Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 6:23 PM, Tony Harminc t...@harminc.net wrote: On 23 March 2012 11:53, Sevetson, Phil psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov wrote: How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? I am surprised that a nanosecond ruler has not shown up as a standard scientific novelty. There are various examples of them on the net, but they are hand crafted by physics teachers and professors. What we need is a cheap plastic ruler 1 ns long, with no inches or cm or other clutter. Played straight, so to speak, as though we really used such a ruler as an everyday tool. It would just barely be feasible to have ps divisions, though the unaided eye could not use them to measure things. But 100 and 10 ps divisions would be quite usable. That would be fun. Alternatively, have one side be inches (or mm/cm) and the other ns ... then it would actually be useful and folks could justify the cost. -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
I like zMan's idea for a two-sided--nanosecond and millimeter--ruler; his notion that the availability of the second, millimeter side would make justifying its cost easy is a really inspired piece of nonsense. I wish I'd thought of it. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:06:30 -0500, John Gilmore wrote: I like zMan's idea for a two-sided--nanosecond and millimeter--ruler; his notion that the availability of the second, millimeter side would make justifying its cost easy is a really inspired piece of nonsense. I wish I'd thought of it. Earlier in this thread someone said 11 inches. Elsewhere, I've seen 9 inches or 8 inches. It depends largely on the speed of light in the insulation of the wire, which is not well controlled. Precise rulers are calibrated at a specific temperature; the nanosecond ruler needs to be calibrated for a specific propagation medium. -- gil -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
They have the 12 inch ruler with mm on the other side, flip side sould be scaled with nano seconds speed of light, and speed of sound http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound is 340 m/s so .34m oer 340mm is 0.001 Mach-second (13.38 inches) But speed of sound depends on medium. And second depends on human based time keeping. Just like in the movie Contact, what would someone from another planet recognize as a base unit of measurement? How about a ruler based on Hydrogen? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen A scale based upon a 10^9 multiple of a hydrogen wavelength (unfortunately there are several). It also lists a Covalent radius 31±5 pm (31 picometers = 3.1 × 10-11 meters) (3.1 cm = 1 million Hydrogen covalent bonds) On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 9:06 AM, John Gilmore johnwgilmore0...@gmail.com wrote: I like zMan's idea for a two-sided--nanosecond and millimeter--ruler; his notion that the availability of the second, millimeter side would make justifying its cost easy is a really inspired piece of nonsense. I wish I'd thought of it. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
I saw her once in the mid-70s at an ACM meeting in Bloomington, Illinois. I recall a story she told about her first assignment at the Pentagon. She had an office and an assistant. But no furniture in the office and no budget. That did not stop her. Fortunately, her assistant was a good scrounger, and within a day she had her furniture, and she had not had to touch her non-existant budget or her own personal funds. Those nan0-second wires she would hand out were obtained by similar means. At the pentagon, the wiring in the phone closets was constantly being changed. She or her assistants would procure the scrap wiring that the phone guy had removed and use it for her lectures. When she eventually reached flag rank, she selected the Jolly Roger as her personal flag. Jeff Holst -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 8:16 AM, Jeff Holst jeff.ho...@fiserv.com wrote: deleted When she eventually reached flag rank, she selected the Jolly Roger as her personal flag. Jeff Holst Kind of like the crew of the diesel sub U.S.S. Stingray? http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3566640640/tt0116130 -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
On 23 March 2012 11:53, Sevetson, Phil psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov wrote: How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? I am surprised that a nanosecond ruler has not shown up as a standard scientific novelty. There are various examples of them on the net, but they are hand crafted by physics teachers and professors. What we need is a cheap plastic ruler 1 ns long, with no inches or cm or other clutter. Played straight, so to speak, as though we really used such a ruler as an everyday tool. It would just barely be feasible to have ps divisions, though the unaided eye could not use them to measure things. But 100 and 10 ps divisions would be quite usable. Tony H. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
