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Category Archives: This day in information
First Solar-Powered Phone Call
Today in 1955, the first field trial of a rural telephone system making use of transistors and the Bell Solar Battery was held in Americus, Georgia. Today, 1.5 billion people, one quarter of the world’s population, live without electricity, and … Continue reading
Posted in Mobile, Telephone, This day in information, Wireless
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Plan to Make Radio Household Utility
Today in 1915*, David Sarnoff, Chief Inspector for The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America wrote to his superiors: “I have in mind a plan of development which will make radio a ‘household utility’ in the same sense as the piano or phonograph… … Continue reading
Posted in Radio, This day in information
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Microsoft Word’s 30th Birthday
Thirty years ago today, Microsoft released it’s first full-featured application, a word processor called Word for MS-DOS 1.00. Microsoft provided a free demonstration copy with every copy of PC World magazine. It’s the first time in history a magazine has included a floppy-disk.
The Value of Television
Today in 1927, 21-year-old Philo T. Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting through purely electronic means an image of a line with a device he called an “image dissector.” Today in 1957, the original version of the animated NBC peacock logo, used to denote … Continue reading
Posted in Television, This day in information
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Apple: Welcome, IBM. Seriously.
Today in 1981, Apple Computer ran a full-page ad in the The Wall Street Journal, twelve days after IBM entered the personal computer market with the launch of the IBM PC.
Posted in Apple, Computer history, This day in information
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Steve Jobs: Thank You, Bill Gates
Today in 1997, Steve Jobs was on the cover of Time Magazine, thanking Bill Gates for saving Apple.
Posted in Apple, Computer history, Microsoft, This day in information
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Computer Animation: From Fantasmagorie to Monsters University
Today in 1908, the first animated cartoon, Fantasmagorie, was released. The film (watch it on YouTube) was created by Émile Cohl by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, which gave the picture a blackboard look. The … Continue reading
Posted in Animation, Digitization, This day in information
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The PC Era Launched
Today in 1981, 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 mono … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, PCs, This day in information, Tipping points
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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, Digitization, Paper, This day in information
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What Hath Tim Berners-Lee Wrought
Today in 1991, 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 project … Continue reading
The Story of Information 