Melodysheep. George Dyson on the Birth of the Computer. Old Computers - rare, vintage, and obsolete computers. How to smash a computer in nine easy steps | Digg Topnews. Web Server Quiz" Router Quiz" Home Networking Quiz" The Ultimate Computer History Quiz" Become a Critical Consumer of Information on the Web: Focus on Wikipedia.
Instructor Website. Grace Hopper Explains Nanoseconds to Letterman. Rear Admiral Grace Hopper is famous both as a computer pioneer and for, at the time of her retirement (at age 79), being the nation's oldest active military officer. Hopper worked on early computers, and is widely credited with popularizing the term "computer bug" after she found a moth stuck inside a relay in Harvard's Mark II computer in 1947.
(Thus "debugging" became the term for fixing computer problems....) You can see the first computer bug (they kept the moth!) At the Smithsonian, in the American History museum. In this 1986 interview with David Letterman, Grace Hopper displays her grace and wit, and explains the concept of a nanosecond, using Bell System telephone wire cut into 30cm lengths -- 30cm is the maximum distance light can travel in a billionth of a second. Here's a representative quote: She also gets into picoseconds! You can read more about Hopper from Wikipedia. (Via Waxy.) The Nerd Handbook. A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner?
That’s the nerd working on his project in his head. It’s unlikely that this project is a nerd’s day job because his opinion regarding his job is, “Been there, done that”. At some point, you, the nerd’s companion, were the project. Regarding gender: for this piece, my prototypical nerd is a he as a convenience. Understand your nerd’s relation to the computer. First, a majority of the folks on the planet either have no idea how a computer works or they look at it and think “it’s magic”. The nerd has based his career, maybe his life, on the computer, and as we’ll see, this intimate relationship has altered his view of the world. Your nerd has control issues. The reason for this typeface selection is, of course, practicality. These control issues mean your nerd is sensitive to drastic changes in his environment.
Your nerd has built himself a cave. Your nerd loves toys and puzzles. Education Materials. iTunes U - Learn anything, anywhere, anytime. Welcome to Discovery Education. Free Online Course Materials | MIT OpenCourseWare. Web-Based Instruction for Educators.