MetaFilter posts tagged with Computer

AskMetafilter In 1946.

The Whelk — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:34:02 -0800

A Logic Named Joe is a short science-fiction story by Murray Leinster. Published in 1946, the story depicts data-mining, massively networked computers, search engines, privacy/censorship filters and internet porn. Read it here.

Crowd funding, One Year Later

Artw — Sun, 05 May 2013 06:37:29 -0800

What does the crowdfunding landscape look like for game developers one year after Kickstarter exploded onto the scene?

Remembered, NeXT

gilrain — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:28:50 -0800

As the roots of Apple's OS X, NeXT is fairly well known. Have you actually seen one, though?

The PAPAC-00

popcassady — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:50:30 -0800

In less than an hour you can build the simplified digital computer shown in figure 1, using only a pair of scissors, three dozen common pins, and the parts shown in figures 1 and 2.

Time Traveling The Net

rageagainsttherobots — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 07:43:14 -0800

Check out what the Internet looked like in 1995 in an episode of Computer Chronicles. Topics include: filtering electronic mail in Eudora, using an FTP site, and video streaming a live rock and roll band.

Like a weird game of Rock Paper Sissors Lizard Spock

Mitheral — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:10:23 -0800

Inventions that Changed the World is a 2004 BBC Miniseries in the vein of Connections (previously) hosted by Jeremy Clarkson (yes the Top Gear guy). The Gun. The Computer. The Jet. The Telephone. The Television

A Roguelike Primer

Artw — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 07:56:04 -0800

Best In Genre for Neophytes and Veterans Alike

I need a name that's cutting-edge, like CutCo, EdgeCom, InterSlice...

gauche — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:40:31 -0800

"At the time, Groening was best known as the artist of the comic Life in Hell, as The Simpsons has not yet premiered. The brochure was titled, 'Who Needs a Computer Anyway' and interspersed Groening’s Life in Hell style illustrations with standard information on Apple’s Mac computers." Apple once hired Matt Groening to do some illustrations for them.

30 PRINT "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres.."

Chrysostom — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 06:09:30 -0800

"That got me thinking: Could the Romans have built a digital computer using only the technology and manufacturing processes available to them?"

Dreaming of password combinations sucks

unliteral — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:41:15 -0800

Password Cracking AES-256 DMGs and Epic Self-Pwnage

New from VIDEO Magazine, it's Electronic Games!

JHarris — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:43:30 -0800

NEW from VIDEO Magazine, arising out of its popular "Arcade Alley" column, it's ELECTRONIC GAMES Magazine!(page of PDF links) Brought to you by editors Frank Laney Jr. and Bill Kunkel, and filled with all the latest news on programmable home console games, computer games (with special coverage for the new ATARI 800 system), stand-alone electronic devices and arcade gaming. In the premier issue on newsstands now:

