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Author Archives: GilPress
Launching Cloud Telephony: First battery-operated switchboard installed
Today in 1894, New England Telephone and Telegraph installed the first battery-operated switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts. With what became to be known as the “common battery” (replacing the local battery attached to the telephone), the subscriber could signal the operator simply by … Continue reading
Posted in Telephone, This day in information
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Triumph of the Robots
Today in 2004, Dan Pulcrano of the Metro published “Triumph of the Robots: When Google tweaks its search rankings, whole economies tremble in fear”: The rapid ascent of invisible robots is a unforeseen twist in the sci-fi playbook. The theme of … Continue reading
Launching Photography: The Pencil of Nature and the Mirror with Memory
Today in 1839, the Daguerreotype process was presented to the French Academy of Sciences by Francois Arago, a physicist and politician. Arago told the Academy that it was “…indispensable that the Government should compensate M. Daguerre, and that France should then nobly give to … Continue reading
Posted in Photography, This day in information
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IBM Introduces Personal Cloud Computing, Today in 1976
Today in 1976, IBM introduced Virtual Storage Personal Computing, “a new program product to allow people with little or no data processing experience to use a computer terminal to solve problems.” The terminals were connected to remote IBM mainframes via telephone … Continue reading
The Birth and Growth of Scientific Journals
Today in 1665, the first issue of the Journal des sçavans (later renamed Journal des savants), was published in Paris. It is widely regarded as the first scientific journal but a more apt description would be a journal for men of … Continue reading
First Pocket Calculator Introduced
Today in 1972, the HP-35 was introduced. The world’s first handheld-sized scientific calculator, ultimately made the slide rule, which had previously been used by generations of engineers and scientists, obsolete. Named for its 35 keys, it performed all the functions … Continue reading
Posted in Caclulators, This day in information
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The PC: Machine of the Year
Today in 1983, Time magazine put on its cover the PC, calling it “machine of the year.” Roger Rosenblatt wrote: “Inventions arise when they’re needed. This here screen and keyboard might have come along any old decade, but it happened to pop up when … Continue reading
The Future of the Music Industry in Numbers. Digital Tipping Point in 2014?
“Like a popular rocker who burns out, only to try to stage a comeback a decade later, the sickly music industry will probably never regain its previous vigour. But even modest growth is welcome news for the industry.” Source: The … Continue reading
Posted in Digitization, Forecasts, music, Recorded sound, Tipping points
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Evan Williams: “The Internet makes human desire more easily attainable” (Video)
Evan Williams on the democratization of knowledge and the organizing principle of the Internet. “For the last 15 years, Evan Williams has made it easy for non-geeks to find their voice online. He cofounded Blogger in 1999, Odeo in 2004, Twitter … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Information diffusion, Internet, Social Impact, Social Networks, Twitter
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History of Cyber Monday (Infographic)
Source: Infographiclist.com Cyber Monday 2013 was the biggest online shopping day in history, with 18.2% increase in online sales compared to Cyber Monday 2012.
Posted in eCommerce, Infographics, Social Impact
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