“It Shines for All”: Newspapers in America

Posted on September 3, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1833, the first issue of the The New York Sun was published. Steven Lubar in InfoCulture: “New technology, in fact, came along after (italics mine) the renaissance of the newspaper. The New York Sun was the first ‘penny paper,’ featuