The first time an airplane was fully controlled by a computer:

The first photo from space was taken from a missile. After the photo was taken the camera plummeted back to Earth and was destroyed, as most things are after they plummet to the Earth.

Fred Rulli was a 19-year-old enlisted man assigned to the recovery team that drove into the desert to retrieve film from those early V-2 shots. When the scientists found the cassette in good shape, he recalls, “They were ecstatic, they were jumping up and down like kids.” Later, back at the launch site, “when they first projected [the photos] onto the screen, the scientists just went nuts.”

Read the rest here.

I recently read an article about what type of computer a college student should look at getting for this upcoming semester/year of college.

They relatively suggest the following:

Choose a desktop to save some cash

Choosing a processor based on brute computational capability for desktop, or choosing a processor based on efficient power consumption performance for a laptop

Not skimping on graphics (I agree, but then again, I’m using a GeForce3 that was purchased 4 years ago and it’s still performing with no complaints on my part). What the hell is actually available for graphics performance today?

Suggesting a minimum of 250 GB hard disk. Wow. I’m still good to go with my pair of 60 GB hard drives (120 GB total).

Suggesting 1-2 GB of RAM. I agree. More RAM is always better. Max our your particular systems motherboard to max RAM.

Big Screens, Big Resolution. YES. I love big screens and suggest that this be the first upgrade that any computer user gets. A large, quality monitor is one of the most important upgrades you can do to a system.

Wireless is need, not a luxury. True. Especially if you have a laptop.

Don’t get anything less than a DVD+/-RW drive. I remember a day when I was just happy to have a CD-R. I still am happy when I have a working CD-R drive. I’ve never needed a DVD drive. It would be nice for backup or file transfer, but that’s what huge external hard disks and jump drives are for.

Get Vista. I haven’t even put a thought towards using Vista. I can’t comment on this. Maybe it is good for media stuff. Either way, I use PC’s mainly for working or production, so Vista just seems a little to over-the-top for me. Plus I haven’t talked to anybody who has Vista that likes it. I guess I can’t comment on this one. I’m happy with XP, and it’s cheaper now.

Don’t forget to get a warranty. Definitely, get a warranty, especially on a laptop, cause you’ll probably drop it or sit on it at some point. Or maybe spill some sloppy food on it. Or whatever. If you build you’re own machine this isn’t an option.

I use computers professionally, and don’t have nearly this sweet of a system

I work using three computers that are superiorly DEFICIENT to the computers that this article suggests a college student will use.

I work as a web developer. I code web sites, use flash, and access servers through ftp all day long. I word process and send email all day long. I don’t need the type of computer that this article describes. It would be nice, yes, but necessary? The last time I built a machine was 4 years ago, it probably is time to re-build a new setup.

These specs are pretty standard as far as what is on the market, though

I do understand that probably a lot of these specs (200+ GB hard drive for example) are probably pretty standard. It’s getting tough to find a 40 GB drive anymore, let alone a 60 GB or 80 GB. And even then, it’s relatively cheap to spring for the 160 GB or 200 GB drive over the 80 GB.

Whatever happened to computer labs?

After reading the article, I got the feeling that today’s college students are doing the following:

• Storing thousands and thousands of photos or mp3’s on their computers
• Using resource sucking applications like AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite 3, or any number of other bloated production applications

I can’t help but think that if a student makes use of the colleges computer labs, that they would hardly need to have this powerful of a computer. It’s not like you are expected to buy a machine that can run all the production applications you may learn in college.

You’ll probably need your laptop most just to run word processing, browsing/researching the internet or listening to mp3’s. If you wanna watch DVD’s, get a DVD player from pawn shop for $20.

Too much I think

Overall, I think they are suggesting a little bit of a bloated system (and probably expensive) for college students. I wish I could use system, as suggested by this article, at work. I’d get way more shit done.

If you can afford what they are suggesting, go for it! That sounds like a sweet setup. I’m not faulting anybody for having a nice computer system as suggested by this article. I’m just thinking a lot of college students don’t have enough money to even upgrade their monitor alone, much less foot the bill for this sweet of a computer system.

I hope that the future of computer interaction is such a thing that takes us beyond mouse/keyboard/screen. In a way, it already is happening. I also believe that we will be stuck with keyboard/mouse/screen for a long time.

I am thinking of computers in the term of Personal Computers, PC’s, workstation machines. I’m not PC or Mac partial here, just trying to generalize personal computers as a whole.

A new type of commonly accepted interactivity?

