We Lost Another Great One...

It did hasn't received as much attention as the death of Steve Jobs, but another person who had a profound effect on the world of computers died a few days ago.

Dennis Ritchie, of Bell Labs, who along with Ken Thompson, developed the UNIX operating system, was found dead in his home on October 12th.  He was 70.  Ritchie was also the developer of the C programming language.

While Ritchie's death did not receive the attention that Steve Job's did, his contributions are also very significant.  In fact, UNIX was the basis for the NeXT operating system which would evolve into Mac OS X, as well as the model for Linux.


Ritchie had been in ill health in recent years because of prostate cancer and heart disease.,

His web page is here.

Goodbye, Steve....

I got the news on my iPhone.  I was on my way home from classes in Computer Science, and I had pulled it out of my purse to look up something I saw on a sign, and the push notification from AP News popped up on the screen.


Steve Jobs, co-founder, and former CEO, of Apple had passed away.  The news hit me hard.  Over the past few years I have become a major Apple fan girl.  And I came to admire Steve Jobs for all he has done for the world.


About three years ago, I bought an iPod Touch.  I read an article that pointed out how you could do almost anything on it that you can do on a laptop.  While that might be viewed as a bit of an exaggeration, there is truth in that statement.  I didn't realize it, but I had taken the first step towards addiction.


When the iPhone 3GS came out, and they dropped the price on the iPhone 3G, I bought my first iPhone.  I loved my iPod Touch, but I wanted to have access when WiFi was not available.  


Then, I began to think about developing apps for the iPhone.  That would require the purchase of a Mac.  I was eyeing the Macbook, but wound up going for a bit more and buying the Macbook Pro I am typing this on.  Joining the Developer's program, and a large number of books, quickly followed.


By now, I am sure many can see where this is leading...the iPhone 4 arrived, and I upgraded.  A full 32 GB version, of course.  Now I could have all the apps and music I wanted.  


And of course, I had been wanting an iPad, but that was just a bit beyond my reach for while, but I bought one of those as well, the top of the line 64 GB with 3G.  I use it everyday.


And, every Tuesday night, I attend a class in iPhone programming as part of my major in Computer Science.  Apple, and more specifically the genius of Steve Jobs, helped draw me back in to programming.  I had wandered away a few years ago, mainly because of my lack of a degree.  I was self-taught, but that doesn't work these days.  Now I am working on my degree, and my ultimate dream would be to work for Apple.  That, or to teach Computer Science to the next generation of geeks.


But I owe a lot to Steve Jobs.  He will be missed.  It may be a bit trite, but he really did change the world in insanely great ways.

It's Been A Long Time...

Sorry to be so long between posts...but life has been crazy.


I decided to take the plunge and return to school.  I followed by geeky little heart and I am majoring in computer science...and I love it!


During the summer term, I completed a introductory course in C++ programming.  It mostly served as a refresher for me, since we focused on procedural programming and not object oriented.  Now I am continuing with the next course in the series, which will delve more into object orientation.  I am also taking courses in UNIX, Java, and iPhone programming.  My schedule is rounded out with a class for emergency medical responders.  It is primarily for those going into a public safety career (which I have no interest in) but it a) fulfills a graduation requirement, and b) will teach me some really strong first aid skills (and living in San Francisco where we all are waiting on THE BIG ONE that is not a bad thing.  


I realized something...being a student is sort of a natural environment for me.  Or, more specifically, being in an academic environment is.  I have missed this sort of thing.  I love being in class, working on homework, and especially learning new things.


I have been programming for almost forty years.  I wrote my first program in FORTRAN on punch cards in the fall of 1974.  I quickly learned BASIC, and spent several years using a multi-million dollar mainframe as a personal computer before anyone had heard of a personal computer.


Over the years, I moved on to Pascal, C, and other programming languages.  I learned a bit about algorithms, and data structures.  I worked at several jobs as a programmer, and even did some work in hardware design.  But, I was always the one without a degree.  Now, I am formalizing my knowledge.  And I am loving every minute of it.


So, hopefully I will find the time to update things more...besides, Doctor Who returns Saturday, and that is always something to write about.

Songs about Computers...

