Hi John! Since your life has taken same rather big and strange turns over time (heck, Peter Norton, the other PC software pioneer, is now collecting contemporary modern art, you are collecting young women, guns and designer drugs!), I would like to ask you: If you could do your life over again, what things would you change? Or, maybe put in a different way, if you could give your younger self some advice, what would it be?
In 1993 you participated in the dutch VPRO television series 'Een schitterend ongeluk' ('A glorious accident'), with a very long, interesting and openhearted interview and an encounter with 6 top scientists of different disciplines. I recently watched the series again, and it totally lived up to the fond memories I had from 20 years ago. I can't remember any other non-fiction television making such an impression on me!
What recollections do you have from the interview and the encounter? Did it have some impact on your (scientific) views?
I was sitting with a friend at his computer, and his mouse was responding rather badly because of the accumulated dirt. He happened to have a bottle of 96% cleaning alcohol on his desk, so I proposed to clean the mouse with it. My friend took this proposal rather strongly, so he took out the ball, and poured the alcohol in. The stuff started running out, and we decided the best way to get rid of the surplus alcohol was to set in on fire. So there we were, looking at a burning mouse, enable to blow the fire out, because we were laughing so much.
I'd go for a graphical programming language like
PD or jMax
. While mainly aimed at musical applications, you can
do a lot of generic stuff or graphical stuff as well, and the whole concept of interconnecting "little machines" with "wires" is easy to learn.
The first thing I install when I sit behind a terminal in a public internet cafe is putty, so I can make a ssh connection to my linux box at work. Sitting behind a computer without a (useful) shell is unacceptable for me:-)
Actually, I don't install it, I just execute is from the download page.
In Spain, most soccer matches are pay-per-view. Being dutch, living in Barcelona, I have dutch satelite television, so I could watch the FC Barcelona soccer matches, but if I had non-dutch friends over, I would put the radio for catalan commentaries, but the image would be several seconds up to half a minute behind. Very annoying to hear the radio-host scream GOAL! and see it happen 5 seconds later. Now, as a coincidence, I wrote tapiir, a linux multitap delay application, that can deal with long delay times. Routed the radio through my soundcard, adjusted the delay time, problem solved:-) The other way around (sound lacking behind) would have been more difficult.
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Hi John!
Since your life has taken same rather big and strange turns over time (heck, Peter Norton, the other PC software pioneer, is now collecting contemporary modern art, you are collecting young women, guns and designer drugs!), I would like to ask you: If you could do your life over again, what things would you change? Or, maybe put in a different way, if you could give your younger self some advice, what would it be?
In 1993 you participated in the dutch VPRO television series 'Een schitterend ongeluk' ('A glorious accident'), with a very long, interesting and openhearted interview and an encounter with 6 top scientists of different disciplines. I recently watched the series again, and it totally lived up to the fond memories I had from 20 years ago. I can't remember any other non-fiction television making such an impression on me!
What recollections do you have from the interview and the encounter? Did it have some impact on your (scientific) views?
Thank you
I was sitting with a friend at his computer, and his mouse was responding rather badly because of the accumulated dirt. He happened to have a bottle of 96% cleaning alcohol on his desk, so I proposed to clean the mouse with it. My friend took this proposal rather strongly, so he took out the ball, and poured the alcohol in. The stuff started running out, and we decided the best way to get rid of the surplus alcohol was to set in on fire. So there we were, looking at a burning mouse, enable to blow the fire out, because we were laughing so much.
And yes, the mouse still works.
I'd go for a graphical programming language like PD or jMax . While mainly aimed at musical applications, you can do a lot of generic stuff or graphical stuff as well, and the whole concept of interconnecting "little machines" with "wires" is easy to learn.
"Lovelock. What is that, German?"
"He changed his name; it was originally Liebeschloss"
(Paraphrased from Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelock")
The first thing I install when I sit behind a terminal in a public internet cafe is putty, so I can make a ssh connection to my linux box at work. Sitting behind a computer without a (useful) shell is unacceptable for me :-)
Actually, I don't install it, I just execute is from the download page.
In Spain, most soccer matches are pay-per-view. Being dutch, living in Barcelona, I have dutch satelite television, so I could watch the FC Barcelona soccer matches, but if I had non-dutch friends over, I would put the radio for catalan commentaries, but the image would be several seconds up to half a minute behind. Very annoying to hear the radio-host scream GOAL! and see it happen 5 seconds later. Now, as a coincidence, I wrote tapiir, a linux multitap delay application, that can deal with long delay times. Routed the radio through my soundcard, adjusted the delay time, problem solved :-) The other way around (sound lacking behind) would have been more difficult.