Email from Jol Thomson

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- L.M. 1-25-2011 2:38 pm

Jol Thomson, I want a fuller report than this. What was it like there? Were you there as a tourist or working.

I like that there's a place called Universe of Particles, because (as the name implies) isn't that pretty much everywhere? It's like "The land of tomorrow".

I love the first Server. It's so unremarkable. It's like the first email which was "LO". They were trying to LOG IN and the network crashed. When they did finally send it the message was basically "here's how to get your email".

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/First_Web_Server.jpg

CERN at the time had all sorts of cliques and each clique was running a different operating system. We forget now about how many there were (notice the server is running on a NeXT computer). His idea was to create protocols that could be understood by each system so that departments could actually share research.
Makes you wonder if apple would have survived without open web standards. If Tim Berners-Lee had decided to license TCP/IP instead of giving it away we'd be living in a very different world right now.
- joester (guest) 1-25-2011 4:24 pm


I know that Jol was part of a German group doing an art project there. He'll have to give you more detail himself, as I spoke to him before he went, and of course, I wasn't quite listening to exactly what he was doing. You know, the same way I barely listen to you or Sally or RMV or anyone for that matter.
- L.M. 1-25-2011 4:39 pm


coooooool!
- sally mckay 1-25-2011 8:43 pm


Ahh CERN was indeed cool Sally

I went there with a group of swede physicists- by chance - through a colleague of mine here in Frankfurt
The purpose of our tag-along was to go and develop some project there with the intention of returning again in the summer. One of the guys had been working there since '69 and so knew just about everything about everything.

So we were not working exactly but not tourists really either -
We were getting lectures and visiting various machines over the course of three days in December.

The very first morning we went to a lecture on anti-matter then visited the anti-proton decelerator -
This was a similar experience to being alive and dead at the same time as i understand it: ie: holy fucking amazing jaw drop.

It was fun!

Lots of interesting sounds and photos from there, but thinking still about the dream-wormhole project . . .

tschuss!

- jol (guest) 1-25-2011 11:18 pm


a lecture on anti-matter seems impossible. Reminds me of my current favorite joke.

The bartender asks it to leave.
A tachyon walks into a bar.

- joester (guest) 1-26-2011 10:14 pm


We haven't played the game yet.
- L.M. 1-26-2011 10:59 pm


Lorna REALLY likes 'the game'
This is definitely not the first, or the last time she has/will bring it up -

Nothing is impossible - Reality does not exist.

MILK CRATES!
- jol (guest) 1-28-2011 12:44 am





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