Scientists, Inventors And Techno Wizards

[Sir Creep 7,069]

On 29/01/2020 at 19:24, Skinny kiltrunner said:

I heard he was a terrible surfer.  Hence the term, 'useless as Tits on a board.'

wait... WHAT?

 

on a board?  That don’t make not one damn bit of sense, boy!  smfh

its ‘useless as tits on a boar hog’ (though I’ve heard ‘bull’ which is fine)

 

I hope you better at Cup play than hackneyed colloquialisms.

[Skinny kiltrunner 553]

23 minutes ago, Sir Creep said:

wait... WHAT?

 

on a board?  That don’t make not one damn bit of sense, boy!  smfh

its ‘useless as tits on a boar hog’ (though I’ve heard ‘bull’ which is fine)

 

I hope you better at Cup play than hackneyed colloquialisms.

I've not heard it your way, but that makes sense now you say it. But I guess it's a regional thing. Definitely tits on a board out here, which makes sense too, just in a different way. 

[time 8,575]

Larry Tesler, formerly of Xerox PARC & Apple has died aged 74

 

Computer scientist Larry Tesler was the inventor of copy-and-paste as we know it today, and was also the guide that showed Steve Jobs the Xerox PARC systems that would inspire the Macintosh. 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by time
Corrected typo (maybe I should have copy & pasted that bit!)

[Dead Wait 1,128]

•  
•  

Posted 19 hours ago

Larry Tesler, formerly of Xerox PARV & Apple has died aged 74

 

Computer scientist Larry Tesler was the inventor of copy-and-paste as we know it today, and was also the guide that showed Steve Jobs the Xerox PARC systems that would inspire the Macintosh. 

 

This copy and paste work is my tribute.......

[roaming_comrade 471]

Not sure if mentioned anywhere yet, but I just found out that British Scientist Freeman Dyson has died aged 96 on February 28th this year. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson

[arrowsmith 436]

7 hours ago, roaming_comrade said:

Not sure if mentioned anywhere yet, but I just found out that British Scientist Freeman Dyson has died aged 96 on February 28th this year. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson

When in doubt use the search function. 

[drol 11,797]

7 hours ago, roaming_comrade said:

Not sure if mentioned anywhere yet, but I just found out that British Scientist Freeman Dyson has died aged 96 on February 28th this year. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson

Yes, see the post above. And... HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK  WE COULD FORGET  THE GREAT  FREEMAN DYSON? 

[drol 11,797]

Great German chemist Rolf Huisgen has died at 99. Known as the father of click reactions, which is likely the only concept I find interesting about green chemistry. His pioneeristic work about alkyne-azide hetero Diels-Alder led to an incredible development in the field, including stereochemical control and use of Cu (I) as a catalyst (only works with terminal alkynes, Ru (II) would later work with internal alkynes too).

[Grim Up North 3,717]

25 minutes ago, drol said:

Great German chemist Rolf Huisgen has died at 99. Known as the father of click reactions, which is likely the only concept I find interesting about green chemistry. His pioneeristic work about alkyne-azide hetero Diels-Alder led to an incredible development in the field, including stereochemical control and use of Cu (I) as a catalyst (only works with terminal alkynes, Ru (II) would later work with internal alkynes too).

 

And the low brow version?

[drol 11,797]

John Horton Conway, one of the most popular mathematicians of the last century and inventor of zero-player game Conway's Game of Life, has died from COVID-19 at 82.

 

Aaaand..... I guess this is Conway's Game of Death.

[Ulitzer95 12,431]

1 hour ago, drol said:

John Horton Conway, one of the most popular mathematicians of the last century and inventor of zero-player game Conway's Game of Life, has died from COVID-19 at 82.

 

Aaaand..... I guess this is Conway's Game of Death.

Usual problem – not getting any coverage because, to be brutally frank, nobody gives a toss about mathematicians.

His death is causing quite a dispute on Wikipedia, with registered users in disagreement on whether to list him as dead on the Recent Deaths page or not due to lack of sources.

This is is where Wiki sadly becomes counterproductive in its usefulness. There can be thousands of tweets and multiple blog sources referring to his death, including from Twitter handles of official institutions or people prominent in his field, and yet pedantic Wiki editors will still revert the death info. The site needs to be brought into 2020 as far as sourcing is concerned.

[gcreptile 10,939]

It's in the Guardian live blog though:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/12/coronavirus-live-pope-easter-lockdown-us-death-toll-uk-boris-johnson-donald-trump-

 

Edit: at 7:02

[I.R.Baboon 221]

1 minute ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Usual problem – not getting any coverage because, to be brutally frank, nobody gives a toss about mathematicians.

His death is causing quite a dispute on Wikipedia, with registered users in disagreement on whether to list him as dead on the Recent Deaths page or not due to lack of sources.

This is is where Wiki sadly becomes counterproductive in its usefulness. There can be thousands of tweets and multiple blog sources referring to his death, including from Twitter handles of official institutions or people prominent in his field, and yet pedantic Wiki editors will still revert the death info. The site needs to be brought into 2020 as far as sourcing is concerned.

Well he's not an average mathematician. I hardly know of any mathimatician at all but Conway's game of life is one of my favorite 'i love the internet because of all the weird niches and subcultures' subjects. I absolutely love blogs like

Quote

 

"

Josh Ball has discovered a microscopic orthogonal spaceship with a new velocity, namely c/7. It is the slowest orthogonal spaceship, which (together with its loaf-pushing behaviour) led to it being named 'the loafer'. Adam P. Goucher discovered how to synthesise it with 18 gliders; this was further reduced to 8 by Matthias Merzenich. Shortly afterwards, a gun was engineered to repeatedly emit the spaceship.

