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The Dirty Lives of Robots, 1794-2012
1794: “Wonderful exhibition !!! Signor Gulielmo Pittachio, the sublime wonder of the world!!! condescends to inform the public at large, and his friends in particular, that he has now opened his grand hall of exhibitions at Westminster… In the course of the entertainment the sublime Pittachio will exhibit upwards of two hundred automata, or moving puppets, Who will rise up, sit down, say Yes, or No, Receive Money, Rake among the Cinders, or do any Dirty Work he may think proper to put them to–N.B. This is a most fascinating Trick.”
2012: “DARPA seeks humanoid robots in Grand Challenge; DARPA trials would apparently involve getting a robot to drive a utility vehicle, enter a locked room, and repair a pump. Eliminating members of the ragtag human Resistance comes later.”
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Robots
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First U.S. Demonstration of TV
The large-disc receiver and controls of the television used in the first American demonstration of television, April 7, 1927.
Today in 1927, a group of newspaper reporters and dignitaries gathered at the AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories auditorium in New York City to see the first American demonstration of something new: television. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover provided the “entertainment,” as his live picture and voice were transmitted over telephone lines from Washington, D.C., to New York. “Today we have, in a sense, the transmission of sight for the first time in the world’s history,” Hoover said. “Human genius has now destroyed the impediment of distance in a new respect, and in a manner hitherto unknown.”
Posted in Telephone, Television, This day in information
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The Rise and Rise of e-Books
Twenty years ago, Sony launched the Data Discman. Its purpose was to provide quick access to electronic reference information on a pre-recorded disc. Yesterday, the Pew Internet published a new report on e-reading: “One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year, and this number increased following a gift-giving season that saw a spike in the ownership of both tablet computers and e-book reading devices such as the original Kindles and Nooks. In mid-December 2011, 17% of American adults had reported they read an e-book in the previous year; by February, 2012, the share increased to 21%. Continue reading
Posted in Books, ebooks
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Genealogists Drown the 1940 Census
I blogged before (see A Calculating People, February 23, 2012) about the release yesterday of the 1940 census records. Today, the Web site of the National Archives and Records Administration displays an apology for the difficulties people had in accessing the web site, saying: “We have seen extraordinary demand for the 1940 census records, with over 37 million hits since 9:00 a.m. on 4/2/12.” According to USA Today (which also provides an infographic with the census data from 1940 and 2010), 22.5 million of these curious and impatient genealogists visited the site in the first three hours. A case of overly successful social media promotion? In a related note, the U.S. Census Bureau is planning to “modernize” its IT infrastructure in time for the next census. Here is what it says about its plans: Continue reading
Posted in Censuses, Social Networks
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Digital Tipping Point: Analog Vs. Online Movie Views/Transcations
eMarketer: This year, for the first time, US consumers will pay more for online movies than they will for DVDs and Blu-ray discs. IHS Screen Digest, a media-focused research and consulting company, projects online video views and transactions in 2012 will outnumber views and transactions of DVDs and Blu-ray discs combined.
Posted in Analog, Digitization, Tipping points
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Back to the Future: Re-centralizing storage
IDC: “One of the major themes affecting the HDD forecast is the shift in demand for HDDs in client devices. While PCs will continue to represent the largest market for HDDs in terms of unit shipments, revenue derived from HDDs shipped for PCs is projected to decline over the next five years. In contrast, HDD demand from personal storage, entry-level storage, and enterprise applications (combined) is increasing. This reflects the broader trend to store more content in large datacenters and centralized storage devices in the home or in small businesses, thus making content accessible to a wide range of consumption platforms, including media tablets, smartphones, PCs, and other connected wireless devices. The longer-term implication is that enterprise storage – as opposed to storage in PCs and CE devices – will at some point become the major consumer of HDDs, as it was early in the life of the HDD market.”
15 Minutes of Fame 2 Centuries Ago: “At Least a Twelvemonth!”
“He came on the wings of disappointment, and with his head full of acting, for it had been a theatrical party; and the play in which he had borne a part was within two days of representation, when the sudden death of one of the nearest connections of the family had destroyed the scheme and dispersed the performers. To be so near happiness, so near fame, so near the long paragraph in praise of the private theatricals at Ecclesford, the seat of the Right Hon. Lord Ravenshaw, in Cornwall, which would of course have immortalised the whole party for at least a twelvemonth! and being so near, to lose it all, was an injury to be keenly felt, and Mr. Yates could talk of nothing else.”–Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1811-1814.
Posted in Quotes, Reputation
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The WELL: Oldest continuing online community
Today in 1985, The Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link (the WELL) opened for business, allowing customers to register on-line to use it for $8 per month plus $2 per hour. The Well
was started by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant as a dial-up bulletin board system (BBS), became one of the original dial-up ISPs in the early 1990s when commercial traffic was first allowed, and is currently a Web-based community with 4,000 members.
Bell Labs’ Phototransistor
Today in 1950, the invention of the phototransistor was announced by Bell Telephone Laboratories. This was a transistor operated by light rather than electric current, invented by Dr. John Northrup Shive.
A few weeks ago, Bob Metcalfe reviewed a new history of Bell Labs, The Idea Factory, by Jon Gertner, taking issue with Gertner’s romanticized “view of the place,” and arguing that “trusting research to corporate monopolies is problematic in two ways. First, their money comes from overcharging customers by using monopoly power…. Second, a corporate monopoly has little motivation to disrupt a market that it already dominates. Continue reading
Posted in Bell Labs, Innovation, Transistor
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The Story of Information 