Last week, techies at the code-sharing site GitHub received a treat when former NASA intern Chris Garry uploaded the source code for the Apollo 11 Guidance Computer, reports Keith Collins at Quartz. The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was installed on board and served the lunar module that eventually reached the moon in July, 1969.
The source code was written by the MIT Instrumentation Lab with input from computer engineering pioneer Margaret Hamilton. And soon after the data was posted, the internet went to town dissecting every line. Collins reports that the code is written in an assembly program language that is gobbledygook to many programmers today. But the Apollo engineer’s comments within the code, which explain what each section does, are a time capsule of 60s geek culture.
I have no hope of understanding or reading the code but I think it’s hilarious it’s full of jokes and puns.
I asked Apple developers and educators around the UK what they thought of Swift Playgrounds for iPad. None yet had time to try it out in depth, so we were looking at the big picture of what it promised and to whom.
The general consensus was that, as a child-oriented environment for learning programming within a student/teacher setup (which is how Apple is marketing it), Playgrounds is an impressively committed innovation with real potential. Clare Sutcliffe, co-founder of Code Club and executive director at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, welcomed Apple’s “aim of helping children to learn more about coding and digital making.” She was “excited to see what Swift Playgrounds has to offer.”
You knew, as soon as Playgrounds was announced, the comparisons to Hypercard would come. I don’t think Apple set out to create a successor to Hypercard but for them, anything that gets kids interested in coding is good and will have benefits years down the road.
Standard CSS color keywords are limited to 149 named shades; the hexadecimal (or “hex”) color method has access to the full RGB gamut. The key to learning hex is understanding the hexadecimal counting system.
It’s not a big surprise to me that Apple ranked highest in the Smartwatch category, but I am surprised that it didn’t even place in the Fitness Band category, which Samsung won.
Update: Apparently Apple wasn’t included in the in the Fitness Band category, although it looked to me like it was.
One thing I love about Universal Audio’s plug-ins is their incredible attention to detail. They are able to emulate everything from the original, making them the best plug-in maker on the market.
I think Amazon has a great brand and provides a wonderful service for its customers, but allowing, or worse yet, encouraging, Chinese knockoffs is a terrible way to do business.
Forbes reports that Swift pulled in $170 million over the past year, thanks especially to her behemoth 1989 World Tour, which beat out acts like Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, and the Rolling Stones to become the highest-grossing North American tour ever on its way to grossing about $250 million in ticket sales worldwide.
Prisma transforms your photos into artworks using the styles of famous artists: Van Gogh, Picasso, Levitan, as well as world famous ornaments and patterns. A unique combination of neural networks and artificial intelligence helps you turn memorable moments into timeless art.
This is one of those little apps I love. It doesn’t work for every photo but it’s an app I’ll often use when waiting in line or just “doodling” in my head. Sometimes, you can create amazing images out of the most ordinary photos.
Quick update – this seems to be inconsistent. It only seems to happen on iOS, but it doesn’t happen for everyone on iOS. If you fancy helping out join the conversation on Twitter!
I figured I’d post this because I don’t see anyone else talking about it and it bothers me. If you didn’t know, Pokemon Go is the latest in the long running series of games from Nintendo (although Go is actually made by a developer called Niantic). It’s also the first (I think) to run on your phone. Needless to say, it’s a huge hit. And it looks like a ton of fun – pretty much everyone I know is playing it.
But there’s a problem.
Another example of why I hate when services force you to use your Facebook or Google or even Apple information in order to log on. I try and keep all of that stuff separate. It can be a bit of a pain to keep track of and manage but for me, it increases my security and privacy just that little bit more. Thanks very much to David Chartier For the link.
UPDATE: Use this link to revoke permissions for various apps on your Google account.
It’s not just on installs where Pokémon GO is killing it, on app engagement as well, the app’s usage has been unbelievably high. Over 60% of those who have downloaded the app in the US are using it daily, meaning around 3% of the entire US Android population are users of the app. This metric, which we refer to as Daily Active Users has put Pokémon GO neck and neck with Twitter, and in a few more days, Pokémon GO will likely have more users Daily Active Users than the well-established social network.
Tesla Motors Inc CEO Elon Musk on Sunday tweeted his intention to soon publish part two of his “top secret Tesla masterplan” following an embattled several weeks for the Silicon Valley heavyweight.
Musk has hinted at major announcement on Twitter in the past, so this is very interesting. The big question is will it be something new, or will it have to do with the autopilot kerfuffle.
On Tuesday, July 12, the second-annual Prime Day will feature more than 100,000 deals worldwide exclusively for Prime members, making it the biggest Amazon event ever. New and existing members in U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, and Austria, will find deals across nearly all departments and categories, ensuring there will be something for everyone. Members in the U.S. can shop starting at midnight PT, with new deals as often as every five minutes throughout the day. To participate in Prime Day, sign-up or start a free trial of Prime on or before July 12 by visiting amazon.com/primeday.
