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Today in Tech History – Mar. 2, 2014

Today in Tech History logoIn 1908 – Gabriel Lippman proposed using a series of lenses at a picture’s surface instead of opaque barrier lines, allowing three dimensional pictures. He titled his presentation to the French Academy of Sciences “La Photographie Integral”.

In 1983 – CBS Records launched the first major compact disc music marketing campaign, launching 16 titles. CDs had gone on sale to the public the previous October in Japan.

In 2010 – The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rejected legislation requiring electronic communications traffic data retention for a period of 6 months as a violation of the guarantee of the secrecy of correspondence.

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

DTNS 2166 – Radio Winnebago

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen joins the show to talk about NBC’s Sochi hacking report among other things, and Len Peralta illustrates the stories.

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Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

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Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Kill Switch legislation to be introduced in CA The LA Times reports California lawmakers led by State Senator Mark Leno plan to introduce legislation requiring devices like smartphones and tablets to be sold with a “kill switch” that would render them inoperable if stolen. Some devices, like the iPhone and the Galaxy S4, come with such features already. The carriers are lukewarm on legislating technology, but most are waiting to see the text of the bill before opposing or supporting it.

Facebook lets you Look Back at your Look Back video (and edit) TechCrunch reports Facebook has added an edit button to the “Look Back” videos it automatically created for most users in celebration of its tenth anniversary. The function lets you pick new photos and posts from a pre-populated list and no you can’t change the order. if you never got a video, then you also don’t get the edit feature.

Nokia and HTC bury the patent hatchet For all you people who complain that all we report is bad news, patent news, or both, here’s a ZDNet story for you. Nokia and HTC signed a patent and technology agreement that dismisses all patent litigation between the two companies. HTC pays a little money. The collaboration involves HTC’s LTE patent portfolio. Lawyers cash fat checks. Consumers get to buy phones. Everyone goes home happy.

NSA metadata program collects less data than you might think The Wall Street Journal has a new report, not from Edward Snowden leaks this time, that cites anonymous sources saying the NSA metadata program only collects data for 20 percent or less, because it doesn’t cover most cell phones. The Washington Post said even that smaller amount is still useful.

News From You

jaymz668 posted a story from the WSJ’s Corporate Intelligence blog, indicating that next year the US will joint the majority of the world in implementing a chip and pin system for credit cards and ditch the old signed receipts. Both MasterCard and Visa have set October 2015 as an important deadline in the switch. That’s the “liability shift” After that time liability for fraudulent transactions switches to the merchant unless they are using chip and pin.

MANAGEMIKE WHO’S ALWAYS SHOUTING HIS NAME submitted an Ars Technica story of one Ronaldo Boschulte who got a new modem form his ISP Comcast, which unbeknownst to him, doubles as a public WiFi router. Comcast started adding the modems by default in mid-2013. Comcast reassures customers that their broadband connection will be unaffected, but if they REALLY want to switch it off, they can, they just have to perform the arcane ritual of self-immolation known as calling Comcast customer support.

People in Russia may not care now, but SkyJedi does, and he submitted this coin desk post that bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox paused all withdrawals yesterday while they tracked down an issue encountered by some bitcoin withdrawals. Not only that but they promised an update Monday. At least that’s Monday Japan time. Users with bitcoin withdrawals stuck in limbo started to receive their coins back in their Mt. Gox wallets this morning.

More links from the show

Fazio Mechanical Services issued a statement Thursday saying it was the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack and is working with Target and the US Secret Service to investigate.

Amazon integrates image recognition into its iOS shopping app, no barcodes necessary

Apple buys back $14 billion of its own shares in the past two weeks for a total of $40 billion over the last 12 months

Russian officials rule that BitCoin is a money substitute and can not be used by individuals and legal entities

DTNS 2145 – Watch this!

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comMyke Hurley from 5 by 5 joins us to review some of the cooler items from off the beaten path at CES.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreeddit

Show Notes

As I mentioned on the show today, next Thursday and Friday I’ll be shooting season 2 of Sword and Laser’s video show. So I need YOU to guest host.

Next Thursday and Friday will be special “News From You” shows. I’ll still pop in with a couple late-breaking headlines but I want to hear YOUR news reports. What’s the tech project you think isn’t getting
enough attention? What’s that point about wearables you think nobody else has mentioned? Let your voice be heard!

