53Kb of Memory

Science historian George Dyson, has a typically insightful piece on the fundamental nature of the internet.  Titled "A Universe of Self-replicating code," he draws parallels between the Big Bang birth of of the universe and the birth of the internet.
Definitely a worthy ready, but the quote that sticks in my mind:

One number that's interesting, and easy to remember, was in the year 1953, there were 53 kilobytes of high-speed memory on planet earth.

In George Dyson's book Turing's Cathedral, the fact is repeated with a reference:

In March of 1953, there were 53 kilobytes of high-speed random access memory on planet Earth.

The reference points to  a book by the US Office of Naval Research: A Survey of Automatic Digital Computers.


update:
After trying to find an online version of A Survey of Automatic Digital Computers, I came across this blog entry (by the author of Geek Atlas) which refutes the claim.

"Error Correction is the Beginning of Infinity"

Reading The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch and came across this thought provoking quote.  The author is comparing analog and digital computers and is explaining that analog computers could never be the universal machines that digital computers have become.
 
Analog computers represent information as continuous values (think slide rule), while digital computers represent information as discrete values (think calculator).  During calculations with analog computers, external factors (such as thermal fluctuations, electrical noise, etc) can lead to the accumulation of errors, limiting the use of an analog computer.  Error correction in digital computers ensures the integrity of information throughout the calculation.  Because of this, digital computers can be used for universal computation, therefore, this represents (among other examples in the book) the beginning of infinity.

Calendar simplicity = Calendar beauty

French design company has a simple way to track days of the month: Monthly Measure.  Something about the simplicity makes this appealing:

A wooden rule with 31 'day' notches and a metal cog with the days of the week (one side English, one side French). 

Talk Talk Book

One of the most under rated bands of all times, Talk Talk (and the Wikipedia entry for the band), also had some of the best album art work ever.  James Marsh is working on a book, The Spririt of Talk Talk which will include some of his awesome artwork along with some photos and handwritten lyrics from Mark Hollis.  Can't wait...supposed to be published this spring.







In the meantime, enjoy one of the more obscure songs from the band:

The artwork for this video is called "Kill Not the Goose."

Doomsday dashboard

National Geographic has aninteresting dashboard: they are mining Twitter to determine what people think will be our ultimate demise.

Online Circuit Design

Something to check out when I get a free minute: an online circuit design studio for building and sharing (simple) schematics.  Check out CircuitLab