Search found 44 matches

by admin
Tue Jun 10, 2025 5:47 pm
Forum: Assorted topics
Topic: Frederick Forsyth dead at 86
Replies: 0
Views: 307

Frederick Forsyth dead at 86

English thriller writer ("The Odessa File", "The Dogs of War") Fredick Forsyth is dead at 86.. Associated Press item, archived: https://archive.is/FlEfa
...
by admin
Thu Mar 06, 2025 1:28 pm
Forum: Computer graphics and photography
Topic: Weird fractal (or Mandelbrot-like) images
Replies: 0
Views: 3864

Weird fractal (or Mandelbrot-like) images

Wow! Pretty spiffy. .. - Roman



https://www.deviantart.com/redsingularities/art/42fca47d-f0bb-457a-a270-be5a4398b46d-1165822941 [/color]

https://www.deviantart.com/redsingularities/art/C921a3fb-cab8-49f4-9296-4b301d16cf03-1165151592


The sci-fi movies of the future are going to be like H.R ...
by admin
Wed Dec 11, 2024 1:07 pm
Forum: Other Boards Section
Topic: Remember Seth Hamilton?
Replies: 1
Views: 18666

Re: Remember Seth Hamilton?

Aha... in late 2024 there were a few... mentions of RoboBOARD in "r/bbs" on Reddit.
by admin
Tue Dec 10, 2024 4:50 pm
Forum: Computers
Topic: Passing of Ward Christensen, bulletin board system pioneer
Replies: 0
Views: 6853

Passing of Ward Christensen, bulletin board system pioneer

The inventor of the computer bulletin board system ("BBS"), Ward Christensen , passed away in October.

Apparently friends had not heard from him and asked police to do a check. He was found dead in his home on Oct. 11th.

I read about Ward’s passing on Randy Cassingham's web pages . Cassingham ...
by admin
Mon Nov 18, 2024 11:33 am
Forum: Book club / reading list
Topic: ‘Orbital’ wins Booker prize
Replies: 0
Views: 9645

‘Orbital’ wins Booker prize

Wow, this sounds like the most-interesting item since Andy Weir’s The Martian.!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_(novel)
by admin
Wed Nov 13, 2024 3:40 pm
Forum: California Dreaming
Topic: California wildfires
Replies: 2
Views: 14571

Re: California wildfires

Almost unbelievably, the “Mountain” fire in Ventura County has been burning mostly out of control, NE of Los Angeles. Again this would be the first two weeks of November 2024 approx.
by admin
Mon Jun 10, 2024 12:38 am
Forum: Book club / reading list
Topic: The Black Box Project
Replies: 0
Views: 4574

The Black Box Project

On the heels of Dana Mattioli's The Everything War I recently had a look at The Black Box Project by Frank Pasquale. Woah!
by admin
Thu May 02, 2024 11:58 pm
Forum: Computers
Topic: History of USENET
Replies: 0
Views: 3998

History of USENET

Wow! Over the BBS years I have found this to be an elusive topic. The issue being discussed now is the origin(s) of the word cisgender which is a sort of corollary to "transgender"

https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/may-2017/tracing-terminology-researching ...
by admin
Sun Mar 10, 2024 2:45 pm
Forum: Politics
Topic: Steele dossier
Replies: 0
Views: 10209

Steele dossier

Wow, the Christopher Steele story still had legs in early March!

Tr--p kept saying "there was no collusion, no collusion" with the former Soviet Union but quite separately he sued the company of the former M16 officer.

A British court dismissed the lawsuit, with costs to Steele's group!!
by admin
Sun Feb 18, 2024 8:06 pm
Forum: Book club / reading list
Topic: What's on your reading list?
Replies: 1
Views: 18762

Re: What's on your reading list?

I haven't finished "Teardown", but I did read "109 East Palace" which is based a memoir of Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project in New Mexico.

I also picked up a memoir called "Dead On Time" by Jean Claude Guiet who was a junior OSS operative in WW2. Pretty good! Especially interesting were the ...
by admin
Mon Jul 03, 2023 9:52 pm
Forum: California Dreaming
Topic: California wildfires
Replies: 2
Views: 14571

Re: California wildfires

Summer 2023 and the grayed-out skies in TORONTO and the eastern U.S. - what a difference a few years makes. Straight out of Cormac McCarthy and "The Road".

I actually had a dear friend pass away, in California and asthma/the wildfires were a factor in her death.
by admin
Wed Feb 22, 2023 7:47 pm
Forum: Book club / reading list
Topic: The Ugly Truth about Facebook
Replies: 0
Views: 17978

The Ugly Truth about Facebook

The Ugly Truth by Sheera Fenkel and Cecilia Kang. Scary! Reviewed a couple of years ago in the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/books/review/the-ugly-truth-sheera-frenkel-and-cecilia-kang.html
.
authors-frenkel-kang.jpg
.
See also Zucked by Roger McNamee. Woah! Author ...
by admin
Sun Feb 12, 2023 11:05 am
Forum: California Dreaming
Topic: Joshua Tree - item about a park ranger
Replies: 0
Views: 12597

Joshua Tree - item about a park ranger

Here's a nice item about Joshua Tree National Monument in southern California, that was shared on "Pocket" in late January 2023
by admin
Wed Feb 16, 2022 12:29 pm
Forum: Politics
Topic: V3 super-cannon in WW2
Replies: 0
Views: 15967

V3 super-cannon in WW2

Funny how the territorial disputes of the early 1900's eventually led to this stuff. Technology on the scale of the pyramids!

