When I Could Levitate
Mainframe history, Krazy Kat, lies about Donatella Versace, and levitation.
The Week
Next week I’ll try to summarize everything I’ve read in the past month about DeepSeek, the surprising AI program from China. This week I recommend a history blog and a cartoonist, and I recall when I could levitate.
Image of the Week
The picture is of my partner Nancy on our daily riverwalk.
Quote of the Week
Oh, my name, it ain’t nothin’, my age, it means less
The country I come from is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there, the laws to abide
And that the land that I live in has God on its side
— Bob Dylan
Recommendations of the Week
Some computer history: the origin and unexpected evolution of the word “mainframe.”
Ken Shirriff blogs about computer history and related topics. I love the nerdiness of his effort to uncover the first use of the term “mainframe.” Along the way he reveals details about how early computers were built — and shipped. Visit his blog for more deep-dive history research, like the origin of the cargo cult metaphor and the story behind the Pentium division bug.
Cartoon of the Week
In my plastic early years, Mad magazine cartoonists shaped my view of the world. Today, some of my best friends are cartoonists. I consume at least a dozen cartoons a week in a bad week. I like cartoons. Editorial cartoonists have a unique voice and are important. Sometimes, though, cartoons are just fun, and in these my more brittle years, I find fun increasingly necessary. I want to call attention to some cartoons and cartoonists I think you might appreciate. I do this for your entertainment and to promote the cartoonist’s work. In keeping with fair use of copyrighted material, I will only post small images, and I will always provide a relevant link.
Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse, and Offissa Pupp played out their surreal dramas against a dreamlike, constantly shifting vision of Coconino County, Arizona circa nineteen let us say thirteen. Krazy, an androgynous cat (but willing to be either), loves Ignatz, a mouse, Ignatz obsessively throws bricks at Krazy, and Offissa Pupp locks Ignatz in the jail. On this minimalist premise George Herriman painted a thousand four-panel stories that are regarded as both high art and humble delights.
The picture is from my copy of Krazy Kat: The Comic Adventures of George Herriman. But for a full dose of Krazy, you need to go to Fantagraphics.
OK, not necessarily four panels. Herriman was very free regarding panel boundaries.
Walking on Air
For many years I had a recurring dream that I could fly.
Not fly, exactly: I dreamed that I could walk on air.
The details of the dream varied: I would tell someone I could walk on air and they would doubt me and I would demonstrate, to their astonishment and my amusement. Or I would be walking with some people and I would drop behind the group and start rising without their noticing. Or I would be all alone and doubting my own levitational ability: Could I really walk on air? And I would demonstrate again and amaze myself.
The details of the story varied, but the sensation was always exactly the same. I would be walking along normally and would slow almost to a stop and take one very gentle step, a step that, remarkably, didn’t go quite to the ground, even when I shifted my weight to that foot. And then, very carefully, another step. And I would be walking on air. I could climb higher, a step at a time, but I never got above eye level. It was walking, not flying. I didn’t swoop around like a bird: I just strolled on the air, gently and peacefully. It was a magical sensation: at once powerful and delicate. And when I wanted to land I just eased down to the ground.
There was nothing any more real to me than that sensation of walking on air in my dreams. Sometimes in my waking hours I would remember that sensation and the unshakable feeling that it was real, and I’d be tempted to try it, just for a minute, when nobody was watching.
I grew up in the Midwest (the country I come from) where we had some serious winters. One winter, I must have been in my twenties, I was out trudging through some crunchy snow that had been around for several below-freezing days and had crusted over like a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone, when I decided I would make better time walking on that hard crust rather than stomping through to the ground on each step. I took one gentle step and then another. It worked: I was treading the crust. It felt good, and it felt strangely familiar. I suddenly realized, with a shock, that this was the feeling that, in my dreams, my subconscious had translated into walking on air.
I never had that dream again.
Walking to the river this morning with Nancy, I was crunching through the crusted snow and I reflected that an eight-year-old me would be able to walk on this shell without breaking through. And that an eight-year-old me could still dream of walking on air.
