the micro-computer geek passes on...

Ed Roberts, creator of early PC, dies | Beyond Binary - CNET News:

Ed Roberts, whose early Altair 8800 computer helped inspire Bill Gates and Paul Allen to start Microsoft, died Thursday. He was 68.

Though Roberts' name is less well known than some other computing pioneers, the Altair is widely credited as the first personal computer and for helping inspire the modern computer industry. Roberts established Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), which introduced the Altair in 1975.

He gave Gates and Allen their first big break by letting them try to write a BASIC interpreter, which they carefully entered in on a long paper-tape, and which astonishingly, actually worked. Had it not, there might not even be a Microsoft today...

on "natural wildlife"

A fascinating article on the history and current state of natural wildlife photography and filming, particularly in the fact that much of the wildlife isn't actually "wild", but come from game farms specifically kept for this purpose often with illegal or unethical maintenance and conditions.

Audubon Magazine:

“With photos you can include notes, but it’s hard to interrupt a movie,” observes respected wildlife-film maker Chris Palmer. For the National Wildlife Federation’s 1997 IMAX film Wolves, he rented models from Animals of Montana. “Sections of this film were made possible by employing captive wolves,” reads one of the credit lines. That was more than most filmmakers were doing 13 years ago, but like photo credits, movie credits often go unread. Palmer now uses that “mistake” as a teachable moment in his lectures and in his book Shooting in the Wild, to be published in May by Sierra Club Books. “Since then I’ve learned about game farms,” he told me. “Animals are kept in small cages and lead miserable lives. And they’re placed in even smaller cages and taken on the road for days to some wild place.”