Monthly Archives: January 2016
Ada and Babbage finally build the Engine
This beautiful drawing is from The Guardian Website
Have you heard of Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) she was born Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate child of Annabella Milbanke and the poet Lord Byron. Ada had an unusual upbringing for an aristocratic girl in the mid-1800s. At her mother’s insistence, tutors taught her mathematics and science.
Around the age of 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, (1791-1871). He was a fellow mathematician and computer pioneer. He designed the first automatic computing engine, but failed to build it.
However at her initiative, Ada suggested to Babbage that she would write a plan for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. This plan is now regarded as the first “computer program.” A few years ago (1979) a software language was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and named “Ada” in her honor.
A recently published graphic novel resurrected Lovelace and Babbage and gets them to finish what they started. The animator/author actually has them building the machine. The author Sydney Padua, is a London-based computer animator. The novel is entitled “Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage”. This graphic book is for sale on Amazon or you can borrow it from many local libraries.
Unusual and/or Special Needs Technology
I will look into technology designed to help seniors with hearing, sight and mobility impairments. I have very little knowledge in this field. After browsing the Internet for quite sometime, I found an online Canadian company with a range of products . If you look at the section showing the most popular products, you may find something of interest to you.
Go to https://www.specialneedscomputers.ca, they have a very large inventory.
On all topics covering special needs I would appreciate your advice. In other words if you have information that could be useful to some of my readers simply send me your observations and comments along with any corroborating links to websites covering the topic. I will post only information that I have verified and authenticated.
Cellphones or Smartphones …
Cellphones from the 70’s and the 80’s
In the 70’s disco was big and so was the cellphone. It was more of a car phone, to heavy to carry around, used primarily in the business world. It provided people with a means to call and be called anytime without being connected to any line. In the 80’s they got smaller and eventually evolved adding more features like text messaging. Today, they actually have many similarities to smartphones, however the greatest exceptions is that you cannot download applications.
Comparing the two is not that easy as there is no clear line between a smartphone and an ordinary cellphone with extra features. Taking a close look at a smartphone will show you that they have more things in common with computers than they do to cellphones. A compact or full keyboard often comes as standard in smartphones as it is necessary for quickly typing messages and emails.
In my blog, I will look at various cellphones with features as well as smartphones and their applications. In many cases a featured cellphone could be all you need. Spending up to a thousand dollars on a full featured smartphone is not always a good investment.
eReaders and the future
Is the eReader going the way of the dodo ?
In 1998 the Softbook and Gemstar’s Rocket eBook Reader was one of the first eReader’s to appear in the market. One of the next eReader’s was in 2004 with the release of the Sony Librié. Since then several manufacturers have produced various devices. However as tablet gained in popularity several brands of eReaders are no longer on the market.
The Kobo eReader is an exception. Early on, they expanded their reach beyond Canada and the United States. They also diversified the delivery system by providing software that is used on a lot of devices. In other words you can subscribe to the Kobo online ebook store and download ebooks to your eReader or any other device of your choice. Kobo is a Canadian Company with a great marketing strategy and hopefully it will be around for a longtime.
techno55plus.info 