Tom Merritt's Blog, page 1201

Tech History Today – Mar. 29

In 1941 – 80% of US AM radio frequencies were reassigned to new channels as part of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement.

In 1945 – German soldiers blew the launch tracks for the V-1 rocket site near Letelle, Netherlands, ending the rocket attacks.

In 1974 – NASA's Mariner 10 became the first spaceprobe to cross the orbit of Mercury about 704 km from the surface.

Triangulation 46: Caterina Fake

Hosts: Caterina Fake and Tom Merritt

Caterina Fake creator of Flickr and new venture "Pinwheel" a way to find and leave notes around the world.

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Running time: 48:37

S&L Podcast – #96 – Interview with Scott Lynch

We're psyched to interview Scott Lynch, who, spoiler alert, is the Scott who gets welcomed in the new member hellos too! Plus we delve into the Ender's Game controversy and pick good audio books for road trips.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Water 
Veronica: 2006 Bruno Rocca Barbaresco 

QUICK BURNS
Teacher Suspended For Reading Ender's Game To Students
How does 1Q84 stack up to Haruki Murakami's classic novels? 
Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Series That Started Out as Trilogies 
EXPANSE Book III given a title 

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

The Lies of Locke Lamora > Boing Boing's List of Vagabonds 
Time for a road trip! (No, we don't mean we're going on tour) 

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES
Twilight slashfic takes Hollywood 

INTERVIEW
Scott Lynch
The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1) by Scott Lynch

BOOK PICK
Help pick our May book (It's a laser)

EMAIL
Hey there! I am an assistant librarian at Parman Library here in San Antonio, TX. I was wondering, since you guys have quite the following, if you could have an option on your site or goodreads site where people can submit their book groups/social clubs for others to search for.  For instance, I have a science fiction book group at our library called Escape the Earth! and if it were listed on your site, which gets a lot of traffic from SF fans, it would bring my community closer together in our nerdom. Just a thought… Been enjoying the podcast!
 
Tyler D. Lutz
—

Hey Tom and Veronica.
Congrats on the video show, I'd actually always hoped we'd see a video show (though I always imagined it would have been a TWiT.TV show).
Anyway I have a couple of thoughts.
1. You mentioned the video show needing to be pretty strictly PG. Do you feel this is going to have a real impact on the book choices?
2. What's going to happen with Game of Thrones TV discussion? I'd really like you to think about doing a separate small 10-15 minute audioshow after each episode and drop them in the podcast feed. 
Anyway really looking forward to the video show.
Jason (Australia).
— 

I know you cant talk about it on sword and laser because of your sponsor but I think people should know about
http://librivox.org/
It is a website that is trying to record all public domain books into audio books and then publish them on the web under creative commons.  People can volunteer to read books or chapters and upload them back to the site.  They are all surprising well done and although not on the same level as paid versions.  They are very easy to listen to, unlike computer synthesized voices.
I first heard about from the roku channel on the nowhere man's privet channel page
http://thenowhereman.com/roku/
I would love to know what you think about it
Thanks
-Andrew  

NEW MEMBER HELLOS
Jonathan, Paul, Courtney, Mike, Josh, Scott, Micha, Tyler, Brooke, Yento, G Willow Wilson, Brandon, Carleen, Leslie, Amber, Travis, Kelly, Hagar, Vicki,Terry, Quinton, Dan, Josh, Gally, Mike, Rachel, Phil, Cameron, Ryan, Chase, JC, Frank, Mike, Louie, Cy, Nick, Jon, Trevor, Sean, Damian, Hunter, Gary, Sam, Jacob, Hai, Tony, Phillip, Eric, TK, Will, CF, Jason, ob1spyker, Semora (see-more-ah), Luis, Tracey, Mimsey, Sara, Paul, John

Autopilot 01 – Star Trek: The Cage

Autopilot 01 – Star Trek: The Cage

"The Cage" is the first pilot episode of the Star Trek: The Original Series science fiction series. It was completed in early 1965 (with a copyright date of 1964), but not broadcast on television in its complete form until the autumn of 1988. The episode was written by Gene Roddenberry and directed by Robert Butler. It was rejected by NBC in February 1965, and the network ordered another pilot episode, which became "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Much original footage from "The Cage" was later incorporated into the first season two-parter, "The Menagerie".

Tech News Today 466: Smack The Magnet

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane and Iyaz Akhtar.

Google Drive on its way? Sony stops hating itself, Xbox no longer just for video games, and more.

Guests: Veronica Belmont

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Running time: 38:48

Tech History Today – Mar. 28

In 1905 – Cornelius Ehret of Rosemont, Pennsylvania received a patent for the "Art of Transmitting Intelligence." It was the forerunner of the modern fax.

In 1935 – Robert Goddard launched the first rocket equipped with gyroscopic controls near Roswell, New Mexico. The rocket reached an altitude of 4,800 feet and flew 13,000 feet at a speed of 550 mph.

In 1979- A combination of equipment malfunction and human error caused a partial reactor meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. While no injuries or deaths have been attributed to the accident, it changed US nuclear attitudes significantly.

Frame Rate 69: Made Of Slurry

Hosts: Brian Brushwood and Tom Merritt

Xfinity On Demand for Xbox, BSkyB announces Now TV, the saga of Blood and Chrome, Total Recall trailer, and more.

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Running time: 1:04:31

Tech News Today 465: Moving At The Speed Of Law

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane and Jason Howell

IS Comcast violating net neutrality? Microsoft rides with the US Marshals, Android smokes Windows Phone, and more.

Guests: David Hewlett

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

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

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: 48:56

Tech History Today – Mar. 27

In 1850 – San José was incorporated as one of the first cities in California and was the site of the first state capital. It would lose the capital to Vallejo in 1852 but eventually become the center of Silicon Valley and the de facto capital of the technology world.

In 1884 – Bell and Watson experimented with a line of two twelve gauge hard-drawn copper wires connecting Boston and New York City. The line worked for about ninety minutes before finally failing.

In 1899 – Guglielmo Marconi made the first wireless transmission from France to England. A message was sent 32 miles from Wimereaux near Boulogne, France, to the South Foreland lighthouse near Dover, England. This became an important alternative to laying undersea cables for telegraphy.

Tech History Today – Mar. 26

In 1973 – Larry Page was born in East Lansing, Michigan. He would go on to help invent and co-found Google.

In 1976 – Queen Elizabeth II sent the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Malvern as a part of a demonstration of networking technology.

In 1999 – The "Melissa" worm showed up in a file on the alt.sex usenet group and became the first successful mass-mailing worm. The worm's creator, David L. Smith, apparently named the worm after a lap dancer in Florida.