And:
“Prime Day is a unique opportunity to discover new items and great deals, on top of our already low prices. Following last year’s record sales, we have dramatically increased the inventory behind many deals. In fact, in the U.S. we have nearly double the TV units compared to Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President Amazon Prime. “Even with this massive selection we know many of the Prime Day offers will sell out, so members should download the Amazon shopping app to receive notifications on their favorite deals.”
Amazon’s attempt to bridge the winter shopping frenzy back to the middle of summer.
You are watching exclusive LIVE footage from Alaska’s Brooks River in Katmai National Park. Every year over a hundred Brown Bears descend on a mile long stretch of Brooks River to feast on the largest Sockeye Salmon run in the world.
If you have kids, you have got to show them this really cool live web cam.
For nearly 200 years Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec, essentially functioned as one town. Citizens drank the same water, worked in the same tool factory, played the same sports (primarily curling), fought in the same world wars, and were born in the same hospital in nearby Newport, Vermont. They also shared the same cultural center, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, an ornate Victorian edifice built deliberately on top of the international border in 1901 by the Canadian wife of a wealthy American merchant.
Today, it is the only library in the world that exists and operates in two countries at once.
One of many fascinating stories about life along the Canada-US border. I live only a few miles from it and often see the border obelisks along the road, reminding me that our two countries are close in many ways.
My brothers and I were always fascinated by spinning things. We’d have competitions to find things to spin and see which ones would spin the longest. The cat hated that game.
“I realized then I could code on the computer to have it fulfill the tasks I wanted it to,” says Apple engineer Jordyn Castor, whose current work focuses on enhancing features like VoiceOver for blind Apple users. “I came to realize that with my knowledge of computers and technology, I could help change the world for people with disabilities.
“I could help make technology more accessible for blind users.”
There’s a lot more to be done but Apple is a leader in making its technology accessible to people with disabilities.
Edwin Griffioen, Heineken’s Supply Development Manager for Global Innovation, explained how it will work.- Because the air pressure is so much lower in an aeroplane than at sea level, a traditional beer tap will not work as it will only dispense a huge amount of foam. His team went to work, and thankfully for beer lovers everywhere, but especially in the sky, they figured out a way to serve more than just foam.
Cliff Williams has played bass in AC/DC since 1977. By the time the group’s current tour wraps up in September, he’ll have logged nearly 40 years with the Australian rockers.
AC/DC has been through a lot this year: Malcolm had to retire due to dementia; Brian had severe hearing loss; and Phil had legal trouble. The only one left that wants to keep going at this point is Angus.
Take advantage of transcripts to quickly discover and share information presented in WWDC16 videos. You can search by keyword, see all instances where the keyword is mentioned in the video, go straight to the time it was mentioned, and even share a link to that specific time.
Apple will pay $25 million to settle a patent lawsuit with Network-1 Technologies’ subsidiary Mirror World Technologies and license its patents, the companies announced today. The patent (No. 6,006,227) dates back to 1999, covering a system that stores documents in a stream ordered chronologically, similar to Apple’s Cover Flow or Time Machine.
A group of 68 major corporations, including Apple, Cisco and eBay, have joined the legal effort to block a North Carolina law that targets the transgender community.
It’s already costing the state quite a bit economically. I have to think that’s going to get worse if big companies don’t want to do business there.
Samsung told The Associated Press that while the Active is meant to be one of the most rugged phones out there, “there may be an off-chance that a defective device is not as watertight as it should be.”
To enable you to do this we are starting to test the ability to create one-to-one secret conversations in Messenger that will be end-to-end encrypted and which can only be read on one device of the person you’re communicating with. That means the messages are intended just for you and the other person — not anyone else, including us.
Great move from Facebook, although I’m sure law enforcement won’t be too pleased.
The iPhone Photography Awards (IPPAWARDS) is proud to announce the winners of the 9th Annual Awards. This year’s winners were selected from thousands of entries submitted by iPhone photographers from 139 countries around the world.
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in 19 categories were awarded to photographers who represented countries around the world including Australia, Brazil, China, Chile, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Unsurprisingly, there are some beautiful images included. As I say to students in my photo classes, “What camera you use matters less than your ability to use it”. Congratulations to all the winners.
On 30 June 1908, an explosion ripped through the air above a remote forest in Siberia, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river.
The fireball is believed to have been 50-100m wide. It depleted 2,000 sq km of the taiga forest in the area, flattening about 80 million trees.
This “Tunguska event” remains the most powerful of its kind recorded in history – it produced about 185 times more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb (with some estimates coming in even higher). Seismic rumbles were even observed as far away as the UK.
And yet, over a hundred years later researchers are still asking questions about what exactly took place on that fateful day.
As a kid in Nova Scotia, I was fascinated by these explosions. I started off devouring information at the Halifax Public Library about the Halifax Explosion, moved on to Krakatoa and to the “Tunguska event”. No idea why these explosions fascinated me but I still read articles about them 40 years later.
