> He worked on the first generation of home computers and lead the design of the RiscOS operating system for the ARM processor, including inventing the apps and icon bar user interface that has since spread to phones and computers across the world
> Connections, Cosmos, Civilization, The Ascent of Man and Attenborough's Life on Earth
Civilization and The Ascent of Man were both commissioned by Attenborough - he had a major impact on the broadcast landscape well beyond natural history.
We watched all of The Ascent of Man in middle school. The only thing I remember is that when the narrator, Jacob Bronowski, gestured with the back of his hand (fingers up), he always tucked his middle finger behind his ring and index finger. I assume this was so that he wouldn't "give the finger" to the audience.
(I've been wasting neurons on this for fifty years...)
The article is a great read. Though it talks about OBEX, and how Bluetooth wiped out IrDA, but not that Bluetooth took OBEX straight out of the IrDA stack.
Not IRDA, but there was also IRTalk built into some of the Power Book series, allowing native AppleTalk to a diffuse IR access point. I really wanted to try that out but never had the opportunity.
I managed to have my first IRTalk experience for MARCHintosh this year. For fun I ended up setting up a "fully wireless" (battery-operated and wirelessly networked) ImageWriter II and let people online print to it https://bitbang.social/@kalleboo/116289415275901037
His 'Annotated Turing' (a reproduction of On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem, with explanation and walk-through) got me into CS vs. prior interest mainly in EE.
“Code” is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I don’t usually read 500 page books but this one flew. Even if you know most of what’s being discussed it’s such a delightful ride.
> Microsoft provides two frameworks for developing Windows applications: MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) and Win32. MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) is a Microsoft framework for developing Windows applications in the C++ programming language. Win32 is a collection of functions and data structures provided by Microsoft for the development of Windows applications. [0]
That's old info. Now there is also .NET Framework, .NET (Core), C++/WinRT and more. In the end all of them use either pure Win32 APIs or COM APIs including MFC.
I was surprised to see a post by Petzold on this subject. I know who he is. But I don’t think you owe an apology here. I think you made a thoughtful comment. A post like his should be critiqued for what it says, not for the author’s previous work. And, fortunately, other people could give context on the significant work he has done.
I'm familiar with the subject matter. I'm not familiar with the author.
I love classical music. I've been singing in a choir since I was 7, playing the piano since the same age, and compose music myself (https://youtu.be/7Tex-OUk6ZM). I’m actually on my way to church right now to sing some Howells.
I use Spotify every day
I use AI every day
I have enough familiarity with the subject to have an opinion and express it. I'm sorry that I haven't read the author's book.
I love classical music, and I am convinced that 90% of the reason people think they don't is because of people like the Charles Petzold. Deriving your self worth from being an enjoyer of art that someone else created is the high pretention.
Typically, fun memory they'd move to a secure connection for credit card input, but most of the site would be open HTTP - why secure what isn't confidential? Concerns about 3rd parties eavesdropping on the sites you visited weren't a big thing at the turn of the century.
> He worked on the first generation of home computers and lead the design of the RiscOS operating system for the ARM processor, including inventing the apps and icon bar user interface that has since spread to phones and computers across the world
reply