Mid 1950's a German man Ralph Bauer, was working on a radar project. In his spare time he came up with TV screen circuitry which allowed you to move a small dot around the screen. Developed it into a simple game where 2 people chased their dots around screen, but sold less than 100,000 copies. But he got a patent for "generating and manipulating symbols on TV screen for playing games" which earned him a fortune in royalties until patent ran out in 1990. Sex Bombs and Burgers: How War, Porn and Fast Food Created Technology As We Know It

Google has "real time" display in main reception that shows terms people are searching for. The query scroll is carefully screened for offensive terms. Early on, Larry insisted on the removal of the filter, over the objections of engineer who designed it. The two dozen people who worked for Google at that time watched the raw data feed in shock as a large percentage of the terms were pornographic. "Ohmigod. That's what people are using Google for?" After 15 minutes, Larry told them to put the filter back up. I'm Feeling Lucky

QUOTATIONS

To err is human. To really foul things up, you need a computer

Computers are like Old Testament Gods - lots of rules and no mercy.

More Quotes about Computers

ANECDOTES

A bank sent out letters to some of it's high-value clients, but managed to omit one vital step in it's search-and-replace sequence on the word processing. So all 10,000 letters started out "Dear Rich Bastard ....".

For first time in history can combine the smartest people on the planet - Crowdsouce, X prizes etc
Search for Steve Fossett initiated by Richard Branson who got satellite companies to donate maps - Amazon co Mechanical Turk distrib small segments of map to 150000 volunteers each 7 sq ml exam by 10 people - if majority agreed something, Coastguard sent helicopter - didn't find Fossett but did discover 7 other previously unknown historical plane wrecks.

Authors of disclaimers enjoy almost total creative freedom because no one reads them - quite a few state that reading their page means that your soul now belongs to various deities and satanic creatures.

Awkwardfamilyphotos.com pic of guy who'd set timer on camera then race over to join in the group photo but over-balanced into fountain: all saw were legs disappearing over rails.

8 yo tutoring other players (at $25 an hour) to play Halo2 - mainly on skills of manoeuvring the ninja characters.

More Anecdotes about Computers

ARTICLES

Porn sites make most of their money by installing malware for spam operators. How Free Porn Makes Money

Live forever? The Singularity

More Articles on Computers

BOOKS

3D avatars will revolutionise business meetings Infinite Reality

Main choice of escape is into alternate worlds - video games or TV. This is a strange way for an animal to choose to spend time - it wd make more sense to build things or learn things, or teach yr kids things, or build relationships etc. Instead, even 2 yos pretend to be lions, teens play vid games and adults escape into movies or porn. How Pleasure Works

Shanzai (Improved knockoffs), DRM always fails, geoblocking. 64 Things You Need To Know Now For Then

Why video games matter - they are Extra Lives

Bill Gates and the 10,000 hour rule. Outliers

reCaptcha box serves a greater purpose. Brain Trust

Neuroscientists have also begun giving SenseCams - neck-worn cameras that automatically take a picture every 30 seconds, originally developed by 'lifeloggers' to record their existences - to people suffering from Alzheimer's. Patients who were encouraged to review their daily visual log experienced a dramatic improvement in their ability to retain memories. Smarter Than You Think

More Books about Computers

OPINIONS - FORUMS AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Avatars, chatbots, misunderstanding, racism, policing abuse, torrents, trusting Google, GIF or Jif, Ashley Madison hack, Sims, Wikipedia ...

Computers Letters

SONGS

Songs - the poetry of modern life

I fidget with the digit dots and cry an anxious tear
As the XU-1 connects the spot
But the matrix grid don't care
Get a message to my mother
What number would she be
There's a million angry citizens
Looking down their tubes at me

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POEMS

Computer haiku

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone

More Computer Poetry

LIMERICKS

A programming genius called HEAP
Had trouble in getting to sleep
So he made his lambs troup
through a huge FOR-NEXT loop
FOR 1 TO 10000: NEXT sheep.

More Computer Limericks