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Re: [Phys-l] Feynman's messenger lectures now available



If there are any dedicated users of older Macs here on Phys-l (or elsewhere) who are successful in getting this to work PLEASE speak up.
I'm using a ppc G4 and only version 1 of SilverLight is compatible.

I've tried FoxFire and Safari to no avail. (Although MicroSoft claims compatibility with these)

QuickTime would be SOOOOOO much nicer.
or even a more established MicroSoft codec.

On Jul 15, 2009, at Jul 15(Wed) 1:33 , Patricia T Viele wrote:

Note: It is necessary to download software to view the videos.

http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/index.html



The new Tuva Web site features annotated videos of Richard Feynman’s
physics lectures.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates believes that if he had been able to watch
physicist Richard Feynman lecture on physics in 1964 his life might have
played out differently.

Mr. Gates, of course, is legendary as a Harvard University dropout who
went on to create the world’s most successful software firm. He has told
associates that if had watched the lectures earlier in his life he might
have become a physicist instead of a software entrepreneur.

However, Mr. Gates, who is also well known for his sharp and varied
intellectual interests and his philanthropic commitment to education, said
this week that he had purchased the rights to videos of seven lectures
that Dr. Feynman gave at Cornell University called “The Character of
Physical Law,” in an effort to make them broadly available via the
Internet.

Microsoft Research announced on Wednesday that Mr. Gates, who purchased
the rights to the videos privately from the Feynman estate, BBC and from
Cornell University, in cooperation with Curtis Wong, a Microsoft
researcher, has created a Web site that is intended to enhance the videos
by annotating them with related digital content.

The name “Tuva” was chosen in reference to Dr. Feynman’s decade long — and
ultimately unsuccessful — effort to reach the tiny Russian republic of
Tuva, which is located in Asia, toward the end of his life.

Mr. Gates said that he had stumbled upon the film version of the lectures
a number of years ago, watched them with a friend using a traditional film
projector, and “fell in love” with them. The lectures are not the first
acquisition of this kind that the software billionaire, has made. In 1994
he acquired the Codex Leicester, a collection of the written work of
Leonardo da Vinci, for $30.8 million in an auction. He did not disclose
the amount he spent to gain clear title to the Feynman lectures.

“I do think that making science cool to people when they’re young and
therefore getting more people to go into it in an in-depth way, I think
that’s very important right now,” Mr. Gates said.

The Tuva Web site will be expanded with additional Feynman lectures in the
future, Mr. Gates said. When it is completed it will offer searchable
transcripts from the lectures as well as commentary from well-known
physicists. The site also offers individual viewers the ability to
annotate and take notes. Currently, the first lecture has an “extras”
features on the right side of the Web page which includes interactive
animations and other components.

Mr. Gates said that he remained fascinated with the lectures, which are
intended for a freshman college audience, but which he said were within
the grasp of his ten-year-old son. He noted that he had recently watched
them again while he was helping Mr. Wong put up the Tuva Web site.

“I couldn’t help myself, I watched them one more time,” he said.

This post originally described Gates as a “freshman” dropout, that’s
incorrect. He did make it to his sophomore year.


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