Slashdot Mirror

reifman writes The CDC reports that 69% of adult Americans are overweight or obese. Techies like us are at increased risk because of our sedentary lifestyles. Perhaps you even scoffed at Neilsen's recent finding that some Americans spend only 11 hours daily of screen time. Over the last nine months, I've lost 30 pounds and learned a lot about hacking weight loss and I did it without fad diets, step trackers, running or going paleo. No such discussion is complete without a link to the Hacker Diet.

duncan bayne asks: "I've been using the Hacker's Diet to lose weight. What's interesting to me is how hard it is to focus on a complicated task when my body is busy running out of energy. I'm having to pay careful attention to snacking - eating enough that I don't 'fade out' in the afternoon, yet not so much that I exceed my daily kilojoule allowance. This got me to thinking about energy levels of those who aren't dieting. Do you find yourself correcting 'fade' by snacking (careful or otherwise) as you work?"

nollaigoc writes "John Walker, founder of Autodesk, makers of Autocad now lives in Switzerland.
His homepage http://www.fourmilab.ch/ is an eclectic mix of interesting stuff. There is an interesting link of his latest perl project in printing passport photos at a mall on a single sheet, while resizing the image from a digital camera to print out multiple copies of the at the correct size on a single sheet."

nollaigoc writes "John Walker, founder of Autodesk, makers of Autocad now lives in Switzerland.
His homepage http://www.fourmilab.ch/ is an eclectic mix of interesting stuff. There is an interesting link of his latest perl project in printing passport photos at a mall on a single sheet, while resizing the image from a digital camera to print out multiple copies of the at the correct size on a single sheet."

Daniel Goldman writes "Today is the 53rd birthday of the UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I). The UNIVAC I was delivered to the Census Bureau in 1951. It weighed some 16,000 pounds, used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and could perform about 1,000 calculations per second. It was the first American commercial computer, as well as the first computer designed for business use. The first few sales were to government agencies, the A.C. Nielsen Company, and the Prudential Insurance Company. It could retain a maximum of 1000 numbers and was able to add, subtract, multiply, divide, sort, collate and take square and cube roots. Its transfer write/read to and from magnetic tape was 10,000 characters per second."

wrenhunt writes "The Speak Freely site has this: 'On January 15th, 2004, Speak Freely will be discontinued and removed from this Web site. Existing users may continue to use the program as long as they wish, but no further releases will be forthcoming. For details and the reasons why Speak Freely is being discontinued, please see the full end of life announcement.'" The reasons are various and interesting; it's graceful of the author to provide an explanation of why a piece of software is going away. Update: 01/11 19:22 GMT by T : As reader pi_rules points out, this story is a duplicate -- my apologies.

wrenhunt writes "The Speak Freely site has this: 'On January 15th, 2004, Speak Freely will be discontinued and removed from this Web site. Existing users may continue to use the program as long as they wish, but no further releases will be forthcoming. For details and the reasons why Speak Freely is being discontinued, please see the full end of life announcement.'" The reasons are various and interesting; it's graceful of the author to provide an explanation of why a piece of software is going away. Update: 01/11 19:22 GMT by T : As reader pi_rules points out, this story is a duplicate -- my apologies.

NTK's weekly list of useful stuff includes a pointer to Javascrypt, a Javascript-based encryption utility. Handy.

`Sean writes "Salon.com has published a story about Hackers on Atkins. Although going on a diet is the last thing on the minds of the stereotypical geek basking in the ambient radiation of multiple monitors for 15 hours per day, many hackers have been embracing Atkins because utilizing low-carb methods to modify the metabolism is analogous to hacking and overclocking the body. Others have been combining Atkins with other systems, such as John Walker's The Hacker's Diet. I've personally lost a hundred pounds so far and will toss in the obligatory if I can do it, anyone can ism."

