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Monthly Archives: May 2012
Pac-Man Released
Today in 1980, the arcade game Pac-Man was first released in Japan. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of … Continue reading
Posted in This day in information, Video Games
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From the Archives: Bob Metcalfe Gives Birth to the Ethernet
Today in 1973, twenty-seven-year-old Bob Metcalfe turned on his IBM Selectric, “pulled out a wad of Ko-Rec-Type, snapped on an Orator ball, and banged out the memo inventing Ethernet,” (from Internet Collapses) at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). As Metcalfe explained to Scott Kirsner years later in … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, This day in information
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50 Years of Memory Management
50 years ago today, one of the first software patent applications is filed by the British Petroleum Company. It proposes to “solve automatically a linear programming problem by means of an iterative algorithm whereby it (a) transfers data representations from the … Continue reading
From the Archives: The IBM 701 and Software-as-a-Service
Sixty years ago today, the IBM 701 was formally announced. Its official name was the Defense Calculator, “specifically selected to appeal to the patriotism of the older Watson and to avoid the use of the unacceptable word, computer,” according to Emerson Pugh … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, IBM, This day in information
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Mark Twain and History Repeating. Or Not
Ben Zimmer, the executive producer of VisualThesaurus.com and Vocabulary.com., gives us a great introduction in today’s Boston Globe to the recently published The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. He concludes by telling us that “Recognizing that the search for early information on proverbs … Continue reading
Posted in Quotes
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From the Archives: Moving Pictures by Phone
Today in 1924, AT&T demonstrated long distance telephotography, now known as fax, with the transmission of pictures over telephone wires between Cleveland and New York. Commercial service began in a handful of cities the following year. For many decades, telephotography … Continue reading
Posted in Imaging, Photography, Telephone, This day in information
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Sound Recording Milestones
Today in 1888, Emile Berliner demonstrated the flat gramophone disc and its reproduction at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. F. W. Wile: “Emile Berliner took human sound, whether uttered in speech or song, and reproduced it, not as a parody as in the tinfoil phonograph, or in the … Continue reading
What’s Your Memorable Day?
“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause … Continue reading
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Information Overload: Computers to the Rescue
Technology Review reports that Brainput, a system developed by MIT and Tufts researchers, can recognize when a person’s workload is excessive and then automatically modify a computer interface to make it easier. Technology Review cheerfully notes: “A computing system with Brainput could, … Continue reading
Posted in Information Overload
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First Regularly Scheduled Airmail Service
Today in 1918, the first regularly scheduled airmail service in the United States was inaugurated over a route between Washington, DC, and New York City with an intermediate stop in Philadelphia, PA.
The Story of Information 