Category: Science & Geeks
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Kermit, it’s the end
You know that you’re a computer dinosaur when you discover that a computer program you started with is reaching its end-of-life after… 30 years. The Kermit Project is canceled, effective 1 July 2011. I think that I actually started using Kermit on a Vax 11/780 computer from Digital Equipment Corporation to exchange data between various…
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3 Berkeley Lab radiation experts about Fukushima
This is an exceptionally precise and understandable presentation of the knowledge amassed about the Fukushima dramatic events since 11th March 2011. On April 17, 2011, Robert Budnitz, Ed Morse and Tom McKone discussed Japan’s nuclear crisis. I recommend their comments (including the web sites they list in the end of the presentation). YouTube link Listed…
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Stop complaining
Microsoft Word (or OpenOffice Writer) are excellent software tools with only advantages when you compare them to twhat was available to us a few years ago. The discovery of WYSIWYG:
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Vexin français: Free wallpaper
If you were looking for a free wallpaper for your PC with a French countryside inspiration, here a photo of Spring in the Vexin français. The wallpaper is available in various screen sizes: 1920 x 1200 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1024 x 768 pixels
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USSR science in pictures
I discovered (thanks to BoingBoing) a superb Russian blog which shows copies of scientific documents dating back to the era of communist Russia. scienceillustration.mypage.ru : A little bit of nostalgia for “communist science” (and sometimes for the Western science seen by USSR) with beautiful pictures and illustrations.
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Deepwater Horizon: Ashamed? Oh no!
You may not remember the name of Transocean Ltd. But you remember the fate of one of their properties: They owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year. The presidential commission that investigated the accident concluded that BP, Haliburton and Transocean where guilty of taking too many…
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1 year ago, BP should have had this computer
As a matter of fact, many years ago, Texas Instruments was proud of the computation power of its portable calculators explaining how easy it was to check whether or not there was a risk of explosion from over-pressure in an oil rig. Precisely one year ago, BP should have followed this excellent advice and checked…
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Reliability of lead-free soldering
For those of you who asked for more details about the reliability of lead-free soldering (see the end of my previous titled “Manufacturing of electronic boards“, I have found an interesting and useful analysis from Numonyx (now Micron Semiconductors). Lead-free and leaded package soldering compatibility – Backward and forward compatibility This white paper explores the…
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Manufacturing color crayons
In our series of videos about how things are manufactured, here comes a colorful one: Crayons.