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Author Archives: GilPress
First Broadcast by Ham Radio Operator
Today in 1909, Einar Dessau of Denmark used a shortwave transmitter to converse with a government radio post about six miles away in what is believed to have been the first broadcast by a ‘ham’ radio operator.
Posted in Radio, This day in information
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Just the Facts, Ma’am
“Chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving.”—Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 “What people really intend when they speak of ‘information’ … Continue reading
Posted in Quotes
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Only Connect: One in Five People Worldwide on Social Networks
According to eMarketer, there will be 1.43 billion social network users in 2012, a 19.2% increase over 2011.
Sic transit gloria mundi
The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in 1768 in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the Preface to the Encyclopaedia, William Smellie, the 28-year-old editor (and author of many of the entries), expressed his hope that this new kind of encyclopaedia or … Continue reading
Posted in Dead media, Knowledge compilations, Print
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Moving Pictures: Zoopraxiscope
Today in 1882, Eadweard Muybridge lectured at the Royal Institution in London in front of a sellout audience, demonstrating the Zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip. An 1878 experiment by Muybridge in the United States using 24 … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Photography, This day in information
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Meaningless Information
“The fundamental problem of communications is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. Frequently the message has meaning… these semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem”–Claude Shannon, in Shannon … Continue reading
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Race Against the Machine Watch
Today in 1811, the first Luddite attack in which knitting frames were actually smashed occurred in the Nottinghamshire village of Arnold. Kevin Binfield, Writings of the Luddites: “The grievances consisted, first, of the sue of wide stocking frames to produce … Continue reading
Video Games and (Artificial) Intelligence
“[Video games are] just another manifestation of human mania, our endearing quality of going relentlessly after absolutely pointless goals.”–John Skow, Time Magazine, January 18, 1982 “From AI-designed games to realistic virtual worlds and social physics, gaming is changing our world … Continue reading
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Quotes, Video Games
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Koomey’s Law: Computers’ Energy Efficiency Doubles Every 18 Months
Much of computer technology’s progress has occurred because of developments described by Moore’s law, which says that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles about every two years. In today’s era of battery-powered mobile … Continue reading
Posted in Energy
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If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them
Today in 2002, the lawsuit that was filed by Random House against e-book publisher Rosetta Books for acquiring titles directly from authors, was decided in favor of Rosetta Books. The court’s decision paved the way for authors to publish their work electronically, … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Books, ebooks, This day in information
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The Story of Information 