Today in Tech History – – June 9, 2018

1902 – Joe Horn and Frank Hardart opened the first US Automat at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia. The waiterless restaurant charged a nickel for most dishes.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=20021226&id=vVpUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ko4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3964,7574304

1931 – Robert Goddard received a patent for rocket-fueled aircraft design (US. No. 1,809,271). Sadly we do not have a lot of rocket-planes in operation.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=pxxBAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

1986 – The Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center opened to support the National Science Foundation’s NSFNET, which linked five supercomputer centers. NSFNET would eventually allow commercial uses and transition to the open Internet.

http://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/June/9/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

Today in Tech History – – June 8, 2018

1637 – Rene Descartes published “Discourse on the Method for Guiding One’s Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences”, which formed the basis of the modern scientific method. It’s also the source of the quote “I think, therefore I am.”

http://books.google.com/books?id=UPGVFEDVc0wC&pg=PA226&lpg=PA226&dq=descartes+1637+june+8&source=bl&ots=IRzDxujrmz&sig=8Zo5pCV6q5e18OY_U4o26FCcwB4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=x3iqUaOyCumdiAK4zIH4DA&ved=0CCwQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=descartes%201637%20june%208&f=false

1949 – George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. The book still affects notions of privacy and inspired the iconic Apple commercial that introduced the Macintosh computer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/10/1984-george-orwell

1955 – Tim Berners-Lee was born in London. He grew up to develop the World Wide Web.

http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Longer.html

1978 – Intel launched the 8086 microprocessor, the first of the long-lived x86 processor architecture line.

https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/x86-approaching-40-still-going-strong/

2008 – Apple announced Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Apple_Announces_Mac_OS_X_Snow_Leopard/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3300 – War! What is AI good for?

With Google ending its involvement in Project Maven after significant employee dissent about the company working with the military we ponder what exactly should AI be used for and perhaps more importantly what it shouldn’t be used for.

Starring Tom Merritt, Shannon Morse, Len Peralta and Roger Chang

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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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Daily Tech Headlines – June 8, 2018

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500Goodbye Yahoo messenger, Goodbye to a lot of AirBnB reservations in japan, and hello new Verizon CEO.

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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!

Today in Tech History – – June 7, 2018

1954 – Computer science hero Alan Turing died. His death was ruled a suicide from eating an apple containing cyanide. Turing formulated the famous Turing test and broke code at Bletchley park during World War II.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing/

1975 – Sony introduced the Betamax video recorder for sale. It would lose the format war to VHS but find a niche in broadcast production.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/this+history+june+1975/6745667/story.html

1980 – The first US solar power plant was dedicated at the Natural Bridge National Monument, Utah.

http://books.google.com/books?id=jC1QAAAAYAAJ&q=natural+bridges+solar+june+7+1980&dq=natural+bridges+solar+june+7+1980&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9sGnUda-E8iaiALLk4DgBQ&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3299 – Steam-ier Content

Valve unveiled a new policy allowing anything to be posted to the Steam Store as long as the content is not something Valve decides is illegal, or straight up trolling. Is this policy of relaxed control an effort to reduce the need to moderate the store or is something else at play?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang and Justin Robert Young.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

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

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Subscribe through Apple Podcasts.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Daily Tech Headlines – June 7, 2018

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500Instagram may offer long-form video, Valve eases up on content censorship, Amazon announces Fire TV Cube.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

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!

Today in Tech History – – June 6, 2018

1933 – The world’s first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, New Jersey. Richard Hollingshead Jr. had developed the system by using a 1928 Kodak projector mounted on the hood of his car and aimed at a screen pinned to some trees.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-drive-in-movie-theater-opens

1984 – Soviet programmer Alexei Pazhitnov completed the first playable version of Tetris, one of the best-selling video games of all-time, was released. It was popularized by Hank Rogers who bought the rights and distributed it.

http://www.wired.com/2009/06/tetris/

1995 – The Los Angeles Times reported that Father Leonard Boyle was working to put the Vatican’s library on the World Wide Web through a site funded by IBM.

http://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/June/6/

2013 – The Guardian published another leak from Edward Snowden about the PRISM project used to gather data held by Google, Facebook, Apple and other US tech companies. The tech companies denied “back door access” to their systems.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3298 – Defrag the Seagulls

Sonos pulled the wraps off the Beam. A smart home theater sound bar that integrates Amazon’s Alexa many have speculated that its Sonos’s attempt to take over the connected living room. Will it succeed or end up on the latest in a long line of failed attempts?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang and Scott Johnson.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Subscribe through Apple Podcasts.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!