Tag Archives: history

The Tipping Point

As I wrapped up the demo I turned around and noticed his eyes and mouth were wide open with astonishment. Picking his jaw off the table he told me the same grid I’d just made in minutes would’ve taken him … Continue reading

Posted in Off Topic | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Developer’s Diary: Porting Pointwise to Mac OS X

A customer recently asked the casual but loaded question: Was it easy to port Pointwise to the Mac? Wow, where to begin? Practically speaking, porting a large and complex piece of software from one platform to another is always challenging, … Continue reading

Posted in Applications, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Aircraft designer, Robert Widmer, dies at age 95

Robert Widmer, a long time engineer and aircraft designer, has passed away. He led the development of the first supersonic bomber, the B-58, as well as the F-111 and F-16. When I worked at General Dynamics in the 1980’s he … Continue reading

Posted in News, People & Places | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Wind Tunnel That Helped Win World War II

The Atlantic magazine has a nice article about the history of the NASA Langley Full Scale Wind Tunnel, including some pictures from the Library of Congress of the tunnel’s construction and some historic aircraft tested there. Some impressive statistics on … Continue reading

Posted in News, People & Places | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight

Today is the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight and first human orbit of the earth by Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1. How can you celebrate this momentous event? Find a Yuri’s Night party and have a blast.

Posted in Events, Off Topic, People & Places | Tagged , | Leave a comment