Re: Semi OT Grace Hopper lecture

Stephen Fuld wrote:

NSA has recently released the video of a 1982 talk by Grace Hopper.
 If you don't know who she is, read up on her at e.g.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper
 before watching the video.
 If you know of her but have never heard her speak, you are in for a treat.  She was an outstanding speaker.
 If you have heard her speak, watch it for some amazing memories.
 https://www.c-span.org/video/?538935-1/captain-grace-hopper-future-computers-1982   It runs about 1.5 hours, but it seems like less.

It seemed like a lot less this morning!
I have of course listened to/watched her before, but she certainly deserves re-watching.
I was directly inspired by her nanoseconds as a way to show how long they were, without having to carry any with me: Here in Europe we do of course use A format paper, with A0 being exactly one square meter, with a height/length ratio of sqrt(2).
You get smaller sizes (A1, A2, A3 etc) by cutting in half across the longer axis.
The standard paper size available in all printers and copiers is of course A4, and that A4 sheet is exactly(*) one nanosecond tall (29.97 cm) as well as one nanosecond when travelling inside an optical fiber wide!
Terje
(*) Within your ability to measure with a ruler, or a paper supplier to cut.
--
- <Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no>
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"