John Conway, RIP

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spot
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John Conway, RIP

Post by spot »

https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... -the-world

I cannot at this point remember how many times I've implemented Conway's Game of Life, it's what I've generally done after writing "Hello World" in a language I've not used before. The first time was in FORTRAN IV.

The link above was five written years ago but I'm sure it's better than any obituary.

https://xkcd.com/2293/
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left. ... Hold no regard for unsupported opinion.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious. [Fred Wedlock, "The Folker"]
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.

When you design tactics to maximise suffering on civilian populations and your only constraint is operational rather than moral, you've told the world who you are.
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Bryn Mawr
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John Conway, RIP

Post by Bryn Mawr »

spot;1532231 wrote: https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... -the-world

I cannot at this point remember how many times I've implemented Conway's Game of Life, it's what I've generally done after writing "Hello World" in a language I've not used before. The first time was in FORTRAN IV.

The link above was five written years ago but I'm sure it's better than any obituary.

https://xkcd.com/2293/


Nineteen seventy one, just after his paper came out describing the problem and the rules, I coded a version in machine code on a Stantec Zebra, a then twenty year old valve computer. My last attempt was on the Archimedes in its superb assembler.

He was personally responsible for more “wasted coding and machine time than anyone I can think of, may he rest in peace.
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spot
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John Conway, RIP

Post by spot »

Coding may be. Time, you're forgetting SETI.

I bet your play area was no more than 20x20, first time.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left. ... Hold no regard for unsupported opinion.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious. [Fred Wedlock, "The Folker"]
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.

When you design tactics to maximise suffering on civilian populations and your only constraint is operational rather than moral, you've told the world who you are.
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Bryn Mawr
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Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:54 pm

John Conway, RIP

Post by Bryn Mawr »

spot;1532239 wrote: Coding may be. Time, you're forgetting SETI.

I bet your play area was no more than 20x20, first time.


About that, the total memory was only four kB.

BTW, Seti@home has gone into hibernation ?through lack of results? As a consequence there’s an awful lot of serious processing power migrated within Boinc to useful projects such as cancer and COVID research.
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