Page 8: "Congratulations on the debut of your new magazine. As games designers, we are naturally pleased that there will be a magazine entirely devoted to the field of electronic gaming. Good Luck!
-- The ActiVision Design Staff: Alan Miller, David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Bob Whitehead, Steve Cartright."
Pages 10-11: One of the infamous George Plimpton ads promoting the Intellivision over the Atari 2600. "Atari Casino. No Dealer. Intellivision Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack. You play cards with a shifty-eyed dealer."
Page 12: An article on David Crane's Freeway. "'That's where the San Diego Chicken came in,' says Activision spokesperson Diane Drosnes."
Page 14: "Atari confirms rumor; secret messages exist! Sources at Atari have confirmed one of arcading's most persistant wild stories. If a gamer sends the hero to a certain room in the VCS Adventure and performs a specific action, a secret message revealing the designer's name will appear on the screen."
Page 14: "There's quite a story behind the delay in the release of the VCS Asteroids cartridge. The version the company showed a year ago received such a frosty reception from those who got an advance peak that the designers went back to the drawing board. They developed a special process that puts twice as much program--8K vs. 4K--on the cartridge as was previously possible. It seems that Atari's wizards came up with a special bank-switch that flips back and forth between two 4K programs, fooling the VCS into reading them both..."
Page 16: "Those who were planning to give (Atari's standalone game system) COSMOS to someone this holiday season had better start looking for a substitute present. Although Atari lavished much advance publicity on its holographically enhanced stand-alone programmable, the company has shuttled it back to the design department for more work. Although the accomplishment of actually developing a commercially viable holographic process drew much admiration, the game itself received mixed reviews. The chief complaint: The holograms served as mere decoration and did not directly affect play."
Page 18: "Holiday Gift Guide for Gamers," features a chess computer, a calculator watch with a game mode, a satin jacket reading "SPACE INVADERS," and the new Merlin and Pocket Simon handheld electronic games, among other things.
Page 22: Introducing the new Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer! "Gamers who have felt shackled by the black and white output of the TRS-80 series can now fill the screen with green, blue, yellow, red, buff, cyan, magenta and orange."
Page 24: Q&A with the Game Doctor! "Q: Do video games damage television sets? A: No, no, a thousand times no!"
Page 25-28: A four-page ad for the Odyssey 2's classic game Quest for the Rings, a combination video and board game. "Ten rings of power lie hidden within the Dark Lands of the evil Ringmaster. In gloomy dungeons. Crystal caverns. Molten infernos. And mysterious shifting halls. Each posing its own challenge. And its own threat."
"Each ring is guarded by the treacherous minions of evil that lurk within these halls of doom. Menacing Orcs and Firewraths. The loathsome Spydroth Tyrantulus. Doomwinged Bloodthirsts. And hiddeous (sic) firebreathing dragons."
Page 29: 15-year-old Atari VCS Space Invaders champion Frank Tetro Jr. gives game tips!
Page 31: An article on the rivalry currently heating up arcades, between Space Invaders and Asteroids.
Page 37: "The Player's Guide to Programmable Videogames." "Programmable" systems are consoles that can accept cartridges on which are coded new games you can play without buying a whole new unit, as opposed to all those units that only play Pong or other simple games. The age of those systems drew to a close with the recent release of the new Atari Video Computer System.
Page 39: "1981: Game of the Year: Superman." Although if you ask me, Adventure was robbed.
Page 40: The guide continues. Coverage of the state of the industry, covering the major companies. Atari, Activision, Phillips (who have taken over distributing the Odyssey2 from subsidary Magnavox), Mattel, and Zircon, who is reviving the Fairchild Channel F, the original programmable game console. Although the images in all these articles are obviously artist recreations, probably from the game companies' own promotional materials. If only someone could reliably take a picture of a video monitor, making some kind of "screen shot," it would advance the art of game magazines tremendously....
Page 49: Reviews of Quest for the Rings, and also Missile Command, Air-Sea Battle, Breakout (Atari), Kaboom, Tennis and Boxing (Activision) for the VCS, Auto Racing and Space Battle, for the Invellivision, UFO and Alien Invaders--Plus! for the Odyssey2, and... Video Whizball for the poor Channel F. Of the latter: "If you like explosions, you'll love UFO. There are at least three different ones, plus an occasional strange hybrid the machine concocts to take care of extraordinary occurrences[...]"
Page 58: Computer Playland is the magazine's computer software review column, covering among other games Star Raiders for the Atari 400 & 800, Empire of the Over-Mind from Avalon Hill, and Scott Adams' version of Lunar Lander.
Page 63: An arcade column covers Phoenix sequel Pleiades, Space Odyssey, the awesome Venture, and the even-more-awesome arcade version of Warlords. "Fantasy adventures, role-playing games, dragon-slaying and heroic quests have been hot media topics for over a year now. Just as 'Star Wars' launched the science fiction boom a few years back, films like 'Dragonslayer,' 'Knightriders', 'Excalibur' and even 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' are piquing nationwide interest in 'adventure' simulations."
Page 66: Joyce Worley contributes an article on the burdgening standalone game device scene, with reviews of several devices, including Dark Tower.
Page 70: An article on (dare we dream) buying your own arcade machine!
Page 73: "Within the next year, a sizable number of arcaders may be playing games on their very own IBM computers. The company, virtually synonymous with electronic brains to most folks, is finally going to produce machines for the home and small business markets. IBM plans three systems, ranging in price from $1,560 to $4,500. Gamers will most likely be interested in the low-end unit. Sold without monitor or cassette, it comes with 16K of memory. An additional 64K is available for slightly over $500. All the IBM personal computers are based on a 16-bit microprocessor, the 8088. This chip is faster than the ones used in most other home computers and will be able to handle significantly more complex programs. This could lead to the creation of some mighty complex games, particularly in the realm of fantasy adventures. How soon will games be produced for the IBM system? IBM will initially concentrate on business software. Once there's a sizable corps of owners, however, suppliers will undoubtedly begin pumping out entertainment software."
The issue wraps up with rundowns of football games and chess-playing devices, and "Arcade Spotlight," a general arcade news column.

