“We’ve learned the hard way that between the word ‘first’ and the word ‘computer’ there are about 19 adjectives” — John Hollar, Former CEO of the Computer History Museum The title of this essay is a simple question. One would think it would have a simple answer, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. There are… Continue reading Who Invented the Computer?
Author: glenn
Four Years Later
I have been having my PSA tested every six months and am pleased to say it is completely negative, meaning I have no signs of recurrence of the cancer. Since prostate cancer is slow-growing, it will be another six years before I can officially be pronounced “cured”.
Life Cycle of a Linux Program
Introduction This is an investigation of the life cycle of a program in a Linux system. Actually, there are (at least) two meanings of “program life cycle”: The development life cycle (requirements, design, code, test, deploy…) The execution life cycle of a program when it is run. We will discuss the latter. How is a new… Continue reading Life Cycle of a Linux Program
IBM 1401 Resurrected
The IBM 1401 Computer was one of the first computer systems I worked on. Among other things, it was the computer used at that time by the U.S. Army computer-programming school which I attended in the fall of 1968. We were told that whoever finished first in the class would have their choice of next… Continue reading IBM 1401 Resurrected
Shakespeare on Depression
Several years ago (2006, it turns out) I wrote an essay on “Shakespeare on Depression” which quoted some lines from Hamlet. I have long had the idea making an audio recording of that essay with a real Shakespearan actor reading the lines from Hamlet. The stars have aligned. I have a new Macbook which is… Continue reading Shakespeare on Depression
Kindle “Enhanced” Books – Availability by Devices
As an avid Kindle user (disclosure: I used to work for Amazon on Kindle development) I was intrigued recently to discover a book that includes full-motion video content. As an avid collector of tech toys I was curious about what devices this video content would work on. The title of the book is Dirty Wars and its… Continue reading Kindle “Enhanced” Books – Availability by Devices
Book Review: Mac OS X and iOS Internals
I just wrote a review of this technical book for Amazon. Here’s the review. http://www.amazon.com/review/R13Y2OQKI1HTQ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Lies, Damned Lies, and Market Share
[0] Mark Twain once said, “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics,” [1] implying that statistics are the biggest lies of all. Statistics about market share are an important part of marketing. And measuring market share certainly depends on what you want to measure. Companies depend on market-share statistics in two ways: First to use in… Continue reading Lies, Damned Lies, and Market Share
Christmas Blessings
I received an email from some recruiter today. It wasn’t the usual trolling for job candidates. Rather it was a simple Christmas wish. It began with the sentence, “May every day of your life be full of blessings.” When I read it I realized that every day of my life–every day of your life as… Continue reading Christmas Blessings
Trip to China – 2012
In late October, 2012 I made a business trip to China. My blog of that trip can be found at http://glennastory.net/?p=605 and then click the link marked “next” at the bottom of the page to go to the next one.