The river, slate-grey under the morning’s clouds, had receded some, exposing more of its rocky bank.
The Rest
Statement of the Perpetrator
I’ve been a writer all my life, and computers entered the picture pretty early. With Paul Freiberger I wrote the seminal history of the personal computer, Fire in the Valley, the basis for the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley. I’ve written short stories and poetry and books and columns for magazines, and have had a long and productive career editing books and magazines. For decades I was associated with the pioneering personal computer software developers’ magazine, Dr. Dobb’s Journal, and I currently edit books for The Pragmatic Bookshelf and blog about artificial intelligence and other topics.
The List
I’m on a constant search for real journalism in this age of disinformation. This is a rotating list of some of the fact-checking sites and journalism sources that I rely on. It’s unavoidable that the list reflects my political leaning, but these sources are all on the side of informing the public truthfully and accurately. If you support them, that’s what you will be supporting.
Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger created Wikipedia to be a free, collaborative, and widely accessible encyclopedia, “a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge.” Yes, in being open to all contributors, it opens itself up to inaccurate and misleading articles, as well as articles written by artificial intelligence programs, and that’s why it should never be your only source of information on any important topic. But the fact that the World Health Organization collaborated with Wikipedia to disseminate COVID-19-related information to help combat the spread of misinformation is just one example of why it belongs on this list. Note: Wikipedia survives on donations.
Site:
https://www.wikipedia.org
Support:
https://donate.wikimedia.org
The Guardian US is decidedly liberal. I also subscribe to conservative sources, but I highlight The Guardian for support because it isn’t owned or controlled by advertisers or billionaires; it’s owned by a Trust, and more than half of its revenue comes directly from readers. Its independent ownership structure means it is entirely free from political and commercial influence. It is renowned for the Paradise Papers investigation and other award-winning work. Supporting The Guardian protects independent investigative journalism and keeps it open for everyone.
Site: https://www.theguardian.com/us
Support: https://support.theguardian.com/us/one-time-checkout
Snopes has been around since 1994, when the Web was just five years old. It is not just the oldest but also the largest fact-checking site on the internet. Journalists, folklorists, and readers turn to Snopes as an invaluable research companion. I know I do. Snopes.com is an independent publication under the company “Snopes Media Group Inc.,” which is owned by Chris Richmond and Drew Schoentrup (each owning 50%).
You can help them do their job by contributing. “The more people contribute, the more time we can spend on difficult stories that need professional fact checkers’ skills. With news of Meta ending third-party fact-checking it’s more important than ever for Snopes to continue and expand its ability to keep readers informed with all the facts and context.”
Note: A while back, Snopes co-founder David Mikkelson plagiarized from major news outlets and was suspended from editorial production. Also, don’t confuse Snopes with something called Snopes News, which is… I don’t know what that is, but it’s not Snopes.
Site: https://www.snopes.com
Support: https://www.snopes.com/support/
My Day Job
I edit books for the Pragmatic Bookshelf. If you are a beginning or intermediate Python developer, this book will teach you how to use the Flask framework for web development.
First Verses
I offer no excuse for this bit of nonsense.
The Fifth Fibonacci
One night in Karachi, Lombardy debauchee Donatella Versace
Fired up the hibachi and brought out the hooch, the baba ganoush,
The brats, and Bacardi for her pals at the party,
Who played mariachi in tempo vivace a la Liberace
When not playing bocci and fetch with the pooch.
And leaving her guests to pursue their proclivities,
She left the festivities with the one she liked best.
And that’s all I’m gonna tell of Donatella and her fella.
Coming Attractions
Thanks for reading. In the coming weeks, look for more Swaine’s Flames flashbacks, Dirt Road Diaries, bulletins from the AI revolution, tech history, and books. Although youwill continue to be able to read these posts in Swaine’s World for free, I am introducing a paid subscription that will offer some additional goodies.