1878 – The first commercial telephone exchange in the US was installed at New Haven, Connecticut, and served 21 subscribers connected by a single strand of iron wire. Only two conversations could be handled simultaneously and six connections had to be made for each call.
http://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/withdrawn/telephone.htm
1960 – The Communications Moon Relay System was inaugurated publicly when a facsimile picture of the USS Hancock was transmitted wirelessly by radio wave to Washington DC, by being bounced off the moon.
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/accomplishments/systems/moon-relay/
1986 – The Space Shuttle Challenger experienced an O-ring failure in the right solid rocket booster during flight. 73 seconds after liftoff a catastrophic explosion claimed crew and vehicle.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-51L.html
2001 – The Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants faced off in Tampa Bay, Florida, for Super Bowl XXXV, and facial-recognition surveillance cameras pointed at tens of thousands of fans entering the game. It found 12 false positives.
http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/impact/w01/Papers/Lopez.htm
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
It’s our end of month Jan 2018 roundtable episode. We examine the data security implications of smart speakers, discuss the future of state enforced net neutrality, ponder the how connected technology has changed traveling, and share the tech topics we’re tired of talking about.
Google gets into local news, Intel has good news despite Meltdown and Rakuten and Wal-Mart team up on groceries and ebooks.
Miitomo closing down, Apple changing iBooks and Samsung sets a date for the 9.
AT&T takes out full page ads in the Washington Post and NY Times urging Congress to pass a Net Neutrality law. Critics content the effort is hypocritical and in fact would enshrine anti-net neutrality behavior into law. YouTube is pushing for a nicer, kinder YouTube, but is that what YouTube really wants?