Mercury 7 [Friendship 7 with John Glenn Aboard] Launch Anniversary

Astronaut John Glenn. On Feb. 20, 1962, 58 years ago today, Glenn (then, a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps) was hurled into space aboard the NASA Mercury Atlas (MA-6) spacecraft.

Glenn, both the first American to enter space, also became the oldest human ever to venture into space as a working member of the Space Shuttle Discovery Crew on October 29, 1998.

John Glenn, a United States Marine, a NASA Astronaut and then a United States Senator - his duty bound focus, and incredible heroism helped lead all mankind into space.

John Glenn died on December 8, 2016, and, was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

Shannon's Legacy →

Saturday's Must Read is the story of the years Claude Shannon spent (early-on his career) residing and working in New York City. If you are at all interested in Information Theory, and the vast foundational work that has led us to this moment in the computational sciences, take a moment and read this New Yorker piece on Claude E. Shannon, and this article in the IEEE's superlative periodical - Spectrum Magazine - you have my sincere assurance you'll be glad you did.

Community Memory →

via IEEE's Spectrum Magazine, comes this oddity of computational flotsam in the guise of an early terminal, which permitted reading messages on a bulletin-board-like system in San Francisco, California.

"Among the volunteers who made up Loving Grace Cybernetics and Resource One was Lee Felsenstein, who would go on to help establish the Homebrew Computer Club and who played a number of other pioneering roles in the nascent personal computing industry." - via via IEEE's Spectrum Magazine writer David C. Brock (David C. Brock is Director of the Center for Software History at the Computer History Museum, in Mountain View, California)

WWII Hackers →

Presentation by Anja Drephal detailing a Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик (also known as the CCCP) or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) espionage cell, operating within the national boundaries of Nippon in the 1930s and 1940s along with it's success in crypto. Whilst nearly two years old and delivered to the assembled at the Chaos Communication Congress 2013 (30C3), Drephal's presentation is assuredly worth directing your attention to (the math in the second half of the presentation is chock full of Import & Intrigue); Tuesday's Must View documentary...