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Author Archives: GilPress
The Rise and Fall of Social Networks
Textfiles.com brings us a 1982 assessment of the “golden age” and subsequent decline of Bulletin Board Systems: What ever happened to real bulletin-board systems?
Posted in Computer history, Social Impact, Social Networks
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Ray Bradbury 1920-2012
In 1950, typing rapidly on a pay-by-the-hour typewriter in UCLA’s library basement, Ray Bradbury completed in just nine days the first draft of what will become Fahrenheit 451. In the book, which was published in 1953, Bradbury described a society … Continue reading
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Big Data, Books, Science
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Mozilla 1.0 Released
Ten years ago today, the Mozilla Organization made publicly available the Mozilla 1.0 browser suite. The Firefox project began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt and Blake Ross. To combat what they saw as … Continue reading
Posted in This day in information, World Wide Web
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How Mobile is Changing Travel
Made by My Destination, locally informed, globally inspired travel guides.
Posted in Infographics, Mobile, Transportation, Travel
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Speech Transmission Over Wires Conceived
Today in 1875, during an experiment conducted by Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson, a receiver reed failed to respond to the intermittent current supplied by an electric battery. Bell told Watson, who was at the other end … Continue reading
Posted in Telephone, This day in information
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The IBM 1301 Disk Storage Announced
Today in 1961, IBM announced the IBM 1301 Disk Storage Unit. The storage capacity per square inch of surface was increased 13 times over what it had been with the first disk drive, the IBM 350 Disk Storage Unit, introduced five … Continue reading
The MiniDisc Announced
Today in 1991, Sony’s President Norio Ohga announced the MiniDisc as the new personal audio format. From Sony’s official history: “Ohga had led the establishment of the CD business, and CD technology had quickly replaced analog audio technology thanks to its … Continue reading
AP Born
Today in 1846, The New York Sun carried the first dispatches from the Mexican War, marking the birth of the Asosociated Press. Moses Yale Beach (1800-68), publisher of The New York Sun, established a pony express to deliver news of the Mexican … Continue reading
Posted in Newspapers, This day in information
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Over Six Decades of Improving Computer Electrical Efficiency
“The electrical efficiency of computation has doubled roughly every year and a half for more than six decades, a pace of change comparable to that for computer performance and electrical efficiency in the microprocessor era. These efficiency improvements enabled the creation of … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Efficiency, Computer history
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Coping with Information Overload, 1964
To cope with the present information explosion we suggest the following: 1) No one should publish any new papers. 2) If 1) is not feasible only short papers should be published. “Short” means not more than 2500 characters counting “space,” … Continue reading
Posted in Data growth, Information Overload, Quotes
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The Story of Information 