Hey guys, I’m currently on the road at one of iD’s Tech newest locations: OhioStateUniversity!Let me tell you I’m excited for this location!After my tour today I have no doubt that we are in good hands at OSU, here are some of the highlights:
One-bedroom apt. style dorms:Each dorm room has a living room and a bedroom area and its own bathroom!During the year, these rooms house 4 college students but we’ll be using them for only 2 iD Tech Students (shh… don’t tell the OSU freshman that!)
An amazing Campus!OSU is the biggest single campus university in the entire country and every inch of it is filled with something interesting, cool art installments and amazing architecture from also most every American period.
Lots of fields to play on, nice cafeteria, lots of fun stores and cafes to visit, I could go on!
Additionally, while on campus I experienced an amazing chance encounter!
As I was heading toward my car to leave I ran into my good friend Jennifer who I had known in Davis, CA but had since lost touch with.I had absolutely no idea that she had enrolled as a Ph.D. student as OSU.This lead us ponder; what were are the odds that we would run into each other in that fashion?As an engineering student, I’m sure she’ll appreciate this handy work.The odds of us having a rendezvous were:
Odds that I would be responsible for this particular iD Tech location.As we have 12 regional managers (an un-paralleled level of support for our camps) let the odds of me managing this locations: “M” = 1/12
Odds that I would be visiting OSU on that particular day of the year.Though there are 365 days in a year, there are only 260 work-week days on which I can conduct business so let days: “D” = 1/260
Time spent on campus.As I spent about 4 hours and our rendezvous would not have occurred if I was offset by even 1 minute, let: “T1” = 1/240 (60 minutes)
Odds that I would be in that specific location on campus. .Ohio State University is the largest single-campus university in the entire country, weighing in at 76,447,800 square feet.So let my odds of being in that particular location be: “L1” = 1/ 76,447,800.
Constants:
Though I can only be in one place at a time we must assume that I can identify people within 20 square feet of me so we’ll need to multiply L by 20.
Currently we have equation:
1/12 * 1/260 * 1/2 * (1/76,447,800*20)
-or -
M*D1*T1(L1*20)
However, this falsely assumes that my friend
1)Was not considering any other PHD programs when applying
2)Stayed in a fixed position on campus all day
So we need to include an entire other half of the equation for her.It will be similar to mine but we have to adjust certain items. For instance we’ll assume that she spends 3/4’s of the year on campus (D2) and we’ll assume that OSU was one of 7 different PhD programs which she applied to (P).Also we’ll assume that on days she is on campus she spends the entire day work-day on campus (T2).So her side of the coin looks like:
(1/7 * 1/274 * 1/480 (1/76,447,800*20))
-or-
(P*D2*T2(L2*20))
When combine with my side, the result is 9.9282872 × 10-26 which is a face-meltingly small number, far lower then getting a royal flush in poker or even winning the state lottery.
Last Friday, while at dinner, I overheard a conversation about Bill Gates. The diners were asserting that much of his success was credited to the fact that he was in school and entering the professional world at the same time that the “first” computers were invented. This assumption is erroneous on a few accounts but what I found most objectionable was setting the date of the “1st computer” in the 1960-70′s. Additionally, claiming that any invention was the “1st computer” is extremely difficult because the criteria for selection is vague. Does something need electricity to be a computer? Does it need to be able to store data? Does the capacity for any simple computation suffice?
So what was the 1st computer? The history of the modern computer is very linear and organic with direct predecessors that can be traced back over 4,000 years to the abacus. As the progress of computers has been so gradual and fluid, I’m unable to pick a specific device to represent the “1st” computer. To choose recent technology (circa 1940-1950) would be to neglect some truly amazing ancient technology. Though I can not pick a single invention, I have narrowed down my choices to two machines which nicely bookend the history of computers, from ancient to modern:
The first Analog Computer: The Antiythera Mechanism, 125 B.C.E., Corinth Greece
Discovered in 1901, the Antikeythera Mechanism is an ancient mechanical calculator designed to calculate astronomical positions. The implementation of it’s data is unclear though it is theorized that it was either for planning dates on a calendar or for novelty (and was most likely not used for navigation). Data was entered through a crank, resulting in the prediction of various celestial bodies. It is the oldest The Antiythera Mechanism pre-dates technology of similar complexity by about one thousand years.
The Birth of Modern Computing: The EDSAC Computer, 1949, Cambridge University, England
Aside from being an electronic computer (which already existed) what qualifies this machine as the birth of “modern computing” was that it had the ability to store and execute a program on paper tape. EDSAC stands for Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (clearly not worried about marketing back then). Several years later “OXO” was programmed on it, a tic-tac-toe game, arguably the 1st video game ever. Despite its massive size the EDSAC could hold a little over 2KB of data (1024 bytes each containing 18 bits).
Today we congratulate Val Steinman! Val is the winner of a free week of Day Camp for iD Tech Camps! Val is the third Camp Fair Raffle winner of the season. We’ll be holding one more raffle at the end of April and announcing the winner here! Congratulations to Val and we are excited to have your family join the iD Family!
Come see us at a camp fair event near you and enter for your chance to win! To find a camp fair in your area, simply call our client service department at 1-888-709-TECH (8324), option 1.
Expertise: Photoshop, Illustrator & Graphic Design, Prairie Dogs, Corn, Driving Tractors, Moonwalking, and Guessing the Quantity of Random Objects in A Jar
Today we congratulate Val Steinman! Val is the winner of a free week of Day Camp for 