Like the original jet engine, it seems to be based, at least in part, on English research.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Sprenggranate4481.jpg ...
by admin
Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:00 pm
Forum: Assorted topics
Topic: (Aging society and death) excellent item about death doulas in TIME magazine
Replies: 0
Views: 15684

(Aging society and death) excellent item about death doulas in TIME magazine

I was very impressed with this item which was highlighted for me by "Pocket".

https://time.com/6128469/death-doulas-c ... ket-newtab

Roman Kowalczuk - SYSOP
by admin
Mon Aug 09, 2021 2:41 am
Forum: Computers
Topic: Oldest computer?
Replies: 1
Views: 10974

Re: Oldest computer?

I had never heard of this guy prior to the summer of 2021!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse
by admin
Sat May 29, 2021 3:18 pm
Forum: Book club / reading list
Topic: R.I.P. Eric Carle
Replies: 0
Views: 22527

R.I.P. Eric Carle

"As It Happens" had a poignant send-off for Eric Carle this week. The author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar apparently passed away in Massachusetts, where a number of authors of children's books live? The much-celebrated Carle was 91.

https://www.cbc.ca/aih
.
eric carle hungry caterpillar.jpg ...
by admin
Fri Apr 30, 2021 6:28 pm
Forum: Book club / reading list
Topic: "Forbidden Area"
Replies: 0
Views: 17557

"Forbidden Area"

Just finished Pat Frank's 1956 "Forbidden Area" . Woah, scary. Way ahead of its time! I thought it was better in many ways than "Red Alert" by Peter Bryant - which spawned the movies Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove

Quibbles: my copy from Google Books (in the Play Store) was badly scanned - technical ...
by admin
Fri Sep 18, 2020 9:33 pm
Forum: California Dreaming
Topic: California wildfires
Replies: 2
Views: 14571

California wildfires

The last few weeks saw tremendous damage from fires in California and further up the coast in the U.S. northwest.

I think I read somewhere that said the largest "forest" of Joshua Trees took a hit.
by admin
Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:35 am
Forum: Computer graphics and photography
Topic: Rare mention of 70mm as "a vanishing film format"
Replies: 0
Views: 13577

Rare mention of 70mm as "a vanishing film format"

You don't see too much about photo and film preservation in the mainstream media... this item from 2018 is about a guy who bumped into a film preservation executive in a lab, and from there he ended up working on archival copies of "2001: A Space Odyssey" to bring the film up to speed for an ...
by admin
Wed Oct 16, 2019 9:56 pm
Forum: Book club / reading list
Topic: "The Rock From Mars"
Replies: 1
Views: 16066

Re: "The Rock From Mars"

Minor update, mid-October 2019: I noticed that the rock from Mars was covered in several articles in the New York Times. However casual browsers will not see this material as only subscribers get to see the "Times Machine" digital archives.
by admin
Thu Aug 22, 2019 12:53 am
Forum: Computers
Topic: Oldest computer?
Replies: 1
Views: 10974

Oldest computer?

Wow, I came across this link while looking at web pages about British tech companies that were active in the early 1950's: English Electric and Marconi, that sort of thing.

This one has got to be a keeper! https://www.leo-computers.org.uk/reports.html

They also link to newer stuff like the ...
by admin
Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:06 pm
Forum: Book club / reading list
Topic: "The Rock From Mars"
Replies: 1
Views: 16066

"The Rock From Mars"

I'm currently reading "The Rock From Mars" by Kathy Sawyer. Wow. One of the guys involved was a senior geologist during NASA's Apollo program; he spent time with Neil Armstrong before the first moon landing, coaching Armstrong on what to pick up.

The book also touches on the problem of the lunar ...
by admin
Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:40 pm
Forum: Social justice issues
Topic: Marc: category links?
Replies: 3
Views: 25841

Re: Marc: category links?

Riiiighhht... and maybe the HTML could force a smaller font, like perhaps a " RELATED LINKS " sort of thing. So it would almost be like a little icon or sticky note.
by admin
Sun Jul 07, 2019 10:18 pm
Forum: Social justice issues
Topic: Marc: category links?
Replies: 3
Views: 25841

Marc: category links?

I wonder if a static page of related links, or a similar device, might make a good adjunct or accessory for each forum.

For example I believe I deleted the "Water issues" forum but then I came across URLs like Waterkeeper and The Thirst Project . The latter's logo needs work but anyway.