and hug your riding association. Good partisan. Shut up and pay. And pay. And then donate.
    Canada won’t be swayed by Copenhagen ‘hype’: Prentice
    Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service Published: Friday, December 04, 2009
    “Make no mistake,” Mr. Prentice said. “We absolutely understand the urgency around environmental issues – and I make a practice of meeting regularly with Canadian companies, associations and ENGOs [environmental groups] who share that desire to move forward boldly.”
    Prentice has not yet introduced a framework or regulations to cap pollution from industrial facilities, but indicated earlier this week that they would be expected to make absolute reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions.
    Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2304034#ixzz0YvrHCxRh

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