1977 – NASA launched Voyager 1 after a brief delay. Although it was launched 16 days after Voyager 2, it’s faster flight path would take it past Jupiter first.
1980 – The last IBM 7030 mainframe computer, AKA STRETCH, was decommissioned at Brigham Young University.
2007 – Apple introduced the iPod Touch, bringing multitouch functionality to its popular iPod line.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
1888 – George Eastman was issued US. patent No. 388,850 for his roll-film box camera.
1956 – IBM introduced the IBM 350 disk storage unit for the RAMAC 305, the first commercial computer to use magnetic disk storage.
1998 – Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed for incorporation of Google, allowing them to cash a $100,000 check Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun, had written to Google Inc.
2013 – Samsung announced a smartwatch called Galaxy Gear that could only be used with its own phones and tablets that ran Android 4.3.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
1930 – An experimental electric engine was put in service by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad between Hoboken and Montclair, NJ. Thomas Edison served as engineer at the throttle.
1976 – Viking 2 landed on Mars and began taking high resolution pictures, measuring the atmosphere and surface, and looking for evidence of life.
1993 – Infogear filed an application for a US trademark on “I PHONE” for its “communications terminals. The company would later register “IPhone” as well. Cisco acquired Infogear in 2000 and later worked out a deal with Apple to share the name.
2013 – Nokia announced it would sell its devices and services unit, the division in charge of making mobile phones, to Microsoft for $7.2 billion.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
Real tech stories. Really shaky analysis.
Two weeks of presidential nominating conventions are behind us, and we’re certainly all deeply disappointed with both parties for failing–after eight days and dozens upon dozens of speeches–to address the truly pressing issues facing us, like how to make more of the nation’s populace aware of the Weekly Tech Views and… well, the one pressing issue.
There Used To Be A Sports Illustrated Till Grandma Learned About The Swimsuit Issue
Google Family Library launched this week, allowing up to six people to share Google Play purchases, including music, movies, TV shows, books, apps, and games. The amount of shareable content is, to say the least, impressive. Bordering on overwhelming, really. Do you have times when there’s so much to choose from that you suffer a little paralysis by analysis and have trouble choosing anything? It sometimes makes me long for the simplicity of a childhood trip to my grandmother’s house, where the “family library” was the three most recent Reader’s Digests in a decorative wicker basket beneath the toilet paper roll.
Yeah, But What Can It Do With Loaves And Fish?
Scientists at a Belgian university have created a machine that turns urine into drinkable water. But wait, there’s more! They used the machine at a music festival where they were able to obtain a thousand liters of water from bladder-emptying music fans–which they are turning into beer. “If they figure out wine, I’m gonna have to step up my game,” said Jesus.
Watch For It On The Horseshoes And Hand Grenades Channel
Apple will be hosting sixteen episodes of Carpool Karaoke, based on James Corden’s Late Late Show recurring segment that features him humorously driving around with celebrities and singing. Apple’s show, however, will differ slightly in that it will have a “to-be-determined” host, meaning a stunning lack of James Cordens. The show will be part of a programming block including The Ellen Show without Ellen, The Walking Dead without zombies, and Big Brother without a house full of douchebags.
What Happens In Vegas, Will Happen More Often In Vegas
Hyperloop One, one of the companies working on high-speed passenger transportation (600-750mph) via vacuum tubes, announced it will be opening its first manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas.
Yeah, a factory. That’s all it is. They certainly aren’t building a hub through which all Hyperloop cars will pass. It’s not like casinos, who are willing to spend $4 billion on a hotel, would be interested in keeping those hotels filled by chipping in a billion each to make the trip from LA or San Francisco or Seattle a don’t-give-it-a-second-thought trip of twenty or forty or sixty minutes.
Sure, Vegas is the perfect city for Hyperloop–name a place people want to get both into and out of faster–but those elevated tubes you’ll see leading into the facility will just be for “supplies” and there’s probably no chance that ten years from now on a nationally-televised event David Copperfield will make the 105,000 square foot “factory” disappear to reveal a Hyperloop terminal (designed to look like a 1920’s Grand Central Station or Buckingham Palace or something) branching out to every major city in the country.