Here’s what you do
Record your bit as an audio file LESS THAN 30 SECONDS PEOPLE, and email it to [email protected] and use the subject line NEWS FOR YOU. If we get it by 3 PM Eastern/11 AM Pacific Thursday morning, we’ll consider it for that day’s show. Same thing for Friday.

More Notes

Samsung to announce the Samsung Galaxy S5: Bloomberg reports Samsung’s executive vice president of mobile, Lee Young Hee said the company will announce the Samsung Galaxy in March or April along with the successor to the Galaxy Gear which will have more advanced functions and an improved design. Lee also said the company is investigating iris recognition for the phone and will announce at least one more wearable device this year. Samsung registered a design for eyewear in October.

Gmail to allow users to send messages to Google+ users: The Next Web reports that Google will allow Gmail users to send messages to Google + users, without knowing the email address. The email address behind the G+ account will only become visible to someone who has received a message from that account. Also only one message can be sent to G+ name until that person responds. So if you don’t reply, they won’t know your email, and they won’t be able to email you again. If a sender is in your circle, their message will show up in the primary tab on Gmail, while other messages will go to the Social tab. You can override all this by changing a setting in Gmail to limit who can send you messages to your circles or nobody at all. The feature will roll out to all users over the next couple days.

FCC chairman weights in on AT&T’s sponsored data plan: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is not shy about commenting on AT&T’s sponsored data plan. Yesterday at CES, The Verge reports Wheeler said “Be sure, that if it interferes with the operation of the internet; that if it develops into an anticompetitive practice; that if it does have some kind of preferential treatment given somewhere, then that is cause for us to intervene.” And GigaOm reports that in a speech at the Computer History Museum in San Jose, today, Wheeler said “It is not the sort of thing that should be prohibited out of hand. But, again, history instructs us that not all new proposals have been benign.“

News From You:

More security experts pull out of RSA conference:  habichuelacondulce submitted a story from Information Week reporting the number of security experts pulling out of the RSA conference in protest of their dealing with the NSA has risen to nine. AS we mentioned before Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure was the first to pull out but now Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst for the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project; Google senior staff software engineer Adam Langley; attorney Marcia Hofman; and Taia Global CEO Jeffrey Carr. are among the people who will not attend their presentations or skip the conference altogether. RSA has said it did not use an algorithm now known to be weaker because of the NSA, but it has not denied receiving a $10 million payment.

Infected Yahoo ads in Europe part of a Bitcoin mining scheme:  webitube pointed out a TechDirt article explaining that the malware that recently infected Yahoo ads in Europe was Bitcoin mining software. The idea would be to use infected computers to mine for bit coins and credit any coins minted to the malware authors. This would have the negative effect of running infected computers constantly and running up infected users’s electric bills.

More links from the show: 

Snapchat is sorry:

http://gigaom.com/2014/01/09/snapchat-says-sorry-for-getting-hacked-updates-app-with-phone-number-opt-out/

Apple and Samsung want to work it out via mediation:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/09/us-apple-samsung-idUSBREA0802P20140109?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

WWE launches its own network: The online network will be available on computers, iOS and Android devices as well as the Kindle Fire, Xbox 360, PS3 and 4 and Roku but only in the US.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/8/5289714/wwe-launching-24-7-subscription-network-to-bring-wrestling-to-you

Makerbot announces the Replicator Mini:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/6/5281882/makerbot-replicator-mini-announced-ces-2014

Pebble Steel actually steel:

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/126190-pebble-goes-premium-pebble-steel-available-from-29-jan-for-249

S&L Podcast – #144 – Kick-off Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Find out why Veronica liked a laser book better than Tom. Who’s Hugo-award winning short story is becoming a TV show? And get an early NaNoWriMo pep talk.

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: 2012 Ande’s Crossing Malbec

Veronica: 2007 St. Supéry Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

QUICK BURNS

Charlie Jane Anders’ “Six Months, Three Days” Coming to NBC

A New Grant to Encourage Science Fiction Writing from Diverse Worlds

Must reads of October

STAR WARS READS DAY RETURNS OCTOBER 5, 2013

Random House Launches Flipboard Magazines Curated by Margaret Atwood and for George R.R. Martin Fans

CALENDAR

Read down to October 15

BOOK KICK OFF

Boneshaker (Clockwork Century) by Cherie Priest

Authors guide to Cherie Priest

WRAP UP

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

Tech that should be there but is not.

