Another SpaceX success...

Another SpaceX success...  They launched an NRO classified payload today, and recovered the first stage by a landing at Cape Canaveral.

Simply amazing.  If I were a young man right now, I'd be doing everything I could to get a job at SpaceX.  If I were at NASA, I'd be wondering why.

Webcast of today's launch.  I never get tired of watching these things...

Walking down memory lane again...

Walking down memory lane again...  Just saw the latest Ken Shirriff post on reverse-engineering the 76477 audio chip.  Oh, man, did that bring back some memories!  I ran into that chip when doing a consulting gig to design electronic pinball machines in the late '70s.  Back then the idea of an electronic pinball machine was pretty radical, and in many parts, heretical.  One of the biggest complaints players had about the few electronic machines in existence was the horrible audio (and it really was horrible!).  The fellow I was consulting for was willing to spend some money to solve that problem, and we quickly focused on the 76477 as a practical solution.  We ended up with four of them in our design, all being controlled by a Z80 and a board full of analog electronics to supplement the 76477.  We got it to the point of slightly less than horrible, but certainly nowhere near the mechanical noise nirvana of an old fashioned solenoid-and-relay pinball machine...