Insect Nervous System Copied To Boost Computing Power
Brains are the most powerful computers known. Now microchips built to mimic insects’ nervous systems have been shown to successfully tackle technical computing problems like object recognition and data mining, researchers say. Attempts to recreate how the brain works are nothing new. Computing principles underlying how the organ operates have inspired computer programs known as…
What If Operating Systems Were Religions?
Yesterday, after writing my way past the notional halfway point (both of the current novel manuscript, and of the trilogy it’s the middle volume of), I went and overindulged in food and drink with friends. Over the beer, the conversation turned—for no sane reason—to computer operating systems. There being some non-technical folks at the table,…
How to Get Even More Out of a Raspberry Pi
No doubt about it, the Raspberry Pi is nothing short of a homebrew phenomenon. Since its release in February 2012, the British micro-mini-computer has enabled legions of amateur inventors to develop projects both weird and wonderful. Here’s a run-down of the most impressive applications, ranging from weather stations to retro arcades to a supercomputer array…
The World’s First Computer Programmer Was a Victorian Mother-of-Three
Does the name Ada Lovelace ring any bells? No? Seeing as you’re reading this on a computer, tablet or smartphone, it should. The Victorian mother-of-three, born 1815, was the world’s first ever computer programmer. A close friend of Charles Babbage, inventor of the Difference Engine (considered the first ever computer), Lovelace was tasked with translating…
