Locator: 51825SPACE.
Headlines:
- SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket again today (Saturday, September 26, 2026);
- Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket for the 97th time today (Saturday, September 26, 2026)>
See discussion at this link. Link here: https://share.google/aimode/qZh2s9lHzIcoQeB6w.
Again, a very, very long discussion. High points:
Then, from me:
The fact that these numbers and these launches get very little mainstream media attention one can safely say the US has fully moved into space -- it has moved from the "exploration" cycle (which lasted for decades); is now in the late states of the "boom" cycle (which will probably last less than ten years due to Elon Musk); and quickly moving into the "sustainability" or "manufacturing" stage.
One wonders if all that talk about going to Mars was less about actually going to Mars but use that "excitement" to get the sector (the space launch sector) moving.
Finally:
The Wright brothers flight: 1903.
I think one can argue the US entered the modern air travel age in 1936 with The Douglas DC-3 (1936): this revolutionary aircraft allowed airlines to make a profit strictly from carrying passengers, freeing them from a reliance on government mail subsidies and launching modern commercial air travel. That took only 36 years.
With space exploration it has taken much, much longer, but I think one can argue that the modern space age (cargo) began in 2018 with Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy launch. And, now, only 2018 t0 2025, seven years. Thoughts?
Reply:
See this link for the comments regarding how audacious Elon Musk really was, link here. Link here: https://share.google/aimode/LyNl14dWSAJKvhXw2.
It's going to be easier than ever to write books in the future.
******************************
The Book Page
Speaking of books, I continue to read Stephen Witt's biography of Jensen Huang. Absolutely fascinating. It explains very, very well how PC gaming / PC gamers were related to Nvidia. Today, we begin Chapter 9, "CUDA." This should be very, very interesting.
The "big book" I'm reading is the authoritative book on Transcendentalism by Robert A Gross, 2021, along with Gemini. You can follow our discussions, chapter by chapter, by clicking here.
Chapter 9, "Cuda" begins:
Ian Buck was a graduate student in computer graphics at Stanford in 2000.
Gamers like Johnathan Wendel lowered their screen resolution to maximize the frame rate in deathmatch. Ian Buck took things to the opposite extreme .... in 2000 he chained thirty-two GeForce units together to render Quake III across eight projectors.... it took an entire wall....
Poking around the circuits, Buck began to wonder if his GPU daisy chain might be used for tasks other than shooting grenades at his friends. If you wanted to hand-render thirty frames of Quake III in 8K using pencil and paper, and you were willing to work twenty-four hours a day to do so, the arithmetic would take about 16,000 years to complete. Buck's GeForce array was doing that every second. Plus, the whoel rig cost only about $20,000 to assemble -- a pittance by the standards of high-performance computing. To play Quake on the wall, Buck had inadvertently build a low-budget supercomputer.
DARPA, 2002 or thereabouts ...
2004, Jensen Huang called ...
Parallel-computing evangelist .. Bill Dally -- offered a job by Jensen Huang, 2003 ...
Compute Unified Domain Architecture, CUDA ... a secret Nvidia project at the time ..
John Nickolls, an Nvidia engineer who invented CUDA ...
Prediction that Intel's long domination would soon expire ... p. 94.... Moore's Law truly dead ....
CUDA launched in 2006 ... p. 100
The incredible argument between Deb Shoquist and Jensen Huang .. p. 103 .... worth the price of the book ..
... ends with Kirk leaving permanent job at Nvidia to become a part-time consultant and to find his replacement ... p. 105.... his replacement would soon transform Nvidia Research into the most successful corporate R&D department in the world.
***********************
The Car Page
Here are the photos. Narrative below the photos. The JEEP has a "Let's Go Brandon" above "Sahara." Below JEEP is "Wrangler." This is a brand new 2026 JEEP.
This is not me in the photo but it is my granddaughter, 12-y/o Sophia.
This is what is going on, link here. Link here: https://share.google/aimode/yTTEQkhr7gEHUm4Fr.
**************************
The Music Page
All I ever need is you.
