Author Archive

In 1893 – Thomas Alva Edison demonstrated the Kinetoscope for the first time at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.

In 1941 – British destroyers captured a German U-110 submarine south of Iceland and recovered a naval version of the highly secret cipher machine known as Enigma. The sub was sunk to hide its capture and the machine taken to Bletchley Park where Alan Turing and other cryptographers broke the naval code.

In 1967 – The National Center for Atmospheric Research dedicated its new building in Boulder Colorado. Funded by a a $100,000 grant from the Max C. Fleishmann Foundation and designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei., the center pioneered investigation of weather patterns and other atmospheric phenomena.

Hosts: Tom Merritt and Brian Dunaway

While the name ultrabook will become meaningless, eBooks will not replace the dead trees entirely.

Guests: Dana Wollman and Scott McNulty

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Running time: 48:34

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Chad Johnson

Google-Oracle verdict confuses all, Apple laptops to get cheaper, AT&T wants to secure your house, and more.

Guest: Simon Dingle

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Running time: 46:48

In 1790 – The French National Assembly acted on a motion from Bishop Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. to create a simple, stable, decimal system of measurement units. The earliest metre unit chosen was the length of a pendulum with a half-period of a second. The system eventually evolved into the metric system.

1988 – A fire broke out in the main switching room of the Hinsdale Central Office of the Illinois Bell telephone company, causing a telephone service outage for more than 40,000 local phone lines. It was considered at the time to be the ‘worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history.’

In 1995 – The New York Times announced it would join eight other newspapers in the New Century Network. The network aimed to connect local online news services into a national service on the Web.

In 1895 – The first demonstration of A A Popov’s electromagnetic wave receiver took place at a meeting of the Russian Physical Chemical Society in St.- Petersburg. It was essential to the development of wireless communications.

Also In 1895 – Otto Steiger received a patent for the Millionaire calculating machine. Switzerland’s Hans Egli made 4,700 of the 120-pound things. The Millionaire’s chief feature was the ability to do direct multiplication with a single rotation of the handle!

In 1952 – British radar engineer Geoffrey Dummer introduced the concept of the integrated circuit at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C.

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

Yahoo’s CEO is a liar, Microsoft hates DVDs, the FBI wants to tap your everything, and more.

Guest: Darren Kitchen

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Running time: 46:52

In 1896 – Samuel Pierpoint Langley’s Aerodrome No. 5 made the first successful flight of an unpiloted, engine-driven, heavier-than-air craft of substantial size.

In 1949 – The EDSAC, the first practical stored program computer, performed its first calculation. It operated ata speed of 714 operations per second.

In 2002 – Apple’s Steve Jobs previewed Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar during his Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. It featured a handwriting technology dubbed Inkwell, an iChat instant messenger client, QuickTime 6 integration and more.

In 1961 – First NASA astronaut Alan Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule on its 15-minute 28-second suborbital flight.

In 1992 – Id Software released Wolfenstein 3-D. It wasn’t the original first person shooter, but it launched the form into widespread popularity.

In 1999 – Microsoft shipped Windows 98 SE to manufacturers. The new version included Internet Connection Sharing, Internet Explorer 5, Windows NetMeeting 3.

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

Samsung announces 500,000 new things and the Galaxy S III, Facebook cheaps out on stock, judge rules IP address not a person, and more.

Guest: Lindsey Turrentine

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Running time: 46:36

In 1995 – German electronics company Escom AG bought the rights to the name, patents and intellectual property of Commodore Electronics Ltd. for $10 million. Commodore had gone bankrupt the year before.

In 2000 – The “I Love You” virus spread to 55 million computers around the world, hijacking hard drives and deleting, renaming, or damaging files. The damage reached billions of dollars.

In 2004 – Apple announced that Steve Jobs would kick off that year’s Worldwide Developers Conference by talking about Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.