Blogcoven

The Inside Story of Texas Instruments’ Biggest Blunder: The TMS9900 Microprocessor

I encountered the 68k first in my childhood computer (an Amiga 500), and later in college, when we built a computer from wire-wrapped circuits, and coded 68k assembly on it.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/the-inside-story-of-texas-instruments-biggest-blunder-the-tms9900-microprocessor

16^th Century Diplomatic Excuses

Brexit is going fine. Click the link to see the thread.

For the benefit of all #Brexit negotiators I've been putting together a list of diplomatic excuses from the sixteenth century.

— Catherine Fletcher (@cath_fletcher) June 20, 2017

Everything That is Wrong With the Animaniacs Nations of the World Song

I love me a good explainer. Since I moved to the States, I’m more interested in learning the States and their Capitals.

http://everything-everywhere.com/everything-that-is-wrong-with-the-animaniacs-nations-of-the-world-song/

A Photo of James Comey Takes the Internet by Storm

Comey is very tall, he towers over people as he walks with his entourage, and it often makes photos of him seem awkward.

https://nyti.ms/2s4lcut
(h/t Mr E)

Hoverboards, Vapes, and Spinners are Reshaping the Economy

I have become addicted to Spinners too. They are a good way of stopping me from doodling in meetings, but if I am found beaten to death with one we will know why. Interestingly, they only really
took off when the patent expired. All three products are characterised by not having a dominant manufacturer, but rather dozens to hundreds of Chinese makers.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/leticiamiranda/hoverboards-vapes-and-spinners-are-reshaping-economy

The Lost Genius of the Post Office

Missile post seems to me to be a perfect element from a Fallout-type setting

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/06/08/us-post-office-technical-difficulties-000449

Decommissioning the North Sea

So much for Scottish dreams of Scandinavian Glory.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/business/energy-environment/oil-north-sea-shell.html

The Strange Loop in Deep Learning

Currently, large organisations have the advantage of large data sets and large amounts of computing power.
It’s interesting to know if the trend will flip back under GAN-type scenarios.

https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/the-strange-loop-in-deep-learning-38aa7caf6d7d

The History of the IBM PC

The costs of these devices in those days was staggering.

http://www.filfre.net/2012/05/the-ibm-pc-part-1/

Is the Gig Economy Working?

Some early Americans rejected the notion of labour, of working for another person,
because it would lead to wage slavery instead of independent citizenship which was essential to a robust Republic.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15/is-the-gig-economy-working

Mathematics has no God Particle

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/math-has-no-god-particle/

Why do so few people major in computer science?

It’s worth reading this article to the end, since the revisions answer the question, but reveal an interesting trend. I certainly felt the force of the market as a student 99-03. The years before me were packed with computer engineers, my year and the years after packed with civil engineers. Then their boom became a bust, too.

The fact that programmer and computer science major are not as tightly coupled as, say, doctor and medical student is also a factor. I know many refugees from the shores of mathematics, physics, engineering, and other distant isles who are now programmers of some sort.

http://danwang.co/why-so-few-computer-science-majors/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-05-23/the-exquisitely-english-and-amazingly-lucrative-world-of-london-clerks

Bringing Back the Somali Shilling

The M-Pesa system started in Kenya fills an incredible number of niches where existing infrastructure failed or doesn’t exist. It allowed developing nations to leap over developed ones, to some extent. Person to Person payment seems more developed in the US than I remember it being in Europe, too.

https://jpkoning.blogspot.com/2017/03/bringing-back-somali-shilling.html

The Boston Globe’s Dorchester Printing Plant goes Dark

The long tenures of the subjects, the familial connections, and the sheer size and violence of the edifice make its transience almost unimaginable. The closure of the giant press is certainly symbolic of the state of media in general.

Stack Overflow: Helping One Million Developers Exit Vim

I wonder is there a keyboard layout issue? :q might be even harder for some locales. I certainly began to understand why # was everywhere when shift-3 stopped being € / £

https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/05/23/stack-overflow-helping-one-million-developers-exit-vim/

Demonstration of Soil Liquefaction

After 117 Days in the Bay, I still have not experienced any earthquakes. If the Big One comes, I’ll be sure to tweet

https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2017/04/09/papamoa-1/

Random Mediaeval Town Generator

A gem from /r/proceduralgeneration

https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator