Tom Merritt's Blog, page 1177
October 8, 2012
Autopilot – QUICK CHECK IN!
Autopilot – QUICK CHECK IN!
Tech History Today – Oct. 8
In 1841 – Edmund C. Berkeley, an actuary at the Prudential Insurance Company, wrote a report about possible applications of electromechanical calculation to large commercial data-processing needs.
In 1860 – Telegraph lines opened between Los Angeles and San Francisco. This allowed gold miners to tell backers farther south that they still hadn’t found any gold.
In 1921 – KDKA radio in Pittsburgh conducted the first live broadcast of a football game from Forbes Field. The University of Pittsburgh beat West Virginia University.
October 7, 2012
Tech History Today – Oct. 7
In 1806 – Englishman Ralph Wedgwood received the first patent on carbon paper, which led to the initials cc to indicate a carbon copy which led to the email option to “cc” somebody.
In 1954 – IBM sounded the death knell of vacuum tubes, building the first calculating machine to use solid-state transistors. It was an experimental version of the IBM 604 Electronic Calculating Punch, that was desktop-sized and slow just like it’s vacuum-tube powered brother, but it used 5% of the power!
In 1959 – The Soviet Space Probe Luna 3 took the first photographs of the dark side of the moon. You’re welcome Pink Floyd.
October 6, 2012
S&L Video – #12B – ‘Foundation’ Wrap-Up
September is drawing to a close, and that means its time to wrap up this month’s Laser pick, Foundation by Issac Asimov! We wonder if Hari Seldon could have predicted it was this month’s pick…
Learn more about our September pick!
Foundation: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29579.Foundation
Discussion Threads:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/972592-renegade-read-for-august-september…
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/999082-post-your-pulp-gems
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/993638-serialised-novels-what-do-you-think
Railsea review by David: http://youtu.be/fV17ak0C0_8
S&L Video – #13B – ‘Cloud Atlas’ Kick-off
With a movie adaptation coming to theatres on October 26th, we kick-off David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, check in with the folks over on Goodreads, and giggle like schoolboys at the titles of a few of Tom’s favorite pieces of pulp fiction!
More about our October Pick, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49628.Cloud_Atlas
Discussion Threads:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/972592-renegade-read-for-august-september…
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/999082-post-your-pulp-gems
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/993638-serialised-novels-what-do-you-think
Railsea review by David: http://youtu.be/fV17ak0C0_8
Check out the Calendar for upcoming interviews and book picks:http://swordandlaser.com/calendar
Tech News Today 601: You’re Wearing It Wrong
Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell
Why everybody still talks about Steve Jobs, AT&T’s hot new tablets, Dish plans for Blockbuster, and more.
Guest: Darren Kitchen
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: 51:06
Tech History Today – Oct. 6
In 1893 – U.S. copyright was issued to William K. L. Dickson for a “publication” consisting of “Edison Kinetoscopic Records.” It was the first motion picture copyright in North America. No torrents were uploaded until much later.
In 1914 – Edwin H. Armstrong received a US patent for a “Wireless Receiving System” which described his famous regenerative, or feedback, circuit. Armstrong would go on to pioneer FM radio.
In 1927 – Al Jolson appeared on a movie screen in New York City and said for all to hear “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” It was the first talkie.
October 5, 2012
Tech History Today – Oct. 5
In 1969 – The first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on the BBC. The show created the Spam sketch that would eventually inspire the slang term for unsolicited email.
In 1991 – Linux Kernel, version 0.02 was released, attracting a lot of attention. Author Linus Torvalds felt this version was at least usable and worth a wider release.
In 2011 – Steve Jobs died at his home surrounded by family. The co-founder and CEO of Apple has fought pancreatic cancer for years.
Tech News Today 600: I’ve Got a Golden Android
Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell
FTC shuts down scammers, Facebook dings 1 billion, Microsoft might buy Rdio, and more.
Guest: Martin Giles
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: 52:36
October 4, 2012
East Meets West 296 – Is the Republic lost?
Roger and Tom review the US presidential debate and Tom shares his thoughts on the first half of Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessig.
