Journal entries in 'Random Crap I Found On The Internet' for June, 2005

Today I discovered the slides for an interesting talk given back in 1997 by Nathan Myhrvold (CTO of Microsoft at the time) titled "The Next Fifty Years of Software". He makes some intriguing assertions, such as "Nathan's First Law of Software:" Software is a gas, that expands to fill its container. This in turn drives hardware development, and is what makes Moore's Law possible.

The part I really liked, though, was where he starts talking about the storage requirements of the human genome, etc. For example, the stuff that makes you genetically unique fits on a 3.5" floppy disk.

From there he proceeds to discuss the "ultimate computer," the human brain. He brings up something I've pondered as well: once computers reach a complexity comparable to the human brain, will it even be possible to program them directly as we do modern computers? Or will we have to devote time to teaching them, like we do with people? As he says, human takes 20 years to boot up.

Searching eBay for the string "NTSA" apparently turns up all the forbidden stuff confiscated from air travellers by the TSA at airports; mostly pocket knives and scissors. Interesting that this is how they get rid of it.

So, is it true that one can survive on Guinness alone? Now we know for sure. I won't ruin the ending. Read bottom to top to preserve the suspense, or just read the two topmost posts if you're that kind of person. Is it troubling that, reading his graphic descriptions of the debilitating hunger he suffered while forcing down another Guinness, all I felt was an insidiously growing longing for a pint? :)