Archive for April, 2012

We talk about beards, dragon names, grammar nazis, and the evolution of language.

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/EastMeetsWest283-LinguaChanga/eastmeetswest283.mp3

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In 1947 – A report appeared in Billboard magazine of the first public demonstration of the Jerry Fairbanks Zoomar lens. The National Broadcasting Company in New York City conducted the demo and the zoom lens soon became standard TV equipment.

In 1957 – The first non-test FORTRAN program ran at Westinghouse. It produced a missing comma diagnostic. A successful attempt followed.

In 1965 – “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits” by Gordon Moore was published in Electronics. Moore projected that over the next ten years the number of components per chip would double every 12 months. By 1975 he turned out to be right, and the doubling became immortalized as Moore’s law.

Autopilot 04 – Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from March 26, 1989 to May 5, 1993, for a total of five seasons. The series was created by Donald Bellisario, and starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist from six years in the future (during the series’ original run) who becomes lost in time following a time travel experiment, temporarily taking the places of other people to “put right what once went wrong”. Dean Stockwell co-starred as Al Calavicci, Sam’s womanizing, cigar-smoking sidekick and best friend, who appeared as a hologram that only Sam, animals, young children, and the mentally ill could see and hear. The series featured a mix of comedy, drama and melodrama, social commentary, nostalgia and science fiction, which won it a broad range of fans. One of its trademarks is that at the end of each episode, Sam “leaps” into the setting for the next episode, usually uttering a dismayed “Oh, boy!”

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

Windows 8 to come in 3 flavors, Page, Ellison and the Google-Oracle circus trial, Ikea wants to build your next TV, and more.

Guest: Nilay Patel

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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: 53:24

In 1925 – The first commercial radio facsimile transmission was sent from San Francisco, California to New York City. It was a photograph showing Louis B. Mayer presenting Marion Davies with a gift.

In 1930 – BBC Radio made the startling announcement that nothing terribly important had happened. Listeners who tuned in to hear the news bulletin were told, “There is no news.” Piano music began subsequently.

In 1986 – Newspapers reported that IBM had become the first to use a megabit chip, a memory chip capable of storing 1 million bits of information, in its Model 3090.

Hosts: Brian Brushwood and Tom Merritt

Upfronts hit the web, Ikea’s Uppleva, Game of Thrones renewed for a third season, 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: 58:53

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

FCC gets catty with Google, Nexus comes to Sprint, 4K is for suckers, and more.

Guest: Natali Morris

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: 48:48

If you thought the audio podcast would get shorter because of our video show, you were not right. We have almost a full hour of discussion about why we like dark fantasy, what makes C.S. Lewis so cool, and the ups, downs, ins, and outs of Quentin Coldwater and The Magicians. Also Veronica keeps saying “lady cave” because she thinks it’s funny.  It’s funny.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

What We’re Drinking” segment needs an S&L name 

Tom: Racer 5 IPA 

Veronica: 2009 Mandolin Cabernet Sauvignon 

QUICK BURNS

New cover art: Abercrombie, Sanderson, Banks, Sapkowski 

Publisher hails CS Lewis ‘space trilogy’ e-book debut

Writing advice from C.S. Lewis was both adorable and concise 

The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books for Libertarians 

Over 2/3 of U.S. libraries offer e-books; 28% lend e-readers 

Cover art and blurb for Peter F. Hamilton’s GREAT NORTH ROAD

CALENDAR

BARE YOUR SWORD

FAQ – A Sword and Laser Primer for New Members 

Lev Grossman says what fantasy is about 

Send us videos! 

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Full episode list for Season 2 of GAME OF THRONES 

GAME OF THRONES renewed for a third season 

BOOK CHECK-IN

The Magicians by Lev Grossman 

Meta-mockery of the fantasy genre? 

Courage of your convictions when referencing other books? 

A Case of Loose Ends? 

EMAIL

Hello Tom & Veronica,

i’ve just watched the first video version of Sword & Laser on Youtube, and i totally loved it!

I have a small question you guys can hopefully help me out with.

I’ve recently sold my tablet (the poor thing was collection dust on the shelf), but now i’m finding myself getting back into e-books.

I could read them on my smartphone, but the small screen makes me want to turn it off after a few minutes.

Reading them on the computer works sometimes, but my concentration levels aren’t as high as i hoped, i usually find myself surfing the web withint 10-15 minutes.

Audiobooks may be a solution, and i am currently listening to one, narrated by your first guest Scott Sigler. However, i was hoping to somehow combine this with reading e-books.

Any tips on how to make it easier to read e)books for an hour at a time without reinvesting in a tablet or any other devices would be appreciated!

Love the show, your dragon definitely needs some patting

Sincerely,

JP

ADDENDUMS

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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.  

In 1944 – Harvard University President James Conant wrote to IBM founder Thomas Watson Sr. to let him know that the Harvard Mark I was operating smoothly. It was used in conjunction with the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships.

In 1967 – The Surveyor 3 spacecraft was successfully launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida on its mission to the Moon. It was the first to carry a surface soil sampling scoop.

1970 – The Apollo 13 spacecraft returned safely to Earth after a frightening malfunction caused the team to orbit landing on the Moon and scramble to keep themselves alive.

In 1959 – The programming language LISP had its first public presentation. Created by John McCarthy, LISP offered programmers flexibility in organization.

In 1971 – Abhay Bhushan proposed FTP (File Transfer Protocol) in RFC 114.

In 1976 – The Helios-B deep-space probe made what was then the closest controlled approach to the Sun at 43 million km or within 0.3 AU.