Grace Hopper on Letterman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ0g5_NgRao
What a great video. Made my day!
Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
11–20 of 38 posts
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#12That first paragraph was as good as unreadable thanks to all the miles, gallons and Fahrenheits. 11.8 inch ... times about 2.5 is umm wait it's a link, maybe if I hover it, no they didn't put metric in the title tags either. "In one millisecond, light travels 186 miles", which is about the same distance as a million squirrels put head-to-toe. Why not measure in squirrels? It makes about the same amount of sense, exce…
It's disappointing that they didn't also include metric; or do metric first with Imperial for the US and Burmese audience.
The distance travelled by light in 1 ns, = 299.792458 mm (11.803~ in).
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#13If you're unfamiliar with Grace Hopper, her wikipedia article is a great read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper The fact that she wrote the first compiler is extremely impressive, but she also found the first bug... -- a moth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:H96566k.jpg
'The famous quotation "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission" (EAFP) is often attributed to Grace Hopper.'
This quote makes much more sense when attributed to her.
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#14If you're unfamiliar with Grace Hopper, her wikipedia article is a great read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper The fact that she wrote the first compiler is extremely impressive, but she also found the first bug... -- a moth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:H96566k.jpg
She was also inspiration for one of my favorite SMBCs:
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#15On a tangential note, here's something useful for back of the envelope calculations: a billion seconds is \pi centuries.
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#16On a tangential note, here's something useful for back of the envelope calculations: a billion seconds is \pi centuries.
No, 1 billion seconds would be (around) π decades...
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#17On a tangential note, here's something useful for back of the envelope calculations: a billion seconds is \pi centuries.
No, 1 billion seconds would be (around) π decades ...
Oops, you're right, I got the \pi in the wrong side of the equation!
Evidently this is called Duff's Rule (http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/07/01/three-rules-of-thum...).
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#18That first paragraph was as good as unreadable thanks to all the miles, gallons and Fahrenheits. 11.8 inch ... times about 2.5 is umm wait it's a link, maybe if I hover it, no they didn't put metric in the title tags either. "In one millisecond, light travels 186 miles", which is about the same distance as a million squirrels put head-to-toe. Why not measure in squirrels? It makes about the same amount of sense, exce…
186 miles is 11,784,960 inches, and an Eastern Gray Squirrel is 9-12 inches.
I'm impressed, did you actually make the calculation first?
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#19Grace Hopper on Letterman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ0g5_NgRao
Love it! Watching the video on You Tube I noticed other videos on the side including Lady Gaga on Letterman. Couldn't help but think Grace Hopper is the kind of person who should be famous and a role model. Instead its people like Lady Gaga.
Re: Grace Hopper on nanoseconds
#20That first paragraph was as good as unreadable thanks to all the miles, gallons and Fahrenheits. 11.8 inch ... times about 2.5 is umm wait it's a link, maybe if I hover it, no they didn't put metric in the title tags either. "In one millisecond, light travels 186 miles", which is about the same distance as a million squirrels put head-to-toe. Why not measure in squirrels? It makes about the same amount of sense, exce…
I don't endorse inches as a measure, but they are pretty intuitive. Maybe it's because the swedish word for inch is "tum", which means "thumb". And it happens to be 1.25 inches from the top of my thumb to the first joint.
Metric units aren't any less intuitive when you are used to them.