Marlow’s Listener

My WEC was the Whole Earth Catalog Fall 1969, a compendium of tools that made the future seem more limitless than it proved. It created a desire, usually wholly impracticable, to master the use of arcane tools, become expert in old timey crafts, ride a motorcycle to Patagonia, learn to play a synthesizer, cut my [...]

You can do calculations – eg print 18.3 * 27.6. You can define and use variables – eg a=pi/6, b=18.3, and then c=b**2*sin(1.3*a).  You can define and use single expression functions – e.g. f1(a,b,x)=a*x**2+b*sin(x)/x;  then with a and b already set you can calculate g=f1(a,b,2.3)/f1(a,b,3.2). Finally of course you can plot f1(a,b,x) – gnuplot assumes [...]

If ads had been free, then the way people would have learned how to do TV advertising would have been by running ads.

If you don’t have the same shorthands for every application you’re wasting serotonin.