`Sean writes "Salon.com has published a story about Hackers on Atkins. Although going on a diet is the last thing on the minds of the stereotypical geek basking in the ambient radiation of multiple monitors for 15 hours per day, many hackers have been embracing Atkins because utilizing low-carb methods to modify the metabolism is analogous to hacking and overclocking the body. Others have been combining Atkins with other systems, such as John Walker's The Hacker's Diet. I've personally lost a hundred pounds so far and will toss in the obligatory if I can do it, anyone can ism."

derrickoswald writes "John Walker, one of the founders of Autodesk, has posted The Digital Imprimatur, a monograph on technologies such as the Trusted Computing initiative. Some of the prognostications and conclusions reached may not be palatable to Slashdot readers."

derrickoswald writes "John Walker, one of the founders of Autodesk, has posted The Digital Imprimatur, a monograph on technologies such as the Trusted Computing initiative. Some of the prognostications and conclusions reached may not be palatable to Slashdot readers."

Arun writes "John Walker (of AutoDesk and Fourmilab fame), primary author of SpeakFreely, has decided to EOL the program (a pioneering network telephony effort), come January 15th, 2004. He cites difficulty in maintaining a decade-old code base, lack of appropriate developer support and a fundamental change in the peer-to-peer nature of the Internet upon which SF is dependent as motivating factors behind his decision. While the last release of the program will continue to be available from SourceForge, the main web site, mailing list, and web forum will be shut down on the aforementioned date." He's got some good points too, like how once IPv6 is more common, most users probably won't go back to one address per machine. I know I enjoy the added security of a NATed firewall, and without a really good reason, I won't be quick to give it up.

Arun writes "John Walker (of AutoDesk and Fourmilab fame), primary author of SpeakFreely, has decided to EOL the program (a pioneering network telephony effort), come January 15th, 2004. He cites difficulty in maintaining a decade-old code base, lack of appropriate developer support and a fundamental change in the peer-to-peer nature of the Internet upon which SF is dependent as motivating factors behind his decision. While the last release of the program will continue to be available from SourceForge, the main web site, mailing list, and web forum will be shut down on the aforementioned date." He's got some good points too, like how once IPv6 is more common, most users probably won't go back to one address per machine. I know I enjoy the added security of a NATed firewall, and without a really good reason, I won't be quick to give it up.

Arun writes "John Walker (of AutoDesk and Fourmilab fame), primary author of SpeakFreely, has decided to EOL the program (a pioneering network telephony effort), come January 15th, 2004. He cites difficulty in maintaining a decade-old code base, lack of appropriate developer support and a fundamental change in the peer-to-peer nature of the Internet upon which SF is dependent as motivating factors behind his decision. While the last release of the program will continue to be available from SourceForge, the main web site, mailing list, and web forum will be shut down on the aforementioned date." He's got some good points too, like how once IPv6 is more common, most users probably won't go back to one address per machine. I know I enjoy the added security of a NATed firewall, and without a really good reason, I won't be quick to give it up.

Deagol asks: "After reading about it several times on Slashdot, I decided to start the Hacker's Diet this month. I've even lost 3lbs so far. I'm looking for software tools to make this thing easier. So far, I've been using Nut to track my calories and see what nutrients I need to balance. Though Nut has been invaluable, it lacks a clean recipe and menu interface (it has them, but it's light on features). I did the usual google/freshmeat/sourceforge search, but turned up very little. gnutrition looks promising, but it's 2 years unmaintained and uses an old version of the USDA database. My requirements are: that it use the current USDA database; have a flexible recipe and menu functions which tracks calories and nutrients; and finally that it runs under Linux (prefer OSS). Multiple-user support and easy of use would be nice, but not required."

urbazewski writes "As spring gets underway (in the northern hemisphere anyway) it's a good time to start undoing the effects of a winter's worth of websurfing and gameplaying on your physical condition. A meta-analysis of studies of currently popular low carbohydrate diets by doctors at Stanford and Yale reveals that they are really just low calorie diets in disguise: 'findings suggest that if you want to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a long time period." John Walker's 'engineer's approach' to losing weight is built around this astonishing insight, as described in his online book/weight loss plan The Hacker's Diet. The spreadsheets are out of commission, but the basic insights are an excellent antidote to fad diets." Ramen, Ramen, Ramen is not on the approved list.

