Atari: When My Parents Actually Liked Video Games

I had an Atari 2600 growing up. It was the last time that my parents were actually interested in the video games that I used to play. I remember my parents watching us play Pac Man, Asteroids, and Space Invaders.  Simple control - whether it's the Atari 2600's joystick and one button or the Wii's motion controlled remote - removes a layer of complexity and allows people that aren't gamers to focus on the action on the screen.

This week, Atari celebrates it's 40th anniversary of its incorporation in 1972.

And now, the system that I grew up loving is low tech enough that it can fit completely on a keychain.

 Atari released its 2600 system  in 1977. It was so popular that many companies, whether they were video game companies or not, began releasing games for the system. This was a major factor in the North American video game industry crashing and burning from 1983-85, until the release of Japan's Nintendo Entertainment System.  The good news about the crash? My lower-middle class family could easily afford an Atari 2600 and several $1 cartridges, since the system was a bit long in the tooth when I was of age in the 80s.

I didn't get an NES until way until it's life cycle because I loved the Atari 2600, and I always had a constant supply of games coming because they were so cheap.  In comparison, NES games were expensive and could be hard to find because the system was so popular.

Check out Time's interview with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, including some interesting conversations with a young, arrogant Atari employee named Steve Jobs. 

Mars: Five Minutes of Funk (Almost)

NASA previously launched the Curiosity Rover to help further explore the terrain of Mars. It's scheduled to land on August 5th and will begin "a two-year study of whether the landing vicinity ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life."

One of the most important parts is the actual landing sequence when Curiosity will approach from space, enter the Martian atmosphere, descend toward the desired target, and land successfully. This is known as "Seven Minutes of Terror", and is the most painful time for the engineers involved as well as space geeks such as myself.  There are plenty of redundant systems on any spacecraft in case there is an electronic failure, but just about everything has to go correct. In honor of "Seven Minutes of Terror", I present "Five Minutes of Funk"

This post on Planetary.org gives a nice summary on the different phases of this sequence, known as EDL (Entry, Descent, Landing). Discovery also has a nice profile, and mentions the following:

Now think about this: the rover weighs — get this — 890 kilograms, nearly a ton. The Mars air is thick enough that engineers have to deal with it, but too thin to bring Curiosity all the way to the surface safely. So they need a heat shield to slow it initially, a parachute to brake even more, and then rocket motors to drop it the rest of the way.

 Check out the video below for more details! 

#ScienceLooksGood Only When You Treat Everyone Equally

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The above video is the sad attempt by the European Commission to promote gender diversity in the sciences.  What were they thinking? How about you just ... show normal looking women participating in science experiments? They don't have to be doing "cute" things like trying to be fashionable, analyzing makeup, or striking a pose every time the camera is on them. Support women by showing women.

Sometimes I think these marketing companies outthink themselves when they're trying to be creative and come up with a commercial that gains traction. Unfortunately, this particular commercial went viral for the wrong reason.  Whether it's gender diversity, racial diversity, age diversity, or any thing else - we just want to see people that look like us doing what we want to do. That's it.

For better examples of promoting diversity, see WiSE (Women in Science and Engineering) and NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers). Don't forget about Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman in space and a national hero?

Your move, European Commission.

#ScienceLooksGood: We Eat Lots of Data

Check out this infographic by Domo on how data is consumed. The pic speaks for itself - click on it for a more detailed view.

Alan Turing: Cracking Codes and Taking Names

Every time you see a ridiculous movie scene where someone cracks a complex code, think about Alan Turing. He was born 100 years ago today and he's left an impressive legacy. He helped design early computer circuits, including his own Automatic Computing Engine (ACE), which was one of the fastest in the world. Famously, it helped to perform the many precise measurements needed to analyze plane wreckage of the time. He helped cracked the German Engima codes to hamper communication between our enemies in World War 2.

Just in case the machines that he helped design happen to take over the world, Turing also designed his own test to help distinguish between artificial intelligence and human intelligence. If we have a text only interaction with a human and a computer, would we be able to distinguish the two from one another? We incorporate Turing's ideals unconsciously whenever we delete a spam email message for looking too robotic.

Besides, if Google does a Doodle about Turing, he has to be something, right?