For awhile, I worked at the Washington Navy Yard with a number of people who had known Grace. This was back in 1995 and was after she had passed, so I never had the honor of meeting her. One of the people I worked for, the datacenter Director, told me that she had worked for him for awhile. He said it was really funny because he wasn't sure if she worked for him, or he worked for her. He told me that every time he told her that they didn't have money in the budget for one of her trips, he started receiving phone calls from Congressmen who, I assume, would suggest that he might have real budget problems soon. I miss the days when I worked there... really great people. Greg Schmeelk Sr. Systems Programmer J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. Cell: 678-416-2358 E-Mail: greg_schme...@jbhunt.com From: Tony Harminc t...@harminc.net To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Date: 03/26/2012 05:23 PM Subject: Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu On 23 March 2012 11:53, Sevetson, Phil psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov wrote: How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? I am surprised that a nanosecond ruler has not shown up as a standard scientific novelty. There are various examples of them on the net, but they are hand crafted by physics teachers and professors. What we need is a cheap plastic ruler 1 ns long, with no inches or cm or other clutter. Played straight, so to speak, as though we really used such a ruler as an everyday tool. It would just barely be feasible to have ps divisions, though the unaided eye could not use them to measure things. But 100 and 10 ps divisions would be quite usable. Tony H. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
My memories of Grace Hopper go back a bit farther than what is generally being discussed. As my father was an engineer with IBM back in the 50's I have some recollections of a young Grace Hopper being around the house quite often. I do recall her and my father and a few other colleagues having some heated discussions around the barbeque. Martin Eison Computer Science Corporation This is a PRIVATE message. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete without copying and kindly advise us by e-mail of the mistake in delivery. NOTE: Regardless of content, this e-mail shall not operate to bind CSC to any order or other contract unless pursuant to explicit written agreement or government initiative expressly permitting the use of e-mail for such purpose. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
The one impactful moment I had with Grace Hopper was when I attended a conference that she was presenting in and she was talking about how far technology had gone but in her mind when she spoke about a nano second she wanted to know what that represented. She ordered her engineers to come up with something physical that would represent that. The engineers thought and thought and finally came up with an answer that she could understood. They came up with a wire about 18 inches in length and they said that the time it takes electricity to travel from one side to the other is a nano second. She handed the wire to everyone in the conference. What a fantastic lady! George Rodriguez Specialist II - IT Solutions Application Support / Quality Assurance PX - 47652 (561) 357-7652 (office) (561) 707-3496 (mobile) School District of Palm Beach County 3348 Forest Hill Blvd. Room B-241 West Palm Beach, FL. 33406-5869 Florida's Only A-Rated Urban District For Seven Consecutive Years - Original Message - From: Martin Eison [mailto:mei...@csc.com] Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 05:58 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) My memories of Grace Hopper go back a bit farther than what is generally being discussed. As my father was an engineer with IBM back in the 50's I have some recollections of a young Grace Hopper being around the house quite often. I do recall her and my father and a few other colleagues having some heated discussions around the barbeque. Martin Eison Computer Science Corporation This is a PRIVATE message. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete without copying and kindly advise us by e-mail of the mistake in delivery. NOTE: Regardless of content, this e-mail shall not operate to bind CSC to any order or other contract unless pursuant to explicit written agreement or government initiative expressly permitting the use of e-mail for such purpose. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN Home of Florida's first LEED Gold Certified School Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
Hi Phil, Ah yes. 11.8 inches, I believe. I still have mine. The last time I saw her, she was handing out picoseconds as well - the little 'to go' packets of ground pepper. I lost my picoseconds along the way. Once upon a time, when I was a student at Hartnell College in the Monterey Bay area, I was also the president of the student chapter of the Data Processing Management Association. Grace Hopper was often in the area at the Naval Post Graduate School, and there was a large data center. Our Parent DPMA chapter was able to arrange for her to speak to us several times at the NPGS. She was absolutely amazing. She helped to light the 'fire in the belly' for many of us. After the presentation, and usually a tour with stop and talks along the tours, we would gather 'round for a chat - those of us who were willing to stay late. A couple of times, she rewarded those few of us who stayed for the deep dive by introducing us to Arpanet. Last May, while in DC, I went to the Smithsonian to see the 'computer bug' and the rest of the displays, incuding hers. I was very disappointed that the display was down during renovations, but thrilled to run into a former neighbor of hers who remembered her fondly. Linda - Original Message - From: Phil Sevetson psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 8:53:33 AM Subject: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? --Phil Sevetson -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Finnell Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 4:56 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Grace Hopper used to tell about the destroyer that lit up the Naval Yard outside of D.C. and crashed the data center. Personally, my fav was the Ops manager that upgraded the walkie-talkies for tech support from 1 watt to 3 watts(I think)-anyway if they were within 25' of a Memorex controller(DASD) it would bleep on itself In a message dated 3/22/2012 3:48:37 P.M. Central Daylight Time, scott_j_f...@yahoo.com writes: made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
