Tech History Today – Aug. 6

In 1943 – Jon Postel was born in Altadena, California. He created the Internet’s address system, and administered it for 30 years as director of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). 20 years after his birth, Kevin Mitnick was born in Van Nuys, California.

In 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee posted a short summary of his WorldWideWeb Project to alt.hypertext and pointed to a simple browser and a Web page describing the project. Thus the WWW became a publicly available service on the Internet.

In 1997 – At MacWorld in Boston, Microsoft announced it would invest $150 million in Apple, and continue to make Microsoft Office for Mac for at least five years. The two companies also ended their lawsuit.

Tech History Today – Aug. 5

In 1858 – The west end of the first transatlantic cable was completed when the ship Niagra anchored at the Newfoundland coast having laid 1,016 miles of telegraph cable.

In 1914 – The American Traffic Signal Co. installed their first electric traffic light at East 105th street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1921 – The first radio broadcast of a baseball game happened on KDKA from Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. Harold W. Arlin announced the game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies.

In 2012 – The Mars Science Laboratory, known as the Curiosity Rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars in one of the most complicated automated landings ever, involving a sky crane.

Tech News Today 557: Microsoft Serve

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

Embedding video not a crime, new broadcast network for mobile phones, no love for prepaid phones, and more.

Guest: Darren Kitchen

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Running time: 46:03

Tech History Today – Aug. 4

In 1921 – The first facsimile was transmitted by radio across the Atlantic Ocean using the Belinograph invented by Eduard Belin. A message written by C. V. Van Anda, managing editor of The New York Times and addressed to the Matin in Paris, was sent in seven minutes.

In 1988 – A computer halted an engine test in preparation for the launch of the space shuttle Discovery. The flight would be the first since the Challenger explosion in 1986.

In 2007 – NASA’s Phoenix spaceship launched on its mission to survey the Martian Arctic in search of water, geological discoveries, and evidence of conditions for biological life.

Tech News Today 556: Sirius Negotiating

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

RIM shaping up, Sharp admits it’s helping build iPhones, why everybody’s quitting at Facebook, and more.

Guest: Danny Sullivan

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Running time: 56:11

Tech History Today – Aug. 3

In 1811 – Elisha Otis was born. He invented a safety brake that prevented elevators from falling if the hoisting cable broke. Thank him every time you get in an elevator.

In 1958 – The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus became the first watercraft to reach the geographic North Pole. Commanding Officer, Commander William R. Anderson, announced to his crew, “For the world, our country, and the Navy – the North Pole.”

In 1977 – Tandy Corp of Texas holds a New York press conference to announce that it will manufacture the TRS-80.

Tech News Today 555: Don’t Fear the Cloud

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

Amazon video comes to the iPad, Star Wars is now free, hot presentation slides, and more.

Guest: Eric Franklin

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Running time: 46:46

Tech History Today – Aug. 2

In 1870 – The world’s first underground tube railway, (the Met had been the first underground non-tube railway) Tower Subway, opened in London, running from Lower Thames street to Vine Street. It closed after 4 months of operation.

1880: Parliament officially adopted Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the official time of Great Britain.

In 1902 – Mina Spiegel Rees was born in Ohio. and became one of the earliest female computer pioneers. She ran the Office of Naval Research, where she organized work on early computers like the Harvard Mark I.