Links for October 26, 2016
Restoring the first recording of computer music
‘I sat in front of this enormous machine’, Strachey said, ‘with four or five rows of twenty switches and things, in a room that felt like the control room of a battle-ship.’ It was the first of a lifetime of all-night programming sessions. In the morning, to onlookers’ astonishment the computer raucously hooted out the National Anthem. Turing, his usual monosyllabic self, said enthusiastically ‘Good show’. Strachey could hardly have thought of a better way to get attention: a few weeks later he received a letter offering him a job at the computing lab.
Sunergy [Documentary] – music by Suzanne Ciani and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
English man spends 11 hours trying to make cup of tea with Wi-Fi kettle
All Mark Rittman wanted was a cup of tea. Little did he know he would have to spend 11 hours waiting for his new hi-tech kettle to boil the water. Rittman, a data specialist who lives in Hove, England, set about trying to make a cup of tea around 9am. But thanks to his Wi-Fi enabled kettle it wasn’t long before he ran into trouble.