Feynman @ Thinking Machines

Fabulous story of Richard Feynman's time working on the Connection Machine:

When we finally picked the name of the company, Thinking Machines Corporation, Richard was delighted. "That's good. Now I don't have to explain to people that I work with a bunch of loonies. I can just tell them the name of the company."

I do not mean to imply that Richard was hesitant to do the "dirty work." In fact, he was always volunteering for it. Many a visitor at Thinking Machines was shocked to see that we had a Nobel Laureate soldering circuit boards or painting walls. But what Richard hated, or at least pretended to hate, was being asked to give advice. So why were people always asking him for it? Because even when Richard didn't understand, he always seemed to understand better than the rest of us.

Inside Stepney-gate

Wired has a great article reliving the 2007 scandal in Formula One where engineers allegedly stole information from Ferrari and gave it to McLaren.

A few days later, Trudy Coughlan picked up the two CDs, along with the 780 pages of documents. Following her husband's instructions, she destroyed the papers in a home shredder and burned the remains in their back garden. Thus began the biggest scandal ever to rock the world of Formula One racing.

If you enjoy F1 (or tales of industrial espionage) it's a great read.

Own your own F1 car

If you've ever dreamed of owning your own classic Formula One car a) your out of your mind and b) you should read this article at F1 Technical that describes the pros (but not many of the cons):

The average price range is around €45,000 - €60,000 which is only the same as a pricey road car. Although maintainence may cost a bit on top, these could even make good trackday or just enthusiasts cars. As well as these there are several Formula 3 cars and other open wheelers while not the same kind of history are sure to be fun behine the wheel.

I suspect the maintenance on these is going to be more than "a bit" if you really want to run the car. Spare parts might need to be manufactured, fuel / tires are hard to come by and engines typically need to have the oil pre-heated. But it's fun to dream!

The "Hero-shithead roller coaster"

Apparently there won't be Flash on the iPhone anytime soon but John Paczkowski comes up with this zinger about what it's like working with Mr Jobs:

Subordinates are geniuses or ‘bozos,’ indispensable or no longer relevant. People in his orbit regularly flip, at a second’s notice, from one category to another, in what early Apple colleagues came to call his ‘hero-shithead roller coaster.’”

Inflation

The fed has been saying that inflation is under control but I think I have evidence it isn't - the news program 60 minutes has been running 2 hours long for the past few weeks!

Bladerunner Redux

Wired has an interesting interview with directory Ridley Scott about his upcoming re-edit of Bladerunner. This is a further refinement of the Director's Cut from the early 90's which is going to consist of a 5 disk set! I love Bladerunner as much as the next guy (as long as the next guy isn't Ridley Scott...) but I don't think I could sit through 5 DVDs. The interview also answers some questions like why it rains all the time in the Los Angeles of 2019 - to hide the wires ok course! It really is remarkable how contemporary the film looks even 20+ years after it was released.

301 Moved Permanently

After 6 great years at Adobe, I've decided I need to do something a bit different. I won't say much about the new company other than it rhymes with oogle.