Coming up in the NEXT ISSUE of ELECTRONIC GAMES:

The History of Videogames
The 1982 Arcade Awards
The Videogame Hall of Fame
How Videogames Are Made
The Players Guide to Electronic Science Fiction Games
All these columns, plus one devoted to electronic role-playing games, Passport to Adventure.

So watch for the second issue of Electronic Games ON SALE JANUARY 14 1982! - - - - - - - - Electronic Games is also preserved at the Internet Archive.

Interview with Eleanor Kolchin

infini — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:27:34 -0800

The Face Of A 'Computer' From 1946

Teaching Computers to Hear Emotions

Evernix — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:52:42 -0800

New research can detect five different emotions with 81 percent accuracy. [Additional project information].

Bye Bye Netbook Bye Bye

adamvasco — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:44:59 -0800

2012: The year that netbooks Died. A five-year lifespan turned out to be all that netbooks got. Acer and Asus are stopping manufacture from 1 January 2013 - ending what once looked like the future of computing.

H+

zarq — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:00:17 -0800

This past August, producer Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men) launched a new digital series: H+. The premise: in the near future, 33% of humanity has retired their smartphones, tablets and computers in favor of an implanted computer system, H+, which connects them directly to the internet 24/7. The story begins as a computer virus attacks the implants, killing billions. In intersecting storylines across four continents (told in part through flashbacks,) the series then unravels what happened, who caused it and why. In the storyline, the H+ System was developed by Nano Teoranta, which was originally a medical device company. H+ has financial backing from Warner Bros (reportedly $2 million USD,) was shot in Santiago, Chile and is almost done airing its first season. The first season of the series takes place over 48 episodes lasting between four and eight minutes, for a total running time of 255 minutes. Though Warner Digital Distribution plans to release the series on a weekly basis, like any regular series, the episodes are meant to be viewed differently than anything on TV. "We set out to write a nonlinear story," explains series co-writer and co-creator John Cabrera. "The big question for this disjointed story was whether there were ways to view it that felt good. At a certain point we started to realize that might be something we put into the hands of the audience." The fragmented nature of the short episodes means viewers are encouraged to mix and match to create episodic playlists that may better illuminate the show's intricate, ongoing mysteries. Instead of making watching a passive experience, being online encourages interaction.
New episodes premiere Wednesdays at 12pm PST. The series is broken up into ‘chapter’ playlists of 20-30 minutes each: Chapter 1: The Beginnings (Also see a new annotated playlist for Chapter 1) Chapter 2: Foreign Bodies Chapter 3: Connections Chapter 4: Malfunctions Chapter 5: New Visions Chapter 6: Convergences Chapter 7: Residual Effects Cast Interviews and Behind the Scenes Footage YouTube Channel / Official Site / Facebook (requires login) / Wikipedia (Includes cast list)

256 bit security and the laws of physics

Twang — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 04:29:50 -0800

Why 256 bit keys are long enough. A nice graphic explanation by Schneier why brute-force attacks against 256-bit keys will be infeasible until computers are built from something other than matter and occupy something other than space. On the other hand, never underestimate the skills of a ninja with enough coffee.

SPAUN of the living

kliuless — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 06:09:00 -0800

The simulated brain - "First computer model to produce complex behaviour performs almost as well as humans at simple number tasks." [1,2,3,4,5,etc.]

A conversation with Suneet Tuli

spock — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:11:46 -0800

Gamechanger: $25 tablets, $2 mobile data plans, and zero margins–how the internet is about to gain 3 billion new users and a look inside that world’s cheapest tablet computer, India’s Aakash 2 - includes video.

