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Author Archives: GilPress
35 years of Personal Computing
See Ars Technica for a great article on 35 years of personal digital devices, from the advent of PCs to smartphones and tablets. What’s most interesting is that the new and smaller personal computing devices have not replaced PCs, at … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history
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Yesterday’s Futures: The Limits of Our Vision
In 1969, the Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill, U.K., produced a video titled “Telecommunications services for the 1990s.” Predictably, it extrapolates from the reality (no distortion here) of the telephone network of the 1960s. Only the transmission is digital; the rest … Continue reading
Posted in Futures, Predictions, World Wide Web, Yesterday's Futures
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The Penguin Takes Off
Today in 1935, the first ten Penguin Books, paperback reprints of titles previously published as hardbacks, are issued by publisher Allen Lane. Each title costs only sixpence each, the price of a pack of cigarettes, and all the titles feature the Penguin … Continue reading
Posted in Books, This day in information
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Personal Computing, 1977
In July 1977, IEEE’s Computer magazine quoted Jim C. Warren, Jr., of Dr. Dobb’s Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia: “What happens when you have access to all the news–not just what’s fit to print–or to a shopping algorithm for price comparison … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, PCs
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The Integrated Circuit: Bringing Mass Production to the Computer Industry
Today in 1958, Jack Kilby sketched a rough design of the first integrated circuit in his notebook. By the early 1960s, some computers had more than 200,000 individual electronic components–transistors, diodes, resistors, and capacitors–and connecting all of the components was becoming increasingly … Continue reading
The Rise and Fall of Typewriters
Today in 1829, William Austin Burt, a surveyor from Mount Vernon, Michigan, received a patent for the typographer, the earliest forerunner of the typewriter. Fifty-one years ago this month (July 31), IBM introduced the IBM Selectric, replacing typebars and the moving carriage with a spherical … Continue reading
Posted in This day in information, Typewriters
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The Way We Want it Now
Online Graduate Programs: “Since the burgeoning of the Internet industry, the way people live their lives has rapidly changed. The U.S. has seen people turn to their computers for everything, from working to shopping to attending school. The speed at … Continue reading
Posted in Infographics, The InfoStory Quant, World Wide Web
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A Robot in Every Home?
Today in 1984, a factory robot in Jackson, Michigan, crushed a 34 year-old worker in the first ever robot-related death in the United States. The robot thus violated Issac Asimov’s First Law of Robotics, “A robot may not injure a human being or, … Continue reading
Posted in Robots, This day in information
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From the Archives: First Mention of Computer Programs?
Today in 1836, Charles Babbage wrote in his notebook: “This day I had for the first time a general but very indistinct conception of the possibility of making an engine work out algebraic developments. I mean without any reference to the value of the letters. My … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, Programming
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