alt Hacker NewsI used to be a professional sailor, and love finding nautical terminology in programming. At sea dead reckoning is navigating using the speed and direction of the ship, and adding tide and wind to calculate a fix based on the last known position. The term dates back to the 1600s.
It is fun to point at a chart and confidently state “We’re here! I reckon...”
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Jare • yesterday at 3:33 PM
I think the introduction of the term in networking simulations and games came with SIMNET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIMNET and continued more widely in the DIS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_Interactive_Simula...
I first learned of it in some writing about a 1997 multiplayer game called, heh, Dead Reckoning.
There's a book I read a while back named "Longitude" that maps the storied quest in science to improve upon dead reckoning by devising greater and greater accuracy in time pieces used on ships. Iirc it was a fun read if anyone else finds that sort of thing interesting (as I do.)