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Observations from Uppsala Computer Simulation, Virtual Platforms, Embedded Programming, Multicore and More (by Jakob Engblom)

Category Archives: General History

Bliss: Failing to Pivot for Ideology

2013 February 17 22:05 / Leave a Comment / Jakob

Note: This post was caused by listening to an interesting science podcast while thinking about the theories of startups, and the connection might seem a bit odd. Still, I think there is something to be learnt here. End note.

I recently listened to the episode on Bliss, by the Radiolab podcast. As always, Radiolab manages to take a theme and connect all kinds of things to it. In this case, bliss as in happiness turned into Bliss, the man, and his invention of Symbolics. Symbolics was an attempt to create a rational language based on symbols that would not allow the manipulation of human opinion or feeling like regular languages do. It was an attempt to create an antidote to the manipulations of dictators, tricksters, and populists (Bliss himself had been briefly interned in a pre-war German concentration camp, so he definitely knew what words could do). He designed a symbolic writing scheme that was intended to only communicate ideas clearly and unambiguously and with no room for demagogery and oratory. In the end, nobody wanted to use the language for its original purpose.

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Posted in: business issues, general history, general research, history / Tagged: Blissymbolics, Charles Bliss, pivot, startup

Off-Topic: Old and New Lego

2010 January 8 19:09 / Leave a Comment / Jakob

During the Christmas holidays, I got the chance to compare my oldest child’s brand new Lego set with some from the mid-1980s. It is quite striking how much larger the things in the sets have become, and how much more affordable (in relative terms) Lego has become since then.

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Posted in: gadgets, general history, history, off-topic / Tagged: lego

It was Twenty Years Ago Today

2009 November 8 22:36 / 1 Comment / Jakob

Unless you have been living under a rock I guess the media deluge has made it clear that it was twenty years ago on November ninth that the Berlin Wall fell. Wow. Without a doubt the most momentous and important event that I have lived through. Not at all on the topic of this blog, but important enough to write some personal recollections about.

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Posted in: general history, history of computing, off-topic

Marketing a Paper Magazine with a Podcast

2009 May 5 07:19 / Leave a Comment / Jakob

I just found a fairly interesting podcast that offers a nice example on how do marketing for paper-based magazines using digital ephemeral technology. The ancient warfare magazine has a podcast that accompanies each issue, where a set of history buffs discuss around the theme of the current issue of the magazine.

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Posted in: business issues, general history / Tagged: ancient warfare, podcast commentary

The Details of Speed

2008 November 23 22:40 / 1 Comment / Jakob

I just read a fairly interesting book about the British Spitfire fighter plane of World War 2. The war bits were fairly boring, actually, but the development story was all the more interesting. I find it fascinating to read about how aviation engineers in the 1930s experiment and guess their way from the slow unwiedly biplanes of World War 1 and the 1920s to the sleek very fast aircraft of 1940 and beyond. It is a story that also has something tell us about contemporary software development and optimization.

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Posted in: computer simulation technology, general history, virtual platforms / Tagged: Functional models, optimization, Speed, Spitfire

A logo from 1996 and simulation for archival purposes

2007 September 3 20:21 / Jakob

Back in 1996, DVP celebrated its 15th anniversary. When looking through my digital and paper archive, I found this gem: DVP 15 årThe official badge and logo for the 1996 anniversary! We also produced some mouse pads with this logo on them, one of which I still use for my daily job. Pretty good quality I must say.

The picture shown here was saved as GIF for use on the web. But scarily enough, apart from a few more GIF files, I could not open or even understand the file type of most of the files from that time, only ten years ago. Our digital archives are not very robust — more on that below.

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Posted in: appearances, general history, history of computing / Tagged: alumni, DVL, DVP, Uppsala University

Matts Today in History: The Vasa Sinks, August 10, 1628

2007 August 14 10:11 / Leave a Comment / Jakob

Matts Today in History: The Vasa Sinks, August 10, 1628
is the latest installment in the very good and long-running PodCast called “Matt’s Today in History”. I really appreciate the effort going into the production of it, and the perserverance of Matt in keeping it up for more than two years.

This particular issue was interesting in two regards.

First, I suggested the topic.

Second, it featured what at least seemed like real paid advertising at the start. This is thanks to PodShow, the “media network” used to distribute this podcast. The deal behind PodShow is quite simple fo the podcaster: you get bandwitdh for free, in return for the possibility of there being advertising inserted into the audio.

The reasoning behind PodShow is nicely explained in a podcast from the Stanford Technology Ventures Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series. Here, Ron Bloom and Ray Lane of PodShow describe the way PodShow got started and just what it is. Basically, they are building a new media company, to compete with radio and television. It is not just a nice place to find podcasts. Recommended listen for anyone interested in just how podcasting can be monetized. They describe how their staff constantly monitors the various shows that they carry, and find those popular and targeted enough to carry some paid advertising. Other shows carry intros and pointers to various other PodShow shows, to drive audience to more popular properties.

Thus, the conclusion must be that Matt’s Today in History has reached some threshold of audience that makes it valuable enough to carry advertising. Great job, and a sure sign of popularity of the podcast.

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Posted in: business issues, general history / Tagged: Matt's Today in History, PodShow, Vasa

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