I would like to soon see a new type of efficient interactivity that becomes widely accepted and accessible. Something like this, maybe?

Cell phones are mini computers.

Mp3 players are mini computers.

You use them without a typical keyboard or mouse. They are also not as powerful or as capable as a full-fledged personal computer. They might not be a good example in this case.

What I am looking forward to is a popular method of interacting with a personal computer that will ultimately be able to replace the mouse/keyboard. I don’t have the slightest idea what this may be or if it will ever happen.

This, of course, would be an extreme change from the way that people are currently accustomed to interacting with their computers. The keyboard/mouse combo is so widely accepted and embedded in the culture of computer use that it will probably never be fully replaced.

Mouse and keyboard, could they possibly be a legendary combo?

In some ways, the mouse keyboard combo may be the ultimate control combination for ease of use and minimal overall arm movement. You can input text and characters very rapidly, and you can interact with positions on the screen with pixel pinpoint accuracy. Moving the mouse pointer is as easy as flicking your wrist.

Watch any good pc gamer work their magic and you will see that he/she can interact with the screen, their character, and the environment around them in a real-time and frantic manner. In many cases the gamer isn’t even thinking of the control devices as they use them.

This is a sign of excellent interactive control.

Also, gaming aside, professional use of computers is perfectly handled through keyboard/mouse interactivity. Graphic artists, computer programmers, office administrators, network administrators and all other computer using professionals are able to get the job done efficiently and effectively with keyboard/mouse interaction.

This is a sign of excellent interactive control.

In the future there will probably be different and more interactive ways of using your computer rather than the keyboard and mouse, at least it would be interesting to see. Hollywood throws ideas out there all the time. In reality, touchscreen will probably be the next widely accepted interaction, and already is becoming so.

Touchscreen will not replace mouse/keyboard, it will enhance it.

So, mouse/keyboard remains. That is why I call the mouse/keyboard combination legendary.

Beyond touchscreen? Who knows.

Are holographic 3d images really the future?

I hope not. Why does every depiction of the future use of computers, at least the very far future of computers, depict holographic images as being all that great? What’s wrong with a flat screen for rendering imagery from your computer?

While we’re on this subject: I’d rather just talk to somebody over a phone style device than have to look at a flickering, transparent miniature version of them while talking to them.

Give me a bright, crisp and large computer monitor and I’ll be happy. It’s a great way to interface visually with a computer.

Random video to end this rant

And, to leave you with a random video that partially contains people in the past talking about the future of computers:

All of them. I don’t have one PC under my ownership that I would consider a shiny new powerful machine. I don’t have any machines that are new enough to keep me on edge with new hiccups and inconsistencies that I am not used to dealing with or comfortable with.

All of my machines are old enough that I feel I have a very good grasp on what to expect from each of them in terms of how much longer they will actually run, what sweet new applications can they actually handle, and what they will continually do to piss me off while still not actually dying or ruining anything.

By “what they will continually do to piss me off while still not actually dying or ruining anything” I mean this:

• Re-starting automatically yet unexpectedly on a strangely period-yet-random continuous interval.
• Dying, as in, not running at all. Refusing to start. Not salvageable to any extent, whether for parts or for data.
• Losing data through either disk failure or other means.
• Running slow. Almost as if it decided to chase a turtle, but then remembered it had a really old processor and that the RAM couldn’t handle the resource sucking applications that it was never designed to run, and then decided to lay back down. And then it waits for me to end an application or two while it appears to be frozen.
• Trying to, but not actually doing so, when it comes to powering the sweet, new applications that I want to use.

And continuous other stuff.

But, they all do run the original Unreal Tournament GOTY edition just fine.

And Starcraft.

Who wants to play any new games, anyways, like Homeworld 2? Why would I expect my many year old machines to run that hardcore new game? Yes I realize Homeworld 2 actually came out several years ago, but it was one of the last games I ran on several of the machines that made me realize I shouldn’t even try to run games on them anymore.

Why would I want to run both Photoshop, Flash, [Database application of choice], [Development application of choice], WinAmp, FireFox, IE, and Outlook all at the same time? That’s just too much to ask with the awesome technology that I have within my grasp.

I’d list out my equipment list for you, but I think my computer lineup is better displayed to you by this image that I have found with Google.

That’s not them actually.

I don’t have that many machines. Just about 6 or so. None newer than 3.5 yrs old, including the laptop that looks really nice but is really old.

I dream of a day when I build a very grandiose new machine. A championship computer that makes geeks-of-acquaintance jealous again, instead of giving them a good chuckle.