PC World has an interesting weekly email called "Talk Nerdy to Me."  This week's features the "Top Ten Songs About Computers."  I actually have a pretty good collection of such songs myself, including a few I added from their list:



Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton
Behind the Scenes at Microsoft by Three Dead Trolls In a Baggie
Binary Code (Makes Sense Wherever I Go) by Nonso Ugbode
Computer Chanty by Dr. SETI
The Gates by DaVinci's Notebook
I Love My Computer by Nonso Ugbode
I Love My Mac by Daphne Kalfon
I Love My iPod by Daphne Kalfon
If This Geek Ruled the World by Geoff Smith
Internet Love Song by Bob Ricci
MySpace by Joshua Grosvent
Log In to You by the Arrogant Worms
On the PC by Tom Smith
PC99 by Tom Smith
The Nerds Who Rule the World by Hot Waffles
Reign of Error by Sudden Death
Reinstalling Windows by Les Barker
The Rise and Fall of the SupaSucka 9000000™ by Flying Like Wilma
Spam by Sudden Death
The System Administrator Song by Three Dead Trolls In a Baggie
Tech Support by Geoff Smith
Tech Support by Tony Goldmark
Welcome to the Internet Help Desk by Three Dead Trolls In a Baggie
What Joe Saw on the Internet by Three Dead Trolls In a Baggie
The System Administrator Song by Three Dead Trolls In a Baggie
2600 by Positive Attitude

And of course one could also include:

Having Trouble Sneezing by Scott Olson (Mac vs. PC ads)
New Soul by Yael Naïm (Macbook Air ads)

Okay, I admit it...I'm a major geek, and an Apple fangirl.  These are just some of the almost 200 songs I have in my "Geek Songs" playlist in iTunes.

A Weekend With The Doctor

Earlier this month I spent the weekend at the 22nd annual Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles, California.  It was my first science fiction convention.  Gallifrey One is for fans of the British science fiction show, Doctor Who, which I have become a major fan of.


I went along with several other fellow geeks who are also major fans, including the three shown in the photo to the left.  They are all dressed as characters from the very first episode of the show, which aired on November 22, 1963, a date better known for the assassination of President John Kennedy.  From left to right, they are dressed as the First Doctor, and his companions Ian Chesterson and and Barbara Wright.
  
The person dressed as the first doctor is the one directly responsible for recruiting me as a fan of the Doctor.  Originally from England, has has watched the show from his youth.  His father was an actor with the BBC, and he got to visit the original TARDIS set.  (For those not familiar with the show, the TARDIS is the Doctor's spacecraft...and means Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.)


One afternoon he got me to watch the episode Blink and I was hooked.  I started watching every episode I could, and in short order, I was a major fan.


I mean, what is there not to love about a quirky Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels through time and space in a stolen spacecraft that appears to be a Police Call Box.  It has that appearance because the chameleon circuit, which would normally allow it blend in is broken.  Originally conceived as a way to save money, it has become a trademark for the Doctor and is one of the shows many charms.

When the Doctor meets his demise, he regenerates, taking on a new body, and a new personality.  So, there are now 11 Doctors, all the same person, with all the memories, but each also different.  On the right the faces of all the Doctors from the Show.


The Doctor is joined on his journeys by one or more companions.  As I said, the first Doctor was joined by Ian and Barbara, as well as his granddaughter Susan.  The current Doctor is joined by Amy Pond, and her husband Rory Williams, who she married at the end of the last season.

The Doctor, of course, has a number of adversaries.  Some of them have become as much a part of the show as the Doctor himself.  Perhaps the best known of his enemies are the dreaded Daleks. They are mutated Kaleds integrated into a tank-like mechanical casing. The result is a race of beings obsessed with universal conquest and domination, completely devoid of pity, compassion or remorse. The Daleks appear to have had every emotion removed except hate. Their goal is to purge the Universe of all non-Dalek life. On occasion they have shown  other emotions, usually fear, although this is rare. They are the greatest enemies of the Doctor. Their famous catchphrase is "Exterminate!", with each syllable individually synthesised in a frantic electronic voice.

Another major enemy of of the Doctor is the Cybermen.  Originally they were an organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas. They added more and more artificial parts to their bodies for self-preservation. They became a race of coldly logical and calculating robots, all but devoid of every emotion. They are also major rivals of the Daleks.


Unlike the Daleks, which seek to exterminate other races, the Cybermen assimilate people, turning them into robots as well.  In this sense, they are reminiscent of the Borg from the Star Trek universe.  In fact, there are a number of elements of Star Trek that seem to possibly have been borrowed from Doctor Who.

The third major enemy of the Doctor is the Master, a fellow Time Lord, who has chosen a path of evil, perhaps because he was driven to madness when he was exposed to the Untempered Schism during his initiation as a Time Lord.  There, one can see into the entire time vortex (the medium through which the TARDIS travels).


His goal is to dominate the Universe.  He can be thought of as a sort of Moriarty to The Doctor's Sherlock Holmes.


During the convention I was treated to appearances by, among others, the Fifth Doctor, who was played by Peter Davidson, as well as those who played his three companions.  Also appearing were Frazer Hines, who played a companion of the Second Doctor, and Waris Hussein who was the director of the very first episode of Doctor Who.


The convention also featured appearance by a pair of life size Daleks, who were quite an intimidating presence.  Also someone brought a very realistic recreation of K-9, a robotic dog acquired  by the Doctor and given to his companion Sarah Jane Smith.


