I'm not into the medical field, but while in university doing engineering one of my group members put our model against a big sanding machine thereby pretty much evaporating it within 2 seconds. The only think I thought was oh shit those people get medical degrees, too. If I ever get sick I'm screwed.

Thought about faraday, too. It looks cool, but it reminds me of another device that is small already and existed since the dawn of the cold war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosively_pumped_flux_compression_generator

Darn, I knew I shouldn't trust wiki!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan

turkey 0.24 [g/100 g of food]
milk 0.08 [g/100 g of food]

How I read it. Long life. No sex.

*eat banana and 4 eggs at same time*

There's no value added. It's like saying it's true because it's true and it's true because it's not false.

The computer should be able to change its program based on a previous result. That's what "if then else" is all about. The antikythera can not do that.

I forgot to say that a jump was referred to as backing or advancing the punched cards. This could be either unconditional as conditional. Conditional jumping is a way for the machine to "change its program".

I agree. It's an orrery. It's not something we would call a computer today, however amazing it is. Babbage's Difference Engine wasn't a computer in that sense too. The Difference Engine is more like an ALU. Today, two Difference Engines are in existance, one is in the science museum in London, the other one will be shipped to some MicroSoft billionaire anytime soon. The machine is about GBP 1 million. Babbage's Analytical Engine, however, that's what we would call a computer today. A real nice box of tricks. The Analytical Engine was somewhat bigger and somewhat more complex. For example, the difference engine is an adding machine. This in itself is enough to make a computer out of, but the AE also had dedicated mechanisms to multiply and divide 50 digit decimal numbers in about 3 minutes upon request of a punched card. Babbage also got rid of the ripple carry we all learn about in elementary school and created something that could add the same 50 digit numbers in 2 steps (adding all numbers, then adding all carries at once by linking 9's next to each other mechanically). I've no idea what it would cost to make it today. It was also never finished, but part of the ALU has been built by Babbage (and later his son did some work too). Babbage called the ALU the mill and the memory the store, concepts that were taken from the weaving industry. He also used somthing similar to the Jacquard loom to read the punched cards.

It is not what you can do, it is what people thing you can do. Make a lot of noise while working. Walk around a lot. Laugh really hard about other people's jokes. And you're job secure until you retire.

According to the Wolfram Alpha agreement all that is on the internet now belongs to Wolfram Research.

Whoah! Free materials! *sits patiently at bottom of Great Basin National Park mountain with extra large set of Allen keys*

It may take a few days of patent search (not really fun to do, but ok), to find that your ideas have all been patented 100+ years ago already. And thus being in the public domain. Problem solved.

I don't care. As long as the TV commercials keep showing chimneys with colorful flowers coming out and lovely bunnies next to it and all to keep my conscious from nagging me.

Edison created something that could actually be used. That is including the electrical grid, switches, powermeters, bulb fitting and so on that was all needed to make the bulb glow. All this stuff didn't really exist back then. And a lot of new inventions that came out of that were indeed patented.

I think the patent system is put to good use in this case. If it were for Swan or some other introvert nerd, we would still be reading by candlelight.

Open 40 MB harddisk
Carefully take out read/write head
File off some material off said read/write head
Carefully insert read/write head
Close 1 TB harddisk
Profit

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March 9, 2009

Wolfram Alpha
c/o Wolfram Research, Inc.
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Dear Wolfram Alpha:

I have a question and I am writing to you for help. My question is about bones. More specifically, about human bones. My question is what is the number of bones in the human body?

I look forward to your reply.

Yours Faithfully,

Tsjaikdus

Enclosure: Question