urbazewski writes "As spring gets underway (in the northern hemisphere anyway) it's a good time to start undoing the effects of a winter's worth of websurfing and gameplaying on your physical condition. A meta-analysis of studies of currently popular low carbohydrate diets by doctors at Stanford and Yale reveals that they are really just low calorie diets in disguise: 'findings suggest that if you want to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a long time period." John Walker's 'engineer's approach' to losing weight is built around this astonishing insight, as described in his online book/weight loss plan The Hacker's Diet. The spreadsheets are out of commission, but the basic insights are an excellent antidote to fad diets." Ramen, Ramen, Ramen is not on the approved list.

Jack Durian writes "John Walker, the founder of Autodesk/co-author of AutoCAD has some fun playing pretend experimentalist, measuring gravity in his basement."

Adam Jenkins contributes this review of The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer, the newly re-named and republished telling of Babbage's insights and struggles in creating a steam-powered calculating machine, and the modern efforts to bring his work to fruition. The Difference Engine author Doron Swade pages 342 publisher Viking Press rating 8 reviewer Adam Jenkins ISBN 0670910201 summary The story of Charles Babbage, including the work of
London�s Science Museum to build a working Difference Engine

Overview

The book was first published in 2000 by Little, Brown and Company as The Cogwheel Brain: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer to coincide with the unveiling of the printing part of the Science Museum's Difference Engine. A paperback was also released by Abacus. The book I reviewed is an American edition that published in hardcover format by Viking and Penguin in September 2001. It's the same book, just a different title.

The Difference Engine is arranged chronologically, in three parts. Part I is titled "The Difference Engine" and describes Babbage's work to build his Difference Engine, an automatic calculating machine. Part II is about an improved machine he designed, The Analytical Engine. A Modern Sequel (Part III) tells the story of the London Science Museum's project to build a working Difference Engine.

The Difference Engine In the 19th century, a "computer" was a person who performed calculations by hand, not a machine. Mass production techniques hadn't been developed yet, and making precision parts was a craft rather than an industry, where the screws one maker produced for you would all have a thread slightly different from that of screws you bought from someone else.

Swade describes Babbage's life from his early years, when he was expelled from Cambridge after presenting a formal thesis that was deemed blasphemous, and quarrelling with his father about his marriage. At age 29, sitting with his friend the astronomer John Herschel checking math tables, Babbage exclaimed "I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam!" So Babbage's quest began -- to build a machine to perform calculations automatically so that they would be less error-prone, leaving humans to think instead of labor. He wrote to Sir Humphrey Davy, the President of the Royal Society, the society for the scientific elite at the time (Babbage was himself a member), as well as to other influential friends and colleagues to try and raise interest in his project. The Society liked the proposal of this "engine" and awarded him a gold medal and funding. But after five years of work (with his component builder Joseph Clements) and no engine, people began criticising Babbage, claiming he had been unable to finish the project and was concealing this so he could keep getting paid. The Society checked up on him, decided his progress was acceptable, and kept funding him.

Babbage then wrote a controversial book criticising the decline of science in England and suggesting an overhaul of the Royal Society, which didn't win him much support. Clements went on strike over a pay and ownership of tools dispute, then finally quit. Babbage had a portion of his Difference Engine built, which he showed off at the elaborate parties he threw, and he managed to get a lot of people excited about his ideas, including his belief that miracles were just the effect of God's laws which we weren't privy to; that God is basically a programmer.

The Analytical Engine

Whereas the Difference Engine was the equivalent of a calculator and quite limited in its capabilities, the Analytical Engine was more like the modern computer. Ideas were borrowed from the looms used in the textile industry -- ideas that are now famously part of modern computers; the Mill (CPU), Store (Storage) and an input facility (punched cards). Babbage designed his own Mechanical Notation to describe the engine's design. He wasn't actively looking for funding, but rather just working on his designs. He wrote to the Duke of Wellington, complaining about how the Government has treated him, and mentioned working on a new machine. In a letter to the Prime Minister Robert Peel, he asked that the Government decide; should he continue work on the old machine or start on the Analytical Engine?