I’m sure it will just be producing rivets.
Who Needs “Virtual” Reality?
Amazon is furthering their drone testing by having one person operate multiple drones simultaneously, a necessary action to be able to institute drone package delivery, and also for the ultimate goal of playing real-world Galaga.
I Thought I’d Be Getting New Information
Microsoft Office is getting a new Editor feature which uses machine learning to suggest stylistic corrections beyond simple spelling and grammar checks. And when it does check grammar, it will now go into greater detail, explaining why what you typed was a mistake. And more. For example, at the beginning of each Weekly Tech Views, I say “Real tech stories. Really shaky analysis.” The previous grammar check would simply point out that these are fragments, not sentences, while Editor went the extra step of suggesting that “maybe something with numbers” would be a better career track for me.
Fifty Percent Off The Original Price? Nice Try, Xbox
Microsoft reduced the price of the Xbox One to $249, the third price cut in two months, bringing it down to half of the original $499. This is great news–only two years and eight more price cuts until I can follow my usual upgrade path of picking up a system for $79 at Gamestop.
Spam Calls Are Just Annoying Pains In The Rear You Haven’t Met Yet
An Android update will help some phones block spam calls by marking suspicious calls in red, after which the user can confirm that they should be blocked. Good tech, but I’ll probably just stick with my proven method of “if the phone rings, it’s a spam call.” But enjoy this exciting new feature, people with friends.
Next Feature Is GPS Guidance To The One Available 8-Inch By 8-Inch Space To Squeeze Into On The Next Bus
A Google Maps update that would provide customizable notifications for mass transit delays was noticed when it showed up briefly this week for one user, but then disappeared. It’s amazing the effort Google put in to replicate my actual bus riding experience of a bus showing up randomly, picking up one person, only to stop working.
The App Is Free, But There Are In-Apple-Store Purchases
Apple announced that iPhone sales were down 15% last quarter, but were expected to rebound sharply due to market conditions known in the industry as “overly-exuberant collection of Pokeballs at concrete-based Pokestops.” (1)
Pokemon Went (2)
Nintendo’s Pokemon Go Plus wrist accessory has been delayed until September for software adjustments. You have to commend the company for wanting to have things just right for the thirteen people who will still be playing then.
(1) Damn. Thought I was gonna get through an issue without mentioning Pokemon.
(2) What the heck, I already ruined it.
Movie Draft Update: Things are about to get interesting. Trailing the leaders by $252 million, Tom and Jennie are in 4th place, but have Star Trek and potential blockbuster Suicide Squad. They’ll be in 2nd place in no time, but will they catch the leaders? It’s going to be a fun final six weeks. Follow along with the CRUMDUM.
Cheap Book Update: And, as always, The Internet is Like a Snowblower (And 200 Other Things I Got Wrong About Tech This Year) holds 2015’s collected Weekly Tech Views for your Kindle-aided perusal for $.99. That’s half a cent per thing I got wrong. Try and beat that deal! Or just check out a preview HERE.
![The Internet is Like a Snowblower: (And 200 Other Things I Got Wrong About Tech This Year) by [Range, Mike]](http://www.tommerritt.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/1c24e1c39a_61kmwxsUTJL.jpg)
Now, does anyone happen to know the Green or Libertarian Party’s position on getting people to read ridiculous tech news?
Mike Range
@MovieLeagueMike
Weekly Tech Views (The Tech, No Logic Blog) by Mike Range is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Cord-cutting conquers Comic-Con, Netflix finds out people don’t like price raises, and Twitter becomes a sports network.
