Tech History Today – Jan. 3

Today in Tech History / January 3rd, 2013

In 1957 – Hamilton Electric held a press conference to announce the World’s First Electronic Watch, the Hamilton Electric 500, a watch that never needed winding. Just batteries.

In 1977 – Apple Computer Co. was incorporated by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Ron Wayne famously backed out selling his shares back for $800. Ouch.

In 1999 – The U.S. Mars Polar Lander was launched. It would spend most of the year wending its way towards Mars before it lost communication with Earth in December, presumably after crashing.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Tech History Today – Jan. 2

Today in Tech History / January 2nd, 2013

In 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the Moon, was launched by the U.S.S.R.

In 1979 – Software Arts was incorporated by founders Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston for the purpose of developing VisiCalc, the world’s first spreadsheet program.

In 2004 – NASA’s Stardust spacecraft successfully flew past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples it brought back to Earth 2 years later.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

First day of 2013, three days left in the Bay Area

Writing / January 1st, 2013

Today I’ve spent most of the morning annoying my wife in here dogs being a busybody about the move. I’ve packed up all the electronics in their original boxes.

This is an exercise in puzzle-solving better than any iOS app ever. It has given me a great appreciation for the art of simple packing. Some electronics have minimal and obvious packing pieces that fit logically to protect the device and leave easily accessibly room for cables and accessories.

Others deserve some kind of bonus achievement for figuring out how they could possibly fit.

The worst of them all was the WiiU. Way to many pieces of packaging. Rock Band 2 was also an almost impossible piece. You have to unscrew the guitar to get it to separate into pieces. You should get an achievement unlocked in the game if you successfully fit the pieces back in the box. Sad to say I got everything safely in but I was still left with two extra bits I ended up throwing away.

Tomorrow:
Packers come and pack things, I do Tech News Today in the morning and come back home after dropping some stuff off at Goodwill, Eileen flies back to LA.

Tech History Today – Jan. 1

Today in Tech History / January 1st, 2013

In 1939 – In a garage in Palo Alto, California, William Hewlett and David Packard founded Hewlett-Packard a little company that made audio oscillators. And later TouchPads.

In 1983 – A new Internet and Transmission Control Protocol (Yep called IP/TCP by some at the time, weird I know) went into effect on the ARPANet, replacing the Network Control Protocol. The result was a new ARPA Internet combining ARPA hosts of the time new systems.

In 1985 – The Nordic Research Network NORDUnet registered the first domain name NORDU.NET.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

The calm before the move

Writing / December 31st, 2012

I decided to make a Tumblr to document my thoughts on moving to Los Angeles from San Francisco. It’s New Year’s Eve and Eileen and I are sitting around watching TV. We’re just going to stay in and ring in the new year with the dogs. Is pretty stressful waiting for this move to happen. We’ve known since November, and it’s been good to have time, but we’re both ready for it to be done.

Tomorrow we’ll take it somewhat easy for New Year’s Day but its going to be the day before the move, so we’ll have to do some non-relaxing things.

The questions I have going into the move tonight are:

Will people give TNT a chance with me on Skype? Will content win out over looks? Will the looks be good enough?

How long will our stuff take to get down there? The moving company says 2-6 days. Yeah.

Will the Verizon FIOS install on Friday go smoothly?

Will I get away for San Francisco early enough on Thursday to get into LA at a decent hour with our two dogs?

On the schedule tomorrow: go over mover’s checklist, pack things we don’t want/need mover’s to pack, put things I’ll need in the car Ina space so mover’s don’t pack them