A summary of the known orthogonal spaceship speeds is given in the following diagram, using Ford circles to represent rational numbers:

 

(from http://pentadecathlon.com/lifeNews/index.php ).

 

No idea what it means, but it fascinates me, all those people spending hundreds of hours to develop a more efficient oscillator.

[Ulitzer95 12,431]

1 minute ago, I.R.Baboon said:

Well he's not an average mathematician. I hardly know of any mathimatician at all but Conway's game of life is one of my favorite 'i love the internet because of all the weird niches and subcultures' subjects. I absolutely love blogs like

(from http://pentadecathlon.com/lifeNews/index.php ).

 

No idea what it means, but it fascinates me, all those people spending hundreds of hours to develop a more efficient oscillator.

Louis Nirenberg was not just an average mathematician either, and still the wait for a proper obit was lengthy.

The only high profile mathematician in the last few years I remember getting a very quick obit was John Nash.

[Ulitzer95 12,431]

7 minutes ago, gcreptile said:

It's in the Guardian live blog though:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/12/coronavirus-live-pope-easter-lockdown-us-death-toll-uk-boris-johnson-donald-trump-

 

Edit: at 7:02

Yup, which should be a reliable source, but a pedantic editor would say no blogs whatsoever, even if they're compiled by a news agency.

They're in a state over this on Wiki. I can't see what people think they're achieving by even making an argument of this. He's dead, and the site needs to revise its guidelines on sourcing.

[Joey Russ 7,210]

6 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Louis Nirenberg was not just an average mathematician either, and still the wait for a proper obit was lengthy.

The only high profile mathematician in the last few years I remember getting a very quick obit was John Nash.

And I think in Nash’s case the reason it was so quick besides being an abrupt death was because of the film made about him. 

[msc 18,397]

31 minutes ago, Joey Russ said:

And I think in Nash’s case the reason it was so quick besides being an abrupt death was because of the film made about him. 

 

The hattrick of cause of death, the big Hollywood film starring the A list nutter, and his Game Theories being one of those rare science things that permeate into pop culture without folk realising it was him. I swear half the modern SF I bother to watch seems based on it.

[I.R.Baboon 221]

2 hours ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Louis Nirenberg was not just an average mathematician either, and still the wait for a proper obit was lengthy.

The only high profile mathematician in the last few years I remember getting a very quick obit was John Nash.

My (Dutch) newspaper already has a very decent obituary (https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/04/12/wiskundige-conway-was-een-speels-genie-en-kenner-van-symmetrie-a3996590) , so I think at least SOME British paper should follow. But we'll see..

edit: added link

[The Old Crem 3,576]

 

2 hours ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Yup, which should be a reliable source, but a pedantic editor would say no blogs whatsoever, even if they're compiled by a news agency.

They're in a state over this on Wiki. I can't see what people think they're achieving by even making an argument of this. He's dead, and the site needs to revise its guidelines on sourcing.

I presume a live blog on a DDP site is good enough for that game if a pick died and that was needed. The Guardian will probably give him a proper write up soon.

 

The Times and The Telegraph will surely give him a proper writeup in time

[Joey Russ 7,210]

3 minutes ago, The Old Crem said:

 

I presume a live blog on a DDP site is good enough for that game. The Guardian will probably give him a proper write up soon.

 

The Times and The Telegraph will surely give him a proper writeup in time

I had a unique with Jacqui Forster a few years back that was scored because of a Guardian sports blog, and it counted (she did get a proper Guardian obit later, so not one of those barely QO names). So I’d think that’d count.

Although he doesn’t look to be a DDP pick...

[YoungWillz 20,918]

21 minutes ago, Joey Russ said:

I had a unique with Jacqui Forster a few years back that was scored because of a Guardian sports blog, and it counted (she did get a proper Guardian obit later, so not one of those barely QO names). So I’d think that’d count.

Although he doesn’t look to be a DDP pick...

What might happen is that Richard K Guy might get a QO by default though....

[drol 11,797]

Yes, this is just crazy. Wiki is full of nuts.

[msc 18,397]

There's currently a deletion war going on too as a few actors Wiki pages are being deleted for not being notable enough by Wiki Editors standards. Useful site, undermined by the idiots who run it. The editors excuse for deleting vast chunks of verified wrestling history actually used by folk in the industry was "this might be interesting to the general public, but isn't important enough for a Wikipedia".

[Ulitzer95 12,431]

2 hours ago, drol said:

Yes, this is just crazy. Wiki is full of nuts.

 

2 hours ago, msc said:

There's currently a deletion war going on too as a few actors Wiki pages are being deleted for not being notable enough by Wiki Editors standards. Useful site, undermined by the idiots who run it. The editors excuse for deleting vast chunks of verified wrestling history actually used by folk in the industry was "this might be interesting to the general public, but isn't important enough for a Wikipedia".

Yup, it's very irritating. I'm all for good referencing but pedantic people are ruining it sadly. A blog, a tweet or a Facebook from an official account is a reliable source. And the guidelines are just that – GUIDELINES – not fixed rules, and exceptions can surely be made where appropriate but some people on there insist on doing everything by the book.

[Toast 16,063]

I'm always baffled by the warning that an entry contains "original research".