Friday Flashback: Western stories

False advertising alert: since I grew up in the West, technically all of my stories are Western stories. Well, anyway, let me ramble through a few.

This post is partly about television. Our family purchased a first TV set sometime in the late 50's or early 60's. I particularly enjoyed westerns, especially John Wayne. While watching one one evening, I became enamored of the phrase, "put up your dukes." The next day, I tried it out at school and the kid promptly knocked me to the floor! This was in elementary school, as we were walking out the door for recess. Needless to say, I never used the phrase again (without heavy quotes) and didn't get into any more fights.

About this time, a few friends and I formed a science club in elementary school. One of the kids kind of took everything over, so the rest of us quit the club.

In my Junior High School days, I had a favorite TV show. Just after arriving home on the school bus, Fireball XL-5 came on, and I watched it every chance I had. Even though color TV's were available at the time, we had a black and white set. And, one channel, channel 7 out of Lethbridge.

My sister and I both wrote stories for that western newspaper, the Winnipeg Free Press Weekly. The one that appeared from me had the pen name of "Solar Scout," another indication of my early interest in space travel.

All of this dreaming about space travel might have helped motivate me to get good grades, culminating in the ninth grade with my receiving the Governor General's medal. An article in the Lethbridge Herald covered the announcement.


Later, in High School, some of us organized a science club, called the Apogee Scientific Organization. We flew model rockets, among other things.

Just after graduating, during the summer, I hit a softball for the first time in my life (other than practicing alone). It was actually a home run, and very sweet, because one of my former school mates happened to be walking by at the time, and as I ran to first, I heard him ask in wonderment, "was that Conrad who hit that?"

Ingenuity

The seat belt buckle is held above the floor by a little plastic button that is riveted onto the seat belt at the right height. The plastic button is black and visible in the middle of the belt towards the bottom of this picture.


Sometimes, it breaks off. Thereafter it can become difficult to find the buckle, because it can slide along the belt all the way to the floor.

I first tried a safety pin for awhile, reasoning that the small hole in the belt must not be a safety hazard because the hole is there for the original equipment button in the first place. However, when the safety pin comes undone, it can cause some damage to a questing hand.

So, I used a large keyring. Carefully starting it through the pre-existing hole in the seat belt, I worked it around until it was entirely in place, encircling half of the belt. It is clearly visible around the right half of the belt midway down the picture.


This works very well, and the questing hand can find it easily, and without injury.

Friday Flashback: Public Speaking

As most of my readers know, I was raised in a family that belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During the growing up years, we just considered ourselves to be Mormon, and that's what everyone around called us, as well.

Part of the religious practice is to attend a Sunday meeting called "Sacrament Meeting" which includes speakers chosen from among the members of the congregation (called a "ward").

At that time, it was customary to have one or two "youth speakers" start out early on in the meeting. They were customarily followed by two or three adult speakers. When I was 12, I got my first opportunity to be a youth speaker.

When I stood at the pulpit, I began to cry out of fear or tension or something. I couldn't seem to get control. My dad, who was seated on the stand behind me, as a member of the bishopric, came and stood beside me, with his arm around my shoulder, while I composed myself. He sat down once I started to give my talk.

I have always appreciated his gesture. Many a time I overheard him in our home asking my mother with some exasperation, "why is he crying?" I can't remember her answer, nor do I really know myself why. But, I used to cry quite easily as a child.

After this traumatic public experience of crying, I had a stern talk with myself, and mostly control myself ever since.

Friday Flashback: Screencast 90s style

While digitizing some old home movies from VHS-C magnetic tapes, I came across a 5 minute screencast that I created sometime in the mid 1990's. The term "screencast" dates from 2004. While I am certainly not the first person in the world to produce one, I did do it about 10 years before the name was coined. The program¹ used to generate these images was written about 10 years earlier still.

Three segments, edited from the one recorded screencast, are presented here. The first one (57 seconds) describes a particular one dimensional cellular automaton, which generates a fractal pattern over time.

The next one (38 seconds) describes a different one dimensional cellular automaton, which demonstrates what is called a "glider". Over time a configuration of cells moves, in this case to the right. A mirror image of this configuration would move to the left.

The final segment (90 seconds) uses the same cellular automaton rules² as the previous one, and shows what is called a "glider gun". As time progresses, this configuration of cells emits gliders regularly, first one moving to the right, then another moving to the left, and so on. In a wrap-around world, like the one I used in this Apple ][ program, the glider moving to the right soon meets up with the next one moving to the left and the two annihilate each other.

Creating a screencast with an Apple ][ was not difficult, and did not require any software, since this personal computer used an ordinary television set as its monitor. So it was a simple matter to take the output of the TV, using an RCA video cable, and connecting it to the video-in of a camcorder. The voice over was captured by the built-in microphone of the camcorder, as I operated the keyboard and watched the screen.

1. I wrote the program myself, in 6502 machine language, in the mid 1980's. Unfortunately, this program no longer exists, being a victim of digital decay.
2. The cellular automata rules come from a series of articles in Scientific American written by Stephen Wolfram. The subscription to Scientific American was initially a gift from a former professor (who was also influential in my decision to major in Computer Science), Dr. Alan C. Ashton.

More on the bridge: less bridge

There is less and less left of the bridge (strictly speaking, a viaduct) that used to be part of North Temple, and part of my commute to work.

The section of bridge over 400 West is now completely removed.

The new viaduct will begin at 400 West and go up and over the railway tracks from there to 600 West.

Friday Flashback: Advanced Technology

Many years ago, in the early 1990's, I worked for WordPerfect Corporation in its Advanced Technology Group. One project with which I was heavily involved was using a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) as a remote control for television.

I made a huge cardboard mock-up (about 3 feet by 18 inches and six inches thick) out of a cardboard box, with an image of the screen and controls pasted on the front. Also, we constructed a working prototype, using a PC connected to a universal remote control. The screen of the PC showed what would appear on the screen of the PDA, and the remote actually controlled a TV.

Now this has become reality! See this new app for the Apple iPad.

Other than the social networking feature (remember that our work was done before the Internet was widely known), we had foreseen all of the features shown in the video demo of this new app. Amazing what 20 years can do for technology maturation.

Bridge out

I usually travel to work via North Temple, but the bridge over the railway tracks is being demolished!

Having to find alternate routes...