Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIRC, it's automatic.
How do they do it? Prune "By X" every time? Or is there a more sophisticated system?
[deleted]
Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]
21–28 of 28 posts
Re: Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]
#22Is there a program that can take a LaTeX file and create a PDF that looks like a scanned type-written paper from 1964 ;)
Re: Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]
#23Hey, HN Admins, is it really necessary to micro-manage the titles?! I had “by John McCarthy” (which is highly relevant, and in the next line in the doc)! It’s just a bit prissy to have to have the titles your favorite way all the time. Please stop it, and if you need to micromanage peoples posts, you should be working for Wikipedia. Yeah, yeah, I know ... OFF TOPIC!
I know it feels like prissy micromanaging when your title is changed, but what you're really asking here is for us not to do our job. Having titles be neutral and (to use pg's original word) bookish is one of HN's key features and a far bigger deal than it might seem. If we didn't maintain that, HN would go to seed.
There are important principles behind everything we do with titles. In this case the principle is that HN works better when the focus is on content over personalities, so we edit out most author names and/or celebrity names in titles. This has been consistent for a long time:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7518157
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7668408
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7950730
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9671822
Re: Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]
#24Hey, HN Admins, is it really necessary to micro-manage the titles?! I had “by John McCarthy” (which is highly relevant, and in the next line in the doc)! It’s just a bit prissy to have to have the titles your favorite way all the time. Please stop it, and if you need to micromanage peoples posts, you should be working for Wikipedia. Yeah, yeah, I know ... OFF TOPIC!
I know it feels like prissy micromanaging when your title is changed, but what you're really asking here is for us not to do our job. Having titles be neutral and (to use pg's original word) bookish is one of HN's key features and a far bigger deal than it might seem. If we didn't maintain that, HN would go to seed. There are important principles behind everything we do with titles. In this case the principle is that…
Yes, fine, but most of the point of this particular post was that it was John McCarthy, who is the father of Lisp. Otherwise, as someone said, it's just old flaming about mars landers. Moreover, if you take all personality out of science, you're doing science a disservice.
Re: Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]
#25I'm surprised he recommended a time interrupt of around 1000 Hz, for a machine with microsecond memory cycle times.
Re: Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]
#26Viking 1 landed on Mars only 12 years later. Interesting that a paper about exploring the possibility of a computerized machine on Mars is written a scant 12 years before an actual landing of a fairly complex lander. Life between, say, 1960 and 1980 must have felt at a breakneck pace.
Viking 1 lander's abilities:
Re: Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]
#27Hey, HN Admins, is it really necessary to micro-manage the titles?! I had “by John McCarthy” (which is highly relevant, and in the next line in the doc)! It’s just a bit prissy to have to have the titles your favorite way all the time. Please stop it, and if you need to micromanage peoples posts, you should be working for Wikipedia. Yeah, yeah, I know ... OFF TOPIC!
Oh, I wouldn't have opened the link if it wasn't for the John McCarthy mention.
Indeed; I read this specifically because I was curious specifically what MacCarthy's requirements or specifications would have been for such a thing, back in 1964. I.e. the young MacCarthy take on the problem and how it reveals his thinking about such a thing.
What it reveals is that he had a very firm grasp on advanced computer and operating system architecture. He describes the requirements for an interrupt-driven concurrent system which has two levels of protection: a user and executive mode. Moreover, he recommends a small, well-debugged kernel be used, architected in such a way that errors in other pieces such as peripheral drivers, are recoverable. It's almost as if he's hinting at a micro-kernel architecture.
Re: Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Made me wonder if Beagle 2 was in fact inspired by that robotic thing from 1964...
I saw a TV programme about this last week, it was named after Charles Darwin’s ship - H.M.S. Beagle. A bit of interesting reading here http://www.beagle2.com/author/beagle2/
Yes, I know, but I mean maybe there was a hidden meaning to it.