Babbage was a man with many interests and for a while during his occasional exchanges with government officials he worked as an unofficial consultant for five months working to settle the railway "gauge war" -- e.g. work out whether a broader or narrower gauge was better. Babbage believed his work was more acknowledged overseas than in England, and he was suitably encouraged when he was invited to speak about his Analytical Engine at a conference in Turin, Italy. This encouraged him to campaign for funding for it, both in England and also overseas. The first published description appeared in a Swiss journal in 1842.

Robert Peel sought a way to fob off Babbage and was given this in the form of a advice from George Biddell Airy, the Astronomer Royal. After 20 years of work, Babbage finally got a letter saying his work would no longer be funded, but that the government was withdrawing it's claim to the finished work. Babbage politely refused, but somehow interpreted the letter to mean that the government was at least keen on his Analytical Engine and should fund it, else he'd go overseas for funding. With this letter Babbage scored an audience with the Prime Minister, which didn't go very well, ending with him storming out of the interview.

Augusta Ada, the Countess of Lovelace and daughter of Lord Byron, met Babbage at a party when she was 17 and the two became friends. He gladly taught her about his work, and she translated the article from a Swiss journal on the Analytical Engine to English, adding her own comments and getting it published in a journal. Babbage wanted her article "Sketch of an Analytical Engine" to include an anonymous note describing his disputes with the Government, which he attempted to get the publishers to include without her knowledge. When they refused, Babbage asked Ada to withdraw the article, at which point she became upset, realising he was trying to use her article as a political tool. There is then some discussion about how much Ada really contributed to Babbage's work, citing Bruce Collier's notes that she is "the most overrated figure in the history of computing", and either mad or seemingly that way because of her drug abuse. Swade explains that it is not so much Ada who Collier is taking fault with, but the historians who exaggerate her contribution to celebrate her as a woman who succeeded in an area dominated by men at the time (mathematics). He also points out that some of the ideas she expressed in her article were not ideas Babbage had expressed before, and that it is a great pity she died so young, with her ideas never fully made known.

Babbage met up with Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard in 1855. They were visiting London from Sweden to display a machine they'd built, similar to the Difference Engine. Babbage welcomed the two, showed them his workshop and later helped them sell one of their machines to the Dudley Observatory in Albany, NY. Their machine caused Airy to change his mind about the usefulness of calculating machines, although ultimately the invention didn't do the Scheutzs much good; they both died bankrupt.

After 10 years break, Babbage at age 70 began working on his Analytical Engine again, finally deciding on the specifications. He also began a public attack on "vile and discordant music", which resulted in organ-grinders deliberately baiting him etc. (His autopsy revealed he had degeneration of the inner ear due to an arterial disease, so he wasn't just a party-pooper; the music really caused him some distress). Babbage died just before the age of 80, a bitter man plagued to the end by the organ-grinders' music and no working Analytical Engine.

A Modern Sequel

In 1985 Australian computer scientist Dr Allan Bromley approached London's Science Museum with the idea to build a working Difference Engine by 26 December 1991, to celebrate the bicentenary of Babbage's birth. It is an interesting story, with several unforeseen setbacks of a technical nature as well as more mundane ones like funding troubles, contractors going bankrupt and building the machine in the machine with public scrutiny. Swade was the person who ran the project, with the work and advice of several others, like Michael Wright, Neil Cossons and John Reid, also of the Museum, as well as Rhoden Partners and their design engineers Reg Crick and Barrie Holloway.

The deadline was shifted forward to June, rather than December, as part of the deal through which the final funding was made. A demonstration was "faked" to the press, after a worried Swade explained that the machine was almost ready, but they didn't want to risk breaking parts by running a real calculation at that date. The pressure was on.