If you have never checked out Doctor Who, I strongly recommend that you do, though I will warn you, it can be a very addictive show.  And if you are a fan of the Doctor, then you should consider a trip to the next Gallifrey One.  It is a wonderful chance to meet fellow fans, and to see some of the people who have worked so hard to bring this great show to the masses.   

Twenty Five Years Ago Today...

I was working for a local computer company in Florida.  It was an unusually cold morning, and on that particular day, I had to go to Vero Beach with a technician to work on a customer's computer.  I remember that it was a Commodore PET.


We were on our way back and I happened to look out the window and I saw the Space Shuttle going up.  I mentioned it to the tech and he asked if we could stop an watch.  I said, "Of course!"


Now, I had watched several shuttle launches down there.  Even as far away as were were, a couple of hundred miles, it was quite visible.  
As I watched the little dot of flame moving upward, leaving a trail of smoke, I thought, "There are people on there going to space..."


Suddenly, there was a sort of a flash, not unlike that seen in the earlier rockets when they stages would separate.  In fact, my first thought was "Well, there goes the first stage...." followed immediately by, "Wait, there are no stages on the shuttle...this is very bad."  The smoke trail formed the now familiar Y-shape as the boosters broke away.


I said, "I hope they are doing an RTLS, a return to landing site."  I just could not wrap my mind around what I knew was happening.


I turned on the radio, and found a station covering the launch.  The first thing I heard was, "Something appears to have gone very wrong..."  Over the next few minutes they talked about how NASA was trying to figure out what was going on, that there had been a major malfunction, and then, there was an odd report that said that paramedics were being dropped into the water.


But the truth quickly became clear.  Seven astronauts had died that cold January morning.

Commander "Dick" Scobee

Pilot Michael J. Smith

Mission Specialist 1 Ellison Onizuka

Mission Specialist 2 Judith Resnik

Mission Specialist 3 Ronald McNair

Payload Specialist 1 Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space

Payload Specialist 2 Gregory Jarvis

That evening, I went home and watch The Right Stuff.  It was my way of processing the tragedy I had witnessed.  I thought back on how risky those early flights were, and how routine space flight seemed to have become.

Over two and a half years later, on September 29, 1988 I was privileged to see the first post-Challenger shuttle launch.  I was in college, and a number of us went out and watched as America returned to space.  We all agreed, if offered the chance, we would have gladly gone along on that flight.

Momma, They Took My Kodachrome Away....

Well, sometime in the next few days, the absolute, final roll of Kodachrome film will be processed.  A place in Kansas, known as Dwayne's Photo is the last lab in the world to process Kodachrome. Kodak stopped making the film about a year or so ago, and Dwayne's is shutting down the final line and selling the machinery for scrap.


Years ago, when I got heavily into photography, I became fascinated by the who mystique of Kodachrome.  Unlike other color films, it could only be processed at certain labs.  The process was extremely complex, and at the time, required specially trained staff, including an on-site chemist.  


Of course, that seemed like a challenge to me.  I wanted to become the first person to "home process" Kodachrome.  I actually managed to talk someone at Kodak into sending me detailed information on the process.  Now, the actual processing manual were described as being the size of a phone book, but I got my hands on a document that included information like the actual chemicals required (they had to be mixed from raw ingredients) and the specific color filters and lighting needed for the three exposures needed to do the color reversals.  It also included other details like the timing, and temperatures for each step.


Kodachrome was not like other color films.  It was, essentially, a black and white film with color filters that created three layers.  The first step required removing a black coating, which could be quite messy.  In fact, if Kodachrome film accidentally found its way into a machine designed to process other films, it would likely cause the other rolls of film to be ruined.


Next, was simply black and white processing.  Then, through a series of steps involving exposure to very specific colors of light, and complex chemical baths, the various color layers were created.  This was where Kodachrome processing became complicated.


The chemicals involved were extremely toxic.  And outrageously expensive.  This was what stopped me dead in my tracks.  I might could have built the processing equipment out of parts scavenged from local labs's outdate equipment.  The filters would have been costly, but would be a one time expense.  But when I checked the Kodak catalog where, amazingly, the chemicals were all listed (though there was no indication what they were actually for) I found that the cost would have run into several thousand dollars. Some of the chemicals were hundreds of dollars for a few grams, and there were a lot of chemicals involved.  In time, Kodak would develop a simpler machine, that used packaged chemicals, but at the time I was looking at the process, that was not available.


I look back fondly on those dreams.  It would have been a grand experiment, and would have surely won me fame, and possibly even fortune.  But, alas, it was simply not to be.


And now, Kodachrome is all but gone.  The last rolls will soon pass through the last processor, and an era will end.