80's. I know about spacewar, but then also a lot of the history of Atari and was even surprised how much was driven by the video game industry (I'd expected it to be more of the space/military industry). And I know that they weren't giant leaps of innovation, I didn't even mention blitter since that's just DMA hardware.
My point is that low hanging fruit and "impressive new capabilities" are exciting. Any impressive new behavior today is going to have an audience limited to those who are awaiting a specific capability (like rt raytracing as someone mentioned). Neat for those looking for ultimate perfection, but nearly invisible to most.
No, I think it is more than that. It was special, there were whole fields opening up that had never been possible before, especially to anyone who wasn't a government.
Yeah, it was all the low hanging fruit, but that does not make it any less exciting.
A nuclear powered aircraft carrier can supply something like 50,000 people with daily clean water. I wonder how much a dedicated nuclear power plant could provide?
IANAG, but was always very into computer graphics and pretty much agree with you on everything. I did work on some graphics stuff with NASA while in college, but the most we had was maybe 5-6 years ahead of what was commercially available like 24 bit color... but after 24 bit color, there's not much more you can do. I'm sure 48 bit color looks better (even SGI had 56 bit color, most of that was for processing), but for 99%, 24bits is sufficient for 99% of all applications.
But what sort of application could I run with a 20GHz CPU? I still don't see a big deal about 1Gbs internet service unless I want to watch 32 channels of youtube simultaneously.
I hate to use them as examples, but the Nazi's had a lot of innovation in the field of aviation during WWII. Most of it failed, but they tried some really crazy stuff and were first to space with the V-2.
I think you're probably closer to right than most. And maybe the refrigerator and washing machine.
But even without the internet, the computer has had a fairly profound impact in terms of disruption. I graduated a year before www hit, and had been using the internet for nearly a decade before that, but mostly for sharing data and designs. But was doing significant work on stand alone computers (or more accurately mainframes) that would not have been possible before without the computer.
Have been hearing this since an auto in DARPA's 2005 Grand Challenge. Back in the 80's and 90's, no one talked about computer maturing quickly, but their capabilities doubled nearly every month on some front. I haven't seen a self driving car since the ones I worked on in college. I'm not even sure what doubling the capabilities of a self driving car would even mean...though people back then were working on systems that could surpass a human driver for things like backing up three tractor trailers (I think people were even doing that in the 80's).
That's because going to the moon, or driving or anything else physical means solving hundreds of physics problems a hundred times a second. Just because your computers are 1000x faster does not mean that there are 1000x more physics problems you need to solve. Yeah, you can always solve more for safety, or redundancy or a few other reasons, but only up to a point. The software for a rocket landing on the moon today would not be doing fundamentally anything different than Apollo other than more self checks and redundancy and high fidelity kalman filters.
The progress of your youth was no less incremental
Video games were invented in my youth and I think that was pretty revolutionary. A lot of new computer inventions had to be made like cLUT, sprites and hardware windows. I was never interested much in the games themselves, but rather the technologies that made them possible.
I remember convincing my parents to drive me downtown and drop me off at the civic center where a computer convention was being held. I saw for the first time, a color picture of a city street layout that was being panned down the screen. There were like 32 colors on the screen at one time!
Up until this point, I had to suffer with b&w on my friend's TRS-80. I guess that was 36 years ago, still things were revolutionary up until about 2000. Everything since has been copies and copies of copies. No TV -> 40x40 black and white @ 16fps is a much bigger jump than 300x500->8k retina resolution in 3D at 120Hz.
I guess to answer the question more correctly, 30 years ago being 1988, the high tech nerdy stuff was OS/2, windows 2 and MINIX, the roton, and the DC-x. Now we have spaceX doing this, but the first time is always the best. GPS is about the last truely innovative technology that I can recall
I'm still waiting for a 'tech product' that isn't a rehash of some older tech product...from anyone. IM is something I used in the 80's, 30+ years ago, and that's ignoring the phone.
Gwynne Shotwell is president of SpaceX. And while she is a leader at a tech company, of all the companies that I've worked for and presidents I've known, none were what I would consider tech leaders. That title would more appropriately go to someone like Tom Mueller.
Slashdot Mirror
It could be the carcinogenic paint they use on the antennas or the toxic waste the construction firm secretly buried.
