Tom Merritt's Blog, page 1169

Tech History Today – Nov. 14

In 1922 – The BBC sent its first transmission from station 2LO at Marconi House London. The first newscast was read by Arthur Burrows, first Director of Programmes.

In 1971 – The American space probe Mariner 9 began orbiting Mars becoming the first spacecraft to successfully orbit another planet.

In 2007 – The last Direct Current electrical distribution system in the US was shut down by Con Edison in New York.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Autopilot S2E01 – Babylon 5

Autopilot S2 E1 – Babylon 5

Set between the years 2258 and 2262, Babylon 5 depicts a future where Earth has sovereign states, and a unifying Earthgov. Colonies within the solar system, and beyond, make up the Earth Alliance, and contact has been made with other spacefaring races. The ensemble cast portray alien ambassadorial staff and humans assigned to the five-mile-long Babylon 5 space station, a centre for trade and diplomacy.

Tech News Today 628: It’s Pronounced GIF

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

The reason Sinofsky left Micrososft, Yahoo about to go all Gmail, Jawbone tries again at fitness, and more.

Guests: Derek Colanduno and Paul Thurrott

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

Check out the full show notes for today’s episode.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend the wiki entry for this episode at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 50:21

Tech History Today – Nov. 13

In 1851 – The first public message was sent on the submarine telegraph cable under the English Channel between Dover, England and Calais, France.

In 1982 – 15-year-old Scott Safran of Cherry Hill New Jersey set the world record score on Asteroids. His record stood for 27 years, the longest-running high score in videogame history.

1983 – The MIT TX-0, an experimental transistorized computer, was brought back to life for the last time at The Computer Museum in Marlboro, Massachusetts.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Frame Rate 101: Eyeballs Flowing to the Internet

Hosts: Brian Brushwood and Tom Merritt

Youtube partners halved, Star Wars Episode VII screenwriter, Dish’s ad skipping feature, IAWTV awards announced, and more.

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/fr.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 1:12:32

S&L Podcast – #114 – World-builder porn

It’s a fun show this time.  No, seriously, you should try to listen. We talk with Dave Gross, Lead Writer at Overhaul Games, and James L. Sutter a co-creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Fiction Editor for Paizo Publishing. They share some great insights on the relationship of role-playing games to fantasy novels as well as just about the craft of writing itself. Also Veronica peer pressures Tom into drinking.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Racer 5 IPA 
Veronica: 2009 Pirie South Tasmania Pinot Noir
 
QUICK BURNS
How to Get Signed and Personalized Scalzi Books for the Holidays, 2012

Who would win in a fight between Tolkien characters and Game of Thrones characters? George R.R. Martin weighs in

Fake William Gibson novels, tweeted

Philip Pullman’s Grimm’s Fairytales 

BARE YOUR SWORD
Is this indicative of Tad Williams’ work?
 
CALENDAR
 
INTERVIEW
Dave Gross, Lead Writer at Overhaul Games, developers of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition. and James L. Sutter a co-creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Fiction Editor for Paizo Publishing.

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring audio versions of many New York Times Best Sellers. For listeners of this podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook, to give you a chance to try out their service. For a free audiobook of your choice go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.  

ADDENDUMS

 

Tech News Today 627: Fighting Off the Osborne Effect

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

Why Apple made peace with HTC, Samsung sticks it to Apple, YouTube cancels the 60 percent, and more.

Guest: Declan McCullagh

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

Check out the full show notes for today’s episode.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend the wiki entry for this episode at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 51:12

Tech History Today – Nov. 12

In 1946 – The US Army held a contest between an abacus used by Kiyoshi Matsuzaki from Japan’s postal ministry and an electric calculator operated by Private Thomas Nathan Wood. The abacus won 4 to 1.

In 1970 – The Oregon Highway Divisions made an ill-advised attempt to destroy a dead whale by blowing it up with explosives. The results, documented by local news, eventually became Internet gold as the “exploding whale” video.

In 1990 – Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for a hypertext project. The proposal refers to a “web of information nodes” and implementing “browsers” The project eventually became the World Wide Web.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Tech History Today – Nov. 11

In 1675 – Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of good ol y=f(x). That is, if you believe what he wrote in his notebooks.

In 1930 – Albert Einstein, yes that Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard received a US patent for a refrigerator that required no electricity, just a heat source. Electrolux bought up the patents.

In 2006 – The Sony PS3 went on sale with a built-in Blu-ray player and hard drive.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Tech History Today – Nov. 10

In 1983 – Fred Cohen demonstrated a way to insert code into a Unix command in order to gain control of systems. His academic adviser, Len Adelman (the A in RSA) compares the self-replicating code to a virus. It wasn’t the first code of it’s kind, but it’s the one that inspired the name.

In 1983 – At the plaza hotel in New York, Bill Gates announced Windows. It originally was called Interface Manager until Rowland Hanson convinced Gates to change the name. It would take two years before Microsoft would put it on sale.

In 2001 – The first Apple iPod went on sale. Analysts agreed that the price of $399 was too high, and Apple was too inexperienced in consumer electronics to make it a success.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.