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Author Archives: GilPress
Quo Vadis, Big Data?
“In 2011, the world is ten times more instrumented than it was in 2006. The number of Internet-connected devices has leapt from 500 million to 1 trillion. We create 15 petabytes of new data every day.
Posted in Big Data, Quotes
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Birth of the IBM PC
Thirty years ago today, IBM announced the IBM Personal Computer, model 5150. The PC featured a 4.77MHz Intel 8088 CPU containing 29,000 transistors, 16KB RAM (64KB standard, expandable to 256KB), 40KB ROM, one or two Tandon brand 5.25-inch floppy drives (160KB capacity), a … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, IBM, This day in information
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Copies, Copies Everywhere
Today in 1876, Thomas Edison received a patent for a “method of preparing autographic stencils for printing.” The term “mimeograph” to describe this duplicating machine was first used by Albert Blake Dick when he licensed Edison’s patents in 1887. Hillel Schwartz in The Culture … Continue reading
Posted in Data growth, This day in information
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Computing Milestones
Sixty-five years ago today, the Subcommittee on Large-Scale Computing Devices (LCD) of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was formed, evolving in 1963 into the IEEE. Also today, in 1944, the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC)–also known as the … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, IBM, This day in information
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The Web Unleashed
Twenty years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee posted files to alt.hypertext, making the WorldWideWeb available to the Internet community. Berners-Lee message said, in part: “The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow links to be made to any information anywhere… The WWW … Continue reading
A Brief History of Computer Graphics and What’s Next
One way to look at the history of computer graphics is to look at eras, giving each era a name. For example, the middle 50’s to the early 60’s was the “beginnings” era. The early 60’s to the late 60’s … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, Predictions
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Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare
Twenty years ago today, the first email message was sent from space to earth. The Houston Chronicle reported:
Posted in email, This day in information
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Postcards on the Edge
The earliest known picture postcard was posted in London to the writer Theodore Hook in 1840. The hand-coloured card was addressed to “Theodore Hook Esq, Fulham”, a playwright and novelist noted at the time for his “wit and drollery”. It caricatures the … Continue reading
Posted in Lost and Found, Social Impact, Social Networks
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Facts and Good Government
Today in 1790, the first enumeration of the 1790 U.S. Census began. Congress assigned responsibility for the 1790 census to the marshals of the U.S. judicial districts under an act that, with minor modifications and extensions, governed census-taking through 1840.
Posted in Censuses, This day in information
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3 Views of Innovation
“None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”–Thomas Edison, 1929
Posted in Innovation, Quotes
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The Story of Information 