June 6, 2015

There were 5 posts published on June 6, 2015 (this is page 1 of 1).

How Joe Biden learned to work with Jesse Helms, who should’ve been his nemesis – Quartz

This May 17, vice-president Joe Biden address the graduates of Yale University at their Class Day. He spoke about the personal tragedies in his life, losing his wife and daughter to a car accident at age 30, which has been covered following the news of his son Beau’s death less than two weeks later. Beau and his brother survived the crash, and Biden almost resigned his newly won Senate seat before being talked out of it by Ted Kennedy, among others. Biden instead turned into an Amtrak commuter, coming home from Washington to Delaware every night to care for his sons as they recovered, and then to raise a family with his new wife, Jill.

But Biden also spoke about how he learned to work with someone who should have been his nemesis, the conservative senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

Source: How Joe Biden learned to work with Jesse Helms, who should’ve been his nemesis – Quartz

How Obama wooed back Merkel – Edward-Isaac Dovere and Matthew Karnitschnig – POLITICO

Chancellor Angela Merkel got on the phone with President Barack Obama with a message that was coldly blunt: We cannot go on like this.Her government had just sent the CIA chief packing after German intelligence uncovered a spy in its own ranks. It was the second big shock to the relationship after the Edward Snowden document dump disclosed that the U.S. had been spying on her cell phone. German media was filled with daily pronouncements about the worst rupture in the U.S.-German alliance since the Iraq War.

Source: How Obama wooed back Merkel – Edward-Isaac Dovere and Matthew Karnitschnig – POLITICO

Travis leaves elementary school

Travis gets emotional at his fifth grade graduation

Travis gets emotional at his fifth grade graduation


Yesterday was Travis’s 5th grade graduation ceremony. True to form, it was emotional for me and Kelly. Conn has been the only school he has known. He walked the halls long before he was enrolled there, tagging along with Hallie to and from school. Somehow time flew by and he has just one day left before he’s a middle schooler.

The ceremony included singing, photos from the students as babies, speeches, and plenty of awards. Travis took home a haul of these certificates. Indeed, we laughed when we looked at the “activities” page of the school yearbook and Travis’s face was in all but two pictures!
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Business Proposal—

Looks like I’ve struck it rich! I am so quitting my job! Easy street, here I come!!!11!

Reply-To: johnwan998789@yahoo.com.hk
From: “JOHN WAN” johnwan663@yahoo.com.hk
Subject: Business Proposal—
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2015 15:32:09 +0200

Dear friend,

I am John Wan from the bank of China, I have a business proposal involving the sum of $8,370,000.00 which is unclaimed as the deceased depositor died in testate with no surviving next of kin.

I will like you to work with me in total trust and partnership to enable me transfer the estate to you We will share the estate in the ratio 50% each.

I advise that you keep this email confidential and respond to me via my private email address: johnwan998789@yahoo.com.hk , I shall await your swift response to enable me inform you in details about this business.

Regards,

John.

Computer Space and the Dawn of the Arcade Video Game

Here’s a fascinating account of the creation of the first commercially-successful video game, Computer Space, and of the men who created it, Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell would go on to create Atari and, by extension, modern Silicon Valley.

Computer Space pitted a player-controlled rocket ship against two machine-controlled flying saucers in a space simulation set before a two-dimensional star field. The player controlled the rocket with four buttons: one for fire, which shoots a missile from the front of the rocket ship; two directional rotation buttons (to rotate the ship orientation clockwise or counterclockwise); and one for thrust, which propelled the ship in whichever direction it happened to be pointing. Think of Asteroids without the asteroids, and you should get the picture.

During play, two saucers would appear on the screen and shoot at the player while flying in a zig-zag formation.The player’s goal was to dodge the saucer fire and shoot the saucers.

Considering a game of this complexity playing out on a TV set, you might think that it was created as a sophisticated piece of software running on a computer. You’d think it, but you’d be wrong–and Bushnell wouldn’t blame you for the mistake. How he and Dabney managed to pull it off is a story of audacity, tenacity, and sheer force-of-will worthy of tech legend. This is how it happened.

Source: Computer Space and the Dawn of the Arcade Video Game