Finished it. Loved it. Mmmm pulpy goodness.

Old Man Mose

BARE YOUR SWORD

NaNoWriMo 2013 is a month away!

Robin Hobb working on new ‘Fitz & Fool’

EMAIL

“Speaking of Inter Library Loan (ILL), I also was one of those kids who lived at their library. I used to use ILL to get books from all over. At one time, there was a fee hike, where ILL was going from free to $1. As a kid with just a paper route, there was no way I was going to be able to afford the new fees. I spent a few hours one afternoon filling out forms for ILL, to submit them the day before the pricing went into effect. The head librarian wanted to disallow this seeming abuse of the system, but the other librarians stuck up for me. These books trickled in for me for over a year, it was glorious.

Rob”

ADDENDUMS

HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!! & Other Improbable Kickstarters

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring audio versions of many New York Times Best Sellers. 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.

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Direct download here! 

S&L Video – #14B – Cloud Atlas Wrap-Up & Your Feedback!

Before you head to the theatres to see the film adaptation of Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, join us in the space pub as we wrap-up our October pick and check in with everyone on GoodReads! 

More about our October pick, Cloud Atlas:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49628.Cloud_Atlas

More on the Cloud Atlas film adaptation: 
http://www.cloudatlasmovie.com
http://www.facebook.com/cloudatlas
Trailer: http://youtu.be/ByehYal_cCs

Discussion Threads: 
http://www.goodreads.com/group/bookshelf/4170-the-sword-and-laser
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1036631-neurotagging
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/983371-ai-taking-over-the-world

Orbital Resonance review by Aaron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rl3-u4VXSo

Tech History Today – Oct. 19

In 1832 – Samuel Morse first conceived of the electric telegraph system. At least he said later this was the day he first thought of it.

In 1941 – The Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine first fed AC power to the electric grid on Grandpa’s Knob in Castleton, Vermont, becoming the first wind machine to do so. The 1.25 MW turbine operated for 1100 hours before a blade failed.

In 1973 – The Atanasoff-Berry Computer finally got its due. US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision that the ENIAC patent was invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer. But ENIAC still incorrectly gets the credit from many to this day.

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

Tech History Today – Oct. 16

In 1843 – Sir William Rowan Hamilton finally hit on the idea of Quaternions, and needing a bit more space than his hand to jot it down, he carved it into the stone of Brougham Bridge in Dublin. Why do you care about quaternions? Because calculations involving three-dimensional rotations are essential for 3D computer graphics and computer vision. Video games people.

In 1923 – Distributor M. J. Winkler, contracted to distribute the “Alice Comedies”marking the founding of the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio which eventually changed its name to the Walt Disney Company, at Roy’s suggestion. So don’t expect anything after this date to ever go out of copyright.

In 1959 – Control Data Corp. released its model 1604 computer, the first from William Norris’s group that left Sperry Rand Corp.

Tech History Today – Oct. 15

In 1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company began operation. They would go on to become more general. As in making up a significant part of General Electric.

In 1956 – Fortran, the first modern computer language was shared with the public for the first time. The IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System made John Backus a legend, kicked off modern programming, and is still developed to this day by the Fortran Standards Technical Committee.

In 2003 – China launched the Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission, becoming the third country in the world to have independent human spaceflight capability. Yang Liwei piloted the capsule showing the flags of the People’s Republic of China and the United Nations.

Tech History Today – Oct. 2

In 1925, John Logie Baird performed the first test of a working television system. It delivered a grayscale 30-line vertically scanned image, at five frames per second. After a ventriloquist’s dummy appeared on screen, 20-year-old William Edward Taynton became first person televised in full tonal range.

In 1955 – ENIAC was shut down for the last time. After 11 years running at 5,000 operations a second and taking up 1,000 square feet of floor space, it deserved its retirement.

In 1996 – US President Bill Clinton signed amendments to the Freedom of Information Act requiring the US government to make electronic documents available online.