The summary is not quite correct: Colossus was not the first programmable computer. Cf. the table halfway down in the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer that shows the Z3 preceeding it by a few years.
This is not how DOE labs (like Los Alamos) operate, even after the recent shift to open contract bidding to for-profit corporations. There is no risk taking or injection of private funds by the subcontractor. DOE money pays 100% (or a little bit more) of the operations cost. DOE exercises oversight. DOE approves or disapproves individual projects. You might ask what the point of the whole subcontracting scheme for government-owned labs is. The original motivation might have been to somewhat isolate the research work from too much political influence, and/or maybe greater flexibility to accomodate shifting preferences, via hiring and firing, or (gulp) even closing of labs.
Writing 'Researchers at the Max Planck Institute' is only slightly more specific than 'at the University'. There's a whole bunch of those institutes; this one is the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung. The group also has people from Juelich and several universities.
It's JPL, you moron. Viking, Mariner, Voyager, Cassini etc. etc.: pretty much everything that's worth anything in (US) space exploration has come from JPL. Now go back to your cave.
Cognitive dissonance (not dissidence). Interesting point though. I'm not sure people here are that much more religious or superstitious than elsewhere. Are they?
Slashdot Mirror
The summary is not quite correct: Colossus was not the first programmable computer. Cf. the table halfway down in the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer that shows the Z3 preceeding it by a few years.
It seems the article is now slashdotted, but it's still in the google cache.
This is not how DOE labs (like Los Alamos) operate, even after the recent shift to open contract bidding to for-profit corporations. There is no risk taking or injection of private funds by the subcontractor. DOE money pays 100% (or a little bit more) of the operations cost. DOE exercises oversight. DOE approves or disapproves individual projects. You might ask what the point of the whole subcontracting scheme for government-owned labs is. The original motivation might have been to somewhat isolate the research work from too much political influence, and/or maybe greater flexibility to accomodate shifting preferences, via hiring and firing, or (gulp) even closing of labs.
The collider definitely falls on the experimental and not the theoretical side of high-energy physics.
Writing 'Researchers at the Max Planck Institute' is only slightly more specific than 'at the University'. There's a whole bunch of those institutes; this one is the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung. The group also has people from Juelich and several universities.
Oops, should have googled:p df
preprint apparently available at http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~kay/LeftBrainWhorf.
Too bad the article is on one of those annoying pay-per-view publishing sites.
It's JPL, you moron. Viking, Mariner, Voyager, Cassini etc. etc.: pretty much everything that's worth anything in (US) space exploration has come from JPL. Now go back to your cave.
mod parent up.
seems to be this approach to general purpose computing on a GPU.
Cognitive dissonance (not dissidence). Interesting point though. I'm not sure people here are that much more religious or superstitious than elsewhere. Are they?
Of course, that it's imaginable is the sad thing. Just wait until they come to tag you.
I think the difference is that you rarely set up your own cell phone network.