Author Archives: GilPress
Envisioning Television, 1908 and 2013
Today in 1908, Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton published a letter in the journal Nature titled “Distant Electric Vision” in which he envisioned television as it was developed three decades later. He wrote: “Possibly no photoelectric phenomenon at present known will provide what … Continue reading
Posted in Forecasts, Predictions, Television, This day in information
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The IBM Idea Launched, Defying Management Gurus for 102 Years
Today in 1911, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was incorporated. It changed its name to IBM in 1924. Many commentators on IBM’s centenary two years ago attributed its longevity to the power of idea or ideas. In “Ideas make IBM 100 years … Continue reading
Bob Metcalfe on Ethernet at 40
See also my interviews with Metcalfe here and here
Posted in Computer history, Computer Networks
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When Mauchly Met Atanasoff: Creating the Digital Computer
Today in 1941, John Mauchly visited John Atanasoff at Iowa State University. During the next five days he learned everything he could about what became to be known as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) which he first heard about when Atanasoff visited Philadelphia … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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The Google Libray
Source: Google’s Best Perk: The Library in Building 42
Posted in Books, Google, Libraries
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Big Data Analysis at the NSA, 1962
The IBM 7950, also known as Harvest, was a one-of-a-kind adjunct to the Stretch computer which was installed at the US National Security Agency (NSA). Built by IBM, it was delivered in 1962 and operated until 1976, when it was … Continue reading
Posted in Big Data, Computer history
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Ballpoint Pen Patented
Seventy years ago today (June 10, 1943), László Bíró filed for a patent on a new type of pen and, with his brother György, formed Biro Pens of Argentina. While working as a journalist in Hungary in the previous decade, he noticed that the … Continue reading
Posted in This day in information, Writing
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Sound on Film Demonstrated for the First Time
Today in 1922, Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner publicly demonstrated for the first time a motion picture with a soundtrack optically recorded directly onto the film. In the first sounds ever publicly heard from a composite image-and-audio film, Helena Tykociner, the inventor’s wife, spoke the … Continue reading
Posted in Film, This day in information
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Nineteen Eighty-Four, in 1949 and 2013
Today in 1949, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. “The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed–would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper–the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Censorship, This day in information
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Alan Turing 1912-1954
Today in 1954, Alan Turing died from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined that his death was suicide; his mother and some others believed his death was accidental. Turing is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. Check … Continue reading
