Today in Tech History – June 11, 2016

Today in Tech History logo1959 – The first experimental hovercraft, Christopher Cockerell’s SRN-1 made its first trials at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

1978 – Texas Instruments introduced the Speak & Spell, the first electronic duplication of the human vocal tract on a single chip of silicon. It used linear predictive coding to make a mathematical model of the human vocal tract and predict a speech sample.

1983 – IRM took its Japan Capsule Computer subsidiary and formed Capcom Company, Limited “for the purpose of selling software.”

1997 – Philippe Kahn took the first cameraphone photograph of his newborn daughter and then wirelessly transmitted the photo to more than 2,000 people around the world. He had hacked together a digital camera and a phone. Kahn went on to form the company LightSurf.

1998 – Compaq Computer paid $9.1 billion to acquire what remained of Digital Equipment Corporation, the company that had brought the world PDP and VAX.

Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2782 – PS… More?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comSony’s definitely doing a new model game console but not at E3. Is it a good idea? Can they possibly avoid the angry fan reaction? Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt discuss.

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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 our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

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

Today in Tech History – June 10, 2016

20140404-073853.jpg1943 – Hungarians László and Georg Bíró, while living in Argentina, patented the first successful implementation of the ballpoint pen.

1977 – A few days after going on sale, Apple began shipping the Apple II for the first time.

2003 – The Spirit Rover launched on a Delta II rocket, beginning NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.

2013 – Apple introduced iOS 7 and Apple OS X Mavericks at their Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. They also gave a sneak peek at the new cylindrical Mac Pro and announced their streaming music service called iTunes Radio.

Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2781 – Do We Really Want Our Flying Cars?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comLarry Page has not one but two best that we do. He also has more money than one man could know what to do with. Justin Young and Tom Merritt discuss how much attention would should be paying to this.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

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

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 headlines 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, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

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

Today in Tech History – June 9, 2016

Today in Tech History logo1902 – 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.

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.

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.

Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2780 – Stop Driving on My Lawn!

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAnother study shows talking on a cell phone hands-free makes you a worse driver. So why do we keep doing it anyway? Lamarr Wilson and Tom Merritt put down their phones for a minute and discuss.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

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

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 headlines 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, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

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

It’s Spoilerin’ Time 123

Summer Movie Draft, Game of Thrones (606, 607), Preacher (Pilot), Daredevil (206-209) Justified (207, 208). 

00:58 – Summer Movie Draft

04:52 – Game of Thrones (606, 607)

18:32 – Preacher (Pilot)

24:06 – Daredevil (206-209)

26:27 – Justified (207, 208)

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