The Typewriter at the Gates of Dawn

Wordshore — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:25:16 -0800

The BBC reports that the last typewriter to be built in the UK (according to its manufacturers) has been donated to London's Science Museum. "Brother said it had stopped making typewriters because demand had fallen to 30 a day, with most of those being sold in the US." From less than five years ago, another BBC news story: "The Japanese multinational Brother sold 12,000 electronic typewriters last year in the UK..." The first typewriter was patented (but not commercially manufactured) in 1714. Though many other mechanical typing devices were invented thereafter, the Sholes and Glidden typewriter (developed between 1866 and 1874) was the first commercially successful model, and the one which gave us the world 'typewriter'. Though in decline, the typewriter industry is not - contrary to recent reports - completely over. As recently as last year, one manufacturer was producing machines for the US prison system. New Brother typewriters are still for sale on Amazon. And Mom and Pop and independent stores, from Oregon to Massachusetts, are still around. The Flickr Writing Machines group contains many pictures of typewriters.

You are carrying: A licence to kill

Egg Shen — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:58:10 -0800

Whenever a new Bond film is released, the promotional push for it is huge. Sony, which is distributing the movie in many territories, has taken the bull by the horns with this one and commissioned a text adventure game loosely based on the character of James Bond.

weee eigenvectors

Evernix — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 11:25:58 -0800

Eigenfaces for facial recognition. (This post assumes familiarity with the terminology and notation of linear algebra, particularly inner product spaces.)

Steve Jobs in St. Petersburg

unliteral — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:35:28 -0800

It is proposed that a memorial to Steve Jobs be erected in St. Petersburg, Russia. The entries are in and you can vote for your favourite online. A sampling of the entries (using Google Translate). No 1086 An old Steve Job's sitting on a bench eating an apple. You'll be able to sit next to him and get your picture taken. Features free Wi-fi too. No 1068 an interesting tableau based around the apple: Adam tempting Eve; an apple falling from the tree on Newton's head; and the surprising information that Jobs named the company after a visit to an apple orchard in India. No 0010 features: A shuttle coming out of a garage representing Jobs' debut; Moses leading his followers just like Steve: A hand and electricity socket combining to generate power for an iPhone; A craniotomy that reveals that Steve had a normal brain; A guitar symbolising his love for The Beatles and the creation of the iPod and iTunes; The universe, which is also tied in with his open brain; A pirate ship; A traffic sign with an arrow indicating that you go straight ahead and don't stop; People on a bridge holding hands (communicating); Rainbows, because freedom of thought and hunger for change are hipster features; A chopped down tree representing the wisdom that was struck down by his cancer.

Is it curtains for Windows 8?

Egg Shen — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:54:11 -0800

Some early reviews of Windows 8: "The worst computing experience I've ever had." "A technological, ideological and functional failure." "I’ve felt almost totally at sea — confused, paralyzed, angry, and ultimately resigned to the pain of having to alter the way I do most of my work." (previously) "Guaranteed to disappoint nearly everyone." "An unmitigated disaster." "A catastrophe for everyone in the PC space." Microsoft says: we believe in people and their ability to adapt and move forward. (previously) And if they don't? ... Windows 8 becomes the new Vista. Microsoft's anticipated revenue from Windows 8 upgrades does not materialize, hurting the company's stock price and forcing layoffs to maintain earnings. Microsoft's hardware partners are left with big stockpiles of unsalable Windows 8 PCs which they have to write down. This accelerates the share growth of the Asian PC makers, who can best withstand a price war. HP kills its PC division, and Dell is in deep trouble. Developers who bet on Metro have to live on canned tuna and string cheese. Nokia, stuck with a minority platform that European operators don't want to carry, wrestles with huge cash flow problems.

Shadow of the Bust

Artw — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:27:32 -0800

Sony is closing its Liverpool Studio, previously known as Psygnosis, developer of the WipeEout and Lemmings games (DHTML version, previously). The studio created games for 28 years, first gaining attention in the Amiga era for it's high production values and stunning box art (more, more ).

Top 10 Hardest Adventure Games

Egg Shen — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 15:08:51 -0800

Until We Win's LordKat, who sounds like Anthony Bourdain, looks back in anger (and fondness) on the Top 10 Hardest Adventure Games. Honorable Mention: Roberta Williams' Laura Bow in: The Dagger of Amon Ra Honorable Mention: Sam & Max Hit The Road 10. Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and The Time Rippers 9. Discworld 8. Codename: ICEMAN 7. Gold Rush! 6. The Adventures of Willy Beamish 5. Manhunter: New York 4. Maniac Mansion 3. King's Quest: Quest for the Crown 2. King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human 1. Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned