Comments by "Paul Frederick" (@1pcfred) on "A History of NASA's Supercomputers" video.

  1. I know we all have our struggles but even if you suffer from ADD just try harder to pay attention.
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  2. Guts is what put men on the Moon. The LEM's skin was only as thick as an aluminum TV dinner tray. You could poke through it with your finger. You couldn't get me into one of those at gunpoint. I'd insist you shot me on the spot. I don't do sheer terror too good really.
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  3. They had little old ladies winding core memory modules. They were good at needlepoint. True story! Core memory were these little donuts that had to have wire wrapped around them. I think which way you wrapped made it either a one or a zero?
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  4. That's to wake you up. Sometimes I'll fall asleep watching a video and then I have to watch it again. If I have to watch one 3 times I know it's time to go to bed.
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  5. I'll see your low volume and raise you a powerful amplifier.
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  6. Be grateful to Microsoft and their draconian licensing. They wanted people to buy a license for every core they ran. When you have thousands of cores that gets a bit pricey. So they started using Linux instead and the rest is as they say, history.
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  7.  @gregcampwriter  I'm grateful to Microsoft. I use their web font pack. I love me some Tacoma fonts. They keep some real yo-yos from running Linux too. But yeah there's a dark side to the evil from Redmond also I suppose. They're better than Apple at least. Even Apple gave us CUPS though. There truly is a bright side to everything.
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  8. The government invests to create new markets. That's the plan all along. They know it takes a big hulking gorilla to get the ball rolling. But once some inertia is developed then the pipsqueaks can take over.
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  9. Core licensing fees is what made Linux dominant in supercomputing. Then all the development from supercomputers made Linux excel on all SMP applications. Least that's what Linus has said.
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  10. 8 million back then would be like 62 million today. Today's supercomputers cost far more than that though. The estimated cost for the fastest supercomputer now is 600 million so it'll probably cost more than double that before it is finished. Just how those kinds of jobs go.
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  11. It sounded OK here through my 370 Watt 5.1 digital surround sound system. I didn't even have to turn it up any.
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  12. back then machines were slower so you needed a place to sit while the hourglass spun.
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