Stewart returns to Star Trek, Microsoft on Movies Anywhere, and Star Wars on Disney’s streaming service? All this and more on Cordkillers! With special guest Hammond Chamberlain.
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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).
1963 – Skilled hacker, future government prisoner, and eventual famous security expert Kevin Mitnick was born in Van Nuys, California.
http://www.nndb.com/people/448/000022382/
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.
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!msg/alt.hypertext/eCTkkOoWTAY/bJGhZyooXzkJ
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.
2014 – The European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe became the first spacecraft to maneuver alongside a speeding body as it caught up with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28659783
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
A virus hits chip-maker TMSC causing delays of iPhone shipments. Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Apple have removed episodes of Alex Jones’s InfoWars for violating rules against harassment, hate speech, and child endangerment. And Movie Pass says it won’t raise prices after all.
Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang and Lamarr Wilson.
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Thanks to Anthony Lemos of Ritual Misery for the expanded show notes!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
iPhone part maker TSMC suffers a virus outbreak, Here maps try to woo developers away from Google Maps, Apple may open stores in India.
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Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit
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1858 – The west end of the first transatlantic cable was completed when the ship Niagara anchored at the Newfoundland coast having laid 1,016 miles of telegraph cable.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-transatlantic-telegraph-cable-completed
1914 – The American Traffic Signal Co. installed their first electric traffic light at East 105th street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.
http://allthingsclevelandohio.blogspot.com/2008/03/cleveland-birthplace-of-first-electric.html
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.
http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/Recommendations/KDKAFirst1921.htm
2011 – The Juno space probe launched on a mission to explore Jupiter.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/overview/index.html
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.
2014 – Justin.TV announced its closure. It had started as a lifecasting channel for Justin Kan and spawned the massively successful Twitch video game streaming channel.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
1921 – The first facsimile was transmitted by radio across the Atlantic Ocean using the Belinograph invented by Edouard 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.
http://todayinsci.com/B/Belin_Edouard/Belinogram1921-NYT.htm
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.
http://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/August/4/
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.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/launch/index.html
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
This column provides tips, insights, and observations on TNCs like Uber and Lyft from a driver that’s worked with them for several years.
The vast majority of people using a ride-hailing app like Uber never think of using more than the default options for getting from one place to another. UberX if you want to ride solo, Pool if you really need a cheap ride, and maybe XL if you need to move a family gathering from one place to another. Sure, you may have glanced at the premium options like Select or Black out of curiosity, but as soon as you saw that price quote, shook your head and nope’d right back out of there.
Well, if you are feeling fancy for an evening, are those more expensive services worth it? What are you really getting for that price?
UberSelect is described as “a low-cost ride with an added touch of luxury.” The vehicles on this brand are all luxury sedans with leather seats, like Cadillac, Mercedes, or even Tesla. It’s a great look to impress a date or even go for a night out on the town without looking too out of place; you don’t want to pull up to Maestro’s in a Prius, do you? Or heck, maybe you just want something more comfortable after a long flight. Whatever the reason, this is a way to ensure a nice vehicle. Fares run a little over double the cost of an UberX on average.
UberBlack takes the ride-hailing experience to another level. The vehicles are all commercially-licensed luxury sedans or SUVs, all in black with black leather interiors. They’re also driven by professional drivers with appearances to match, not by the same average joes that you see on UberX. Think of it as “Uber First Class” and you get the idea. UberBlack is typically the service of choice for celebrities, executives, and in some cases even royalty. When appearances and service really matter, UberBlack is what you want. Fares run about triple the cost of UberX on average.
Other than just to show off, there can sometimes be practical reasons to use a premium service. One case is whenever Surge pricing is in effect. The different service levels actually all have different Surge criteria; when UberX is surging at 4X or more after the bars close or that Beyoncé concert finishes, UberSelect and UberBlack may not be surging at all. This means that you can get a luxury vehicle for significantly less than you’d end up having to pay for a Prius!
There’s another benefit that’s specific to UberBlack. Since this service only uses commercially licensed vehicles, their drivers are allowed to pick up and drop off in places where other TNC drivers can’t go. For example, how about curbside pick-up at airports instead of having to walk to a waiting lot several yards away? How about being able to get dropped off or picked up on the lower level of LAX during times of peak congestion, saving around twenty minutes or more? How about not having to track down a rideshare pickup zone at a large resort (like Disneyland or MGM Grand) or after a major event like Coachella?
There are two more service levels I haven’t mentioned yet, and you can probably see them in the chart above. Black SUV is identical to Black, with the exception of vehicles that can seat at least six passengers. Uber Lux has even fancier vehicles, stuff like Maseratis and Rolls Royces. Unless you’re just in a mood to splurge, I can’t really make a case for it at prices that five times the cost of UberX.
Lyft also has similar high-end services. Lyft Lux, formerly known as the less-likely-to-be-confused-with-anything-Uber-does Lyft Premier, is basically identical to UberSelect, pricing and all. Lyft Lux Black and Lux Black XL are that company’s black-car offerings. One major difference between Lux Black and UberBlack is that Lyft’s vehicles are not required to be commercially licensed and insured, which means that you’re not as likely to get a professional-quality driver. I guess they’re hoping you won’t notice the difference, because there’s no difference in price.
The final question you have to ask is that of price. No matter which service you choose, you’re looking at spending at least double what it would normally cost you to get from one place to another. Is the markup worth it? Hard to say for sure, but I think everyone owes it to themselves to try out one of the high-end options at least once. You’ve earned the right to spoil yourself a little, no?
Sekani Wright is an experienced TNC driver working in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. If you have any questions you would like answered for this column, you can contact him at djsekani at gmail dot com, or at @djsekani on Twitter. Have a safe trip!
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.
http://www.theelevatormuseum.org/e/E-5.htm
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.”
http://www.ussnautilus.org/nautilus/index.shtml
1977 – Tandy Corp of Texas held a New York press conference to announce that it would manufacture the TRS-80.
1995 – John Romero released the first screenshots of Quake on the Internet. They were 320 x 200 TIFFs.
http://rome.ro/news/2016/6/22/happy-20th-birthday-quake
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
Microsoft’s Surface Go has been getting mixed reviews from the press. How does it stack up to the competition and what does this mean for the increasingly crowded creative tablet market?
Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Len Peralta, Roger Chang and Robb Dunewood.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to Anthony Lemos of Ritual Misery for the expanded show notes!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
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Google now shares your battery life if you share your location, Blade cloud gaming comes to more US states, Huawei thinks it can become the world’s #1 smart phone maker.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!