Your question brings back fond memories. I once was president of the Tampa Bay Florida Chapter of Association of Computing Machinery and my wife Charlotte and I picked up Grace Hopper at the Tampa airport and brought her to the dinner meeting to speak. She did talk about the nano-second wire but more importantly talked about the need for industry standard languages such as COBOL and standard communications protocols such as TCP/IP and HTML which evolved out of the DARPA military network. Hopper was a leader with vision: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
My favs were the interactions with other luminaries such as Turing and Adm Chester Nimitz. Sometime in the late seventies she got a burr in her saddle about 'it wasn't true until IBM invented it' and could site verse and title of who and when it had been done before. In a message dated 3/24/2012 6:35:56 A.M. Central Daylight Time, d...@higgins.net writes: Hopper was a leader with vision: -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? --Phil Sevetson -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Finnell Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 4:56 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Grace Hopper used to tell about the destroyer that lit up the Naval Yard outside of D.C. and crashed the data center. Personally, my fav was the Ops manager that upgraded the walkie-talkies for tech support from 1 watt to 3 watts(I think)-anyway if they were within 25' of a Memorex controller(DASD) it would bleep on itself In a message dated 3/22/2012 3:48:37 P.M. Central Daylight Time, scott_j_f...@yahoo.com writes: made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
I had that fortunate experience around '73 or '74. She was a guest lecturer at my college's ACM student chapter. She was a Naval Commander at the time (I think this is after her recall from retirement). She left her office in the Pentagon, flew to Atlanta, rented a car made a 2 hour drive to address a dozen or so computer geeks. She stayed overnight I got to sit next to her at dinner. She gave the nano-second demo (I unfortunately lost mine over the years), saying to make 'em faster you've got to make 'em smaller. She also predicted that within a very few years after we graduated from college, we would have desktop computers with more horsepower that all that currently existed. She predicted the Y2K bug, saying that she wanted to be around at the millenium, just to see how the bug was handled and to experience the wildest New Year's Eve party in history! Randy -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Sevetson, Phil Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 11:54 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? --Phil Sevetson -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Finnell Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 4:56 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Grace Hopper used to tell about the destroyer that lit up the Naval Yard outside of D.C. and crashed the data center. Personally, my fav was the Ops manager that upgraded the walkie-talkies for tech support from 1 watt to 3 watts(I think)-anyway if they were within 25' of a Memorex controller(DASD) it would bleep on itself In a message dated 3/22/2012 3:48:37 P.M. Central Daylight Time, scott_j_f...@yahoo.com writes: made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
For the real dunces(at the Pentagon) she had a 1100 millisecond hose-come dragging it out to begin the lecture. In a message dated 3/23/2012 10:54:27 A.M. Central Daylight Time, psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov writes: that was a light-microsecond long? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
I think you have to be talking about a microsecond. A millisecond is 186.282 miles long. A microsecond is 11,000 inches long, or .186282 miles. --Phil, pretty sure he did the division right -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Finnell Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 4:25 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) For the real dunces(at the Pentagon) she had a 1100 millisecond hose-come dragging it out to begin the lecture. In a message dated 3/23/2012 10:54:27 A.M. Central Daylight Time, psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov writes: that was a light-microsecond long? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
Yes, my glasses were still fogged up from the ultrasound In a message dated 3/23/2012 4:10:32 P.M. Central Daylight Time, psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov writes: microsecond. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
