Tom Merritt's Blog, page 1181

Tech News Today 590: Tire People are on Sarah’s Side

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

Apple maps lose whole towns, new MakerBot takes Manhattan, why Google thinks Android is only a third done, and more.

Guest: Nicole Lee

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Running time: 51:59

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Published on September 21, 2012 16:11

Tech History Today – Sep. 21

In 1866 – Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, England. He would grow up to write under the name H. G. Wells and help form the genre of science fiction.

In 1999 – Google came out of beta. The young company announced its new Google Scout feature and the launch of its new website, removing the beta designation from the Google search engine.

In 2000 – Kevin Mitnick was released from a Lompoc, California prison after almost five years of incarceration.

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Published on September 21, 2012 00:47

Tech News Today 589: The Rubber Hose Effect

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

HTC’s new Windows Phone gambit, iPhone’s glowing reviews, Sony dominates Tokyo Game Show, and more.

Guest: Russ Pitts

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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.

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Running time: 51:51

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Published on September 20, 2012 08:11

1848 – At noon in the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, members of the former Association of American Geologists and Naturalists met to create the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1954 – John Backus and his team at IBM ran the first FORTRAN program. FORTRAN stands for FORmula TRANslation and was the first high-level language and compiler developed.

In 1983 – A patent for the RSA Algorithm for public-key cryptography was awarded. RSA stands for Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, who first publicly described it in 1977.

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Published on September 20, 2012 00:11

Tech History Today – Sep. 19

In 1982 – In a posting made at 11:44 AM, Professor Scott Fahlman first proposed using the characters :-) to indicate jokes on a computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University. In the same post he suggested :-( .

In 1989 – About 100 hospitals that used software from Shared Medical Systems saw their computers go into a loop when the date was entered. The day was 32,768 days from January 1, 1900, which caused a system overflow.

In 1995 – International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD) was first celebrated by John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon. They had come up with the idea on June 6th while playing racquetball, but that was D-Day. The 19th was Summers’ ex-wife’s birthday, and the only day he could reliably remember.

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Published on September 19, 2012 00:17

Tech News Today 588: Glasses on a Steady Chicken

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

Intel and Motorola shack up, Twitter messes with itself, Microsoft pushing subscriptions, and more.

Guest: Tim Stevens

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: 54:08

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Published on September 19, 2012 00:11

Tech History Today – Sep. 18

In 1830 – America’s first native locomotive, the “Tom Thumb” lost a race to a draft horse at Ellicotts Mills, Maryland.

In 1927 – The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System went on the air with 47 radio stations. Within two years it would be sold and become the Columbia Broadcasting System and later simply CBS.

In 1998 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers aka ICANN was created in order to take over Internet administrative tasks from the US Government. The most famous of those tasks is overseeing the Domain Name System.

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Published on September 18, 2012 00:05

S&L Podcast – #110 – Interview with Anton Strout!

It’s a virtual bachelorette party of SciFi and Fantasy discussion today, with a chat about how SciFi can be interesting if it follows the laws of physics, and an interview with author Anton Strout.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Kona Big Wave Golden Ale
Veronica: Fruity vodka drink with Passion Fruit and stuff

QUICK BURNS
The full story of the Targaryen Conquest in A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE
Sneak peek at graphic novel of Wrinkle in Time
William Gibson on Twitter, Antique Watches and Internet Obsessions
William Gibson on Why Sci-Fi Writers Are (Thankfully) Almost Always Wrong
William Gibson on Punk Rock, Internet Memes, and ‘Gangnam Style’
William Gibson on the io9 show
Neal Stephenson on the Hieroglyph Project
Neal Stephenson on Predictions and Surprises
How to Write a Killer Space Adventure Without Breaking the Speed of Light

CALENDAR

Interview with Anton Strout

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