Jean Sammet, RIP
Jean Sammet, Co-Designer of COBOL, Dies at 89
Jean E. Sammet, an early software engineer and a designer of COBOL, a programming language that brought computing into the business mainstream, died on May 20 in Maryland. She was 89.
Aurora 2012
From the Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Fun and philosofy should go hand in hand
Newton’s work has been made available online by Cambridge Digital Library.
At the same time, the spirit can relax by exploring The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction.
Προσωπική ευθύνη έναντι του “μοιραίου”
Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης «Η Σατραπεία»
Κωνσταντίνος Καβάφης «Η Σατραπεία»
Τι συμφορά, ενώ είσαι καμωμένος
για τα ωραία και μεγάλα έργα
η άδικη αυτή σου η τύχη πάντα
ενθάρρυνσι κ’ επιτυχία να σε αρνείται·
να σ’ εμποδίζουν ευτελείς συνήθειες,
και μικροπρέπειες, κι αδιαφορίες.
Και τι φρικτή η μέρα που ενδίδεις,
(η μέρα που αφέθηκες κ’ ενδίδεις),
και φεύγεις οδοιπόρος για τα Σούσα,
και πηαίνεις στον μονάρχην Aρταξέρξη
που ευνοϊκά σε βάζει στην αυλή του,
και σε προσφέρει σατραπείες και τέτοια.
Και συ τα δέχεσαι με απελπισία
αυτά τα πράγματα που δεν τα θέλεις.
Άλλα ζητεί η ψυχή σου, γι’ άλλα κλαίει·
τον έπαινο του Δήμου και των Σοφιστών,
τα δύσκολα και τ’ ανεκτίμητα Εύγε·
την Aγορά, το Θέατρο, και τους Στεφάνους.
Aυτά πού θα σ’ τα δώσει ο Aρταξέρξης,
αυτά πού θα τα βρεις στη σατραπεία·
και τι ζωή χωρίς αυτά θα κάμεις.
Εύστοχη ανάλυση από τον Κωνσταντίνο Μάντη.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Caltech and The Feynman Lectures Website have made available to all an invaluable resource.
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Richard Feynman (expert from Wikipedia) “Richard Phillips Feynman (/ˈfaɪnmən/; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics (he proposed the parton model). For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. He developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. During his lifetime, Feynman became one of the best-known scientists in the world. In a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World he was ranked as one of the ten greatest physicists of all time”.
I don’t pretend to fully understand even half of the material presented in the onlibe lectures, but it never hurts to indulge into the works of great men.
4.95 PB in a standard data centre rack
According to We present to you: 840 fine, upstanding young disks stuffed into a rack cabinet – DDN it is now possible to use a rack of these beauties
for storing the “invaluable” wealth of information our collective hive collects daily.
With the rate of 600TB per day, approximately one of these is need each and every day. Since each enclosure weights about 108kg, the weight of the internet seems to be a tad more than a strawberry!
Impressive: HTML5 Genetic Algorithm 2D Car
Impressive and entertaining… HTML5 Genetic Algorithm 2D Car
Amazing Resonance Experiment
Social Media Data
In projections were made about the expected size of data that would be manipulated by IT systems in the near future.
As it is reported at Presto: Facebook reveals exabyte-scale query engine, Facebook is currently handling 250PB of data increasing at a rate of 600TB per day!
It is always interesting to look at the boundaries of what can be accomplished.
tail -f /var/log/rouvas 