Posted by jpluimers on 2018/04/03
From the 1980s: GCS Pascal compiler for 68000 firmware development [WayBack] http://www.wirfs-brock.com/allen/files/tek/gcsPascal.pdf article by Allen Wirfs-Brock and Paul L. McCuiiough both working for Tektronix back then (note the company still exists after all these years).
via: [WayBack] A PASCAL COMPILER FOR MOTOROLA 68000 FIRMWARE DEVELOPMENT – Pascal is a computer programming language known for itsunique combination of simplicity, pow… – Kyle Miller – Google+
–jeroen
Posted in 68k, Development, History, Pascal, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2018/04/02
On the very early adoption of the spacing in the typography:
Ooit wel eens stilgestaan bij het iets te grote gat tussen de woorden Heineken en Brouwerij op de Stadhouderskade? Of waarom de belettering op bruggen in de stad zo ‘Amsterdams’ aandoet? Waarschijnlijk niet. Typograaf Bas Jacobs deed dat wel. Zijn ontdekkingen bundelde hij in een speciale toeristengids.
A small book (just EUR 15) tells you more about his Amsterdam findings: Safari Typo Amsterdam
Source: [WayBack] Waar komt Heineken spatie Brouwerij eigenlijk vandaan? – AT5: de nieuwszender van Amsterdam en omgeving
–jeroen
Posted in Font, History, Typography | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2018/04/01
Long read: [WayBack] Exclusive: The Silicon Valley quest to preserve Stephen Hawking’s voice – San Francisco Chronicle
Eric Dorsey, a 62-year-old engineer in Palo Alto, was watching TV Tuesday night when he started getting texts that Stephen Hawking had died. He turned on the news and saw clips of the famed physicist speaking in his iconic android voice – the voice that Dorsey had spent so much time as a young man helping to create, and then, much later, to save from destruction. Dorsey and Hawking had first met nearly 30 years earlier to the day. In March 1988, Hawking was visiting UC Berkeley during a three-week lecture tour. At 46, Hawking was already famous for his discoveries about quantum physics and black holes, but not as famous as he was about to be.
Via: [WayBack] Steven Hawkings last voice was a Pi. – Tim Rowledge – Google+
–jeroen
Posted in History, Power User, science | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2018/03/24
[WayBack] 23 Things Only 90s Sysadmins will Remember – DiscoPosse.com.
Much more for me:
–jeroen
via:
Posted in History | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2018/03/18
Wow: [WayBack] Wolfgang Rupprecht – Google+:
Dennis H. Klatt 1938 – 1988
I knew him at MIT. He was my undergraduate thesis advisor and was a kind and gentle person. When I knew him around 1980 he was about to build the prototype for the first Klatt Talker as it was called then. He had speech samples generated by running his mathematical model of the vocal tract on a large mainframe, but no way to generate speech in real time. I remember being quite happy years later when I heard he had convinced DEC to produce it. The local Boston radio stations would sometimes use it on air when they were goofing around. The initial voice (and the only voice early on) had a bug that made it sound like a Mexican accent to most people. It wasn’t intentional and was a bit of a surprise that a vocal tract modeled from first principles would sound that way. Going with that observation and figuring it was best to advertise bugs as features, the voice was often called “Carlos”. I didn’t realize that Hawking’s voice was also based on the Klatt models (and Klatt’s own voice at that!)
Poking around Google to see what else Google had on him dredged up one more interesting tidbit. There was a character in a TV cartoon called Deeklatt that used his voice. I wonder how many people realize that Deeklatt was a play on D. Klatt. Dennis, we should all be so lucky as to leave a legacy like yours.
–jeroen
Posted in History, LifeHacker, science | 1 Comment »