80's. I know about spacewar, but then also a lot of the history of Atari and was even surprised how much was driven by the video game industry (I'd expected it to be more of the space/military industry). And I know that they weren't giant leaps of innovation, I didn't even mention blitter since that's just DMA hardware. My point is that low hanging fruit and "impressive new capabilities" are exciting. Any impressive new behavior today is going to have an audience limited to those who are awaiting a specific capability (like rt raytracing as someone mentioned). Neat for those looking for ultimate perfection, but nearly invisible to most.
Yeah, it was all the low hanging fruit, but that does not make it any less exciting.
Anything else? I don't do much with gaming
I thought the problem in the US was a lack of inflation, or at least this is what all the economists told me.
Maybe nuclear war, but it is very difficult to tell where wars have occurred if you look at a population graph from the last 5000 years.
A nuclear powered aircraft carrier can supply something like 50,000 people with daily clean water. I wonder how much a dedicated nuclear power plant could provide?
In Civ, you have to wait until you build up to a Roman level of technology.
8 x (2000/600) x 1000 ~ 25,000 gallons/2,000 sqft typical house ~70 gallons/day. Most places have more rain than Phoenix.
IANAG, but was always very into computer graphics and pretty much agree with you on everything. I did work on some graphics stuff with NASA while in college, but the most we had was maybe 5-6 years ahead of what was commercially available like 24 bit color... but after 24 bit color, there's not much more you can do. I'm sure 48 bit color looks better (even SGI had 56 bit color, most of that was for processing), but for 99%, 24bits is sufficient for 99% of all applications.
But what sort of application could I run with a 20GHz CPU? I still don't see a big deal about 1Gbs internet service unless I want to watch 32 channels of youtube simultaneously.
I hate to use them as examples, but the Nazi's had a lot of innovation in the field of aviation during WWII. Most of it failed, but they tried some really crazy stuff and were first to space with the V-2.
But even without the internet, the computer has had a fairly profound impact in terms of disruption. I graduated a year before www hit, and had been using the internet for nearly a decade before that, but mostly for sharing data and designs. But was doing significant work on stand alone computers (or more accurately mainframes) that would not have been possible before without the computer.
coming very quickly
Have been hearing this since an auto in DARPA's 2005 Grand Challenge. Back in the 80's and 90's, no one talked about computer maturing quickly, but their capabilities doubled nearly every month on some front. I haven't seen a self driving car since the ones I worked on in college. I'm not even sure what doubling the capabilities of a self driving car would even mean...though people back then were working on systems that could surpass a human driver for things like backing up three tractor trailers (I think people were even doing that in the 80's).
sent people to the Moon using equipment
That's because going to the moon, or driving or anything else physical means solving hundreds of physics problems a hundred times a second. Just because your computers are 1000x faster does not mean that there are 1000x more physics problems you need to solve. Yeah, you can always solve more for safety, or redundancy or a few other reasons, but only up to a point. The software for a rocket landing on the moon today would not be doing fundamentally anything different than Apollo other than more self checks and redundancy and high fidelity kalman filters.
The progress of your youth was no less incremental
Video games were invented in my youth and I think that was pretty revolutionary. A lot of new computer inventions had to be made like cLUT, sprites and hardware windows. I was never interested much in the games themselves, but rather the technologies that made them possible.
most amazing things I have been seeing
Anything you can share?
I think you mean transputers. Those are still pretty neat.
The Mac was always really just a PC. CPU, ram, rom, hard drive, video controller, I/O controller(s), power supply.
The DCX was cancelled before gong into orbit, but was landing big vertical rockets in the 90's.
Up until this point, I had to suffer with b&w on my friend's TRS-80. I guess that was 36 years ago, still things were revolutionary up until about 2000. Everything since has been copies and copies of copies. No TV -> 40x40 black and white @ 16fps is a much bigger jump than 300x500->8k retina resolution in 3D at 120Hz.
I guess to answer the question more correctly, 30 years ago being 1988, the high tech nerdy stuff was OS/2, windows 2 and MINIX, the roton, and the DC-x. Now we have spaceX doing this, but the first time is always the best. GPS is about the last truely innovative technology that I can recall
Slow Motion of an AK-47 Underwater
I'm still waiting for a 'tech product' that isn't a rehash of some older tech product...from anyone. IM is something I used in the 80's, 30+ years ago, and that's ignoring the phone.
Hedy Lamarr developed radio guidance systems.
Gwynne Shotwell is president of SpaceX. And while she is a leader at a tech company, of all the companies that I've worked for and presidents I've known, none were what I would consider tech leaders. That title would more appropriately go to someone like Tom Mueller.