CordKillers: Ep. 130 – Subscribe, Binge, Unsub, Repeat
Recorded: July 25 2016
Guest: None
Intro Video
Primary Target
TV
– American Gods has all the parts in the book yes, even Media’s. (Starz, 2017 – Bryan Fuller)
– Star Trek: Discovery (Bryan Fuller) Characters from previous shows may appear
– The Expanse trailer – coming 2017
– Sherlock 2017
MOVIES
– Snowden – September 16 (Oliver Stone, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt)
– Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – November
– Doctor Strange – Nov. 4
– Lego Batman Feb. 2017
– Kong: Skull Island – March 2017
– Wonder Woman – Summer 2017
– Justice League – 2017
Signal Intelligence
Gear Up
Front Lines
Under Surveillance
Dispatches from the Front
I am a long time listener, recent cord cutter. Before the fall season starts up, I want to get myself set up with a DVR, because I have great OTA reception where I live, BUT I want to be able to watch those recordings on my home computer sometimes too. It looks like Tivo recently stopped selling its software for this, and Channelmaster’s transfer of randomly-named files sounds odious. What solution am I missing?
Your boss,
– Andrew
Brian, I too am a fan of having closed captioning on. I’ve come to notice another benefit to closed captioning. In Preacher, in the scene when young Tulip over hears the Jessie’s dad talking on the phone. It just sounds like murmuring, but CC spells it out for you. Also, there was a movie where the tv was on in the background with no sound, but CC showed what the Reporter was saying, which was pertinent to the show.
– Chris
I’m in the process of cutting the cord. The main problem is that my wife likes the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies Channel. Is there a place to stream these without a cable/satellite subscription? Thanks love the information you provide.
– Robert
It is a sad day. No more VCR. 🙁 I guess i can finally throw away that box of Disney movies I have.
– Shawn
Links
In 1920 – The Joseph Horne department store in Pittsburgh ran an advertisement in the Pittsburgh Sun, describing wireless Victrola music being picked up by radio. Amateur Wireless Sets were on sale for $10.
In 1954 – CERN officially came into being. In addition to countless advancements in science, it would go on to foster the invention of the World Wide Web.
In 1994 – Programmers first demonstrated the HotJava prototype browser to executives at Sun Microsystems Inc. It was an attempt to port the Java language to the Web. It worked.
In 1996 – The Nintendo 64 launched in North America spreading its 3D world controlled by an analog stick to a new contintent.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
1979 – CompuServe began offering a consumer version of its dial-up online information service called MicroNET. The name would later be changed to CompuServe and offer public email among other online services.
In 1993 – Broderbund Software released the game Myst, for the Macintosh computer. It became a record-setting bestseller and helped popularize CD-ROM drives.
In 1997 – Ultima Online launched, revolutionizing online gaming by supporting thousands of simultaneous players in a persistent shared world.
In 2013 – Valve announced their new Steam OS, a free version of Linux built around the Steam video game service.
In 2014 – The shellshock vulnerability was made public. The way bash handled variables could allow malicious code to be run on computers running Linux and OS X. This meant routers, webcams and other connected devices were also vulnerable.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
In 1830 – America’s first native locomotive, the “Tom Thumb” lost a race to a draft horse at Ellicotts Mills, Maryland.
In 1927 – The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System went on the air with 47 radio stations. Within two years it would be sold and become the Columbia Broadcasting System and later simply CBS.
In 1998 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers aka ICANN was created in order to take over Internet administrative tasks from the US Government. The most famous of those tasks is overseeing the Domain Name System.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
In 1983 – Osborne Computer declared bankruptcy in Oakland, California federal bankruptcy court, listing assets of $40 million, liabilities of $45 million, and 600 creditors. Two years earlier, Osborne had produced the first portable computer, the 24-pound Osborne I.
In 1985 – Nintendo released Super Mario Brothers in Japan. It became the best selling video game for 20 years until it was surpassed by Wii Sports.
In 2000 – The public beta of Apple’s Mac OS X, code named Kodiak, was released. Users had to pay $29.95 for the beta.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
In 1962 – US President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech at the stadium of Rice University, declaring “We choose to go to the moon.” Many consider the speech the beginning of the space race.
In 1985 – Steve Jobs announced to the Apple board that he would resign. Jobs said, “I’ve been thinking a lot, and it’s time for me to get on with my life. It’s obvious that I’ve got to do something. I’m 30 years old.”
In 1994 – Mosaic Communications introduced its first software, the Mosaic NetScape network navigator and the Mosaic Netsite server line.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.