Speaking at North Dallas .NET User Group on August 7
July 26, 2013
Roscoe, N.Y.
I am thrilled to announce that I will be speaking at the North Dallas .NET User Group (NDDNUG) during its regular 6:00 to 8:30 meeting on Wednesday, August 7, 2013 in Plano, Texas. Here are the details:
http://northdallas.net/meetings/when-worlds-collide-analog-vs-digital/
This will be one of my rather off-the-beaten-path talks that is a manifestation of some on-and-off research I've been doing into the history of analog computers:
When Worlds Collide: Analog vs. Digital
We live in a universe whose natural processes are analog; yet we choose to model those processes on digital computers. Does this make sense? If digital technologies are so great, why do we increasingly hide digital computation under fluid and bouncy user interfaces? If analog computers are so lame, why are they also so clever, so elegant, and so fascinating? Join Charles Petzold in an exploration of the analog and digital computation of natural processes in an off-beat and thought-provoking presentation that connects Vannevar Bush's Differential Analyzer of the 1920s with Windows 8 and other modern user interfaces.
The presentation features a Direct3D simulation of components of the Differential Analyzer to demonstrate how disks, wheels, and gears can solve differential equations.
I hope all my friends and readers in the DFW Metroplex (and beyond) can come!