The final chapter discusses whether Babbage's title of "the father of modern computing" is really very accurate. Not so much the fact that his machines weren't fully built in his time, but that they relied on the decimal system, not the binary number system. There is also a brief discussion of similar machines that were invented around the time, around the world.

The book is a comprehensive work on Charles Babbage and his work in general, so while the title is not totally accurate, it is apt, since the Difference Engine is the common link between the beginning and end parts of the book. It's also of note that the printing section of the Difference Engine is also part of the Analytical Engine, so by completing this, the Science Museum have validated not just Babbage's work on the Difference Engine, but also some of his work on the Analytical Engine. Hopefully someone will write another book or revision that details work done on the printing section; Swade actually seems to hint at this in the book ("But that is another tale for another day").

The diagrams and illustrations at the end of the book are great, but it might have been better to put them at the relevant parts of the book. For example, the pictures of Countess Lovelace in the chapter about her.

Conclusion

One review I saw states that this book is best for informed readers. I think "interested" readers would be more accurate. The book doesn't presume existing knowledge of Babbage, but if you are interested in the history of science, computing and the Difference Engine, you'll get a lot more out of it. The book is technical in parts but not overly so. It is generally more than readable, although I found the politics, both in Babbage's day and more recently, a bit tedious at times.

A common theme in the book is the set of difficulties both Babbage and Swade faced, not just technically, but also with funding, publicity and staffing. Many companies in modern times can relate to these, I'm sure! It is a sad story, because for all his brilliance and vision, Charles Babbage never lived to see his machines work and receive the accolades he deserved. That his Difference Engine has been successfully built today fittingly fulfills Babbage's vision.

Related Links

• Science Museum's Exhibit
• Printing Mechanism
• More on the Printing Mechanism
• Babbage's papers and Analytical Engine emulator

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.

Shisha asks: "I'm looking for some Voice over IP solution for Unix (Linux, and Solaris in particular). I want to call friends in Prague from the UK. Is there any way how to make the phone call go over the net?" I know there are programs like CCFAudio, Ethernet Phone, FreeWebFone and Speak Freely, however I haven't used any of these programs so I can't say to how well they perform. Have any readers out there tried any of these or have other VoIP solutions that they use that deserve mention?

Imabug writes "Everybody ought to know that radioactive decay is a random process. Someone's gone and used that fact to create a true random number generator based on the time interval between two decay events. Hardware is pretty simple. Geiger counter interfaced through RS-232 to a 486. There are even diagrams of how it was put together. Forget Intel's RNG...this sounds more fun! "

MrSpock writes "John Walker, founder of AutoCAD's holding companay Autodesk, has written a 200 page weight loss guide called The Hacker's Diet: How to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition that takes a very hacker-friendly perspective on weight loss (and god knows many of us hackers need to lose weight). If your Geek Code includes "s:+>:", then you might want to look into the book. It's not a dry read, and seems to be pretty well-reasoned. " I especially liked Walker's "Eat Watch" concept. It's funny, yes, but it also makes good sense. I heartily recommend this online book to any Slashdot reader who is starting to think about entering Michelin Tire Man lookalike contests.

RandySC writes " Demoronizer is a Perl program which corrects numerous errors and incompatibilities in HTML generated by, or edited with, Microsoft applications. The demoroniser keeps you from looking dumber than a bag of dirt when your Web page is viewed by a user on a non-Microsoft platform. A little detective work revealed that, as is usually the case when you encounter something shoddy in the vicinity of a computer, Microsoft incompetence and gratuitous incompatibility were to blame. Western language HTML documents are written in the ISO 8859-1 Latin-1 character set, with a specified set of escapes for special characters. Blithely ignoring this prescription, as usual, Microsoft use their own "extension" to Latin-1, in which a variety of characters which do not appear in Latin-1 are inserted in the range 0x82 through 0x95--this having the merit of being incompatible with both Latin-1 and Unicode, which reserve this region for additional control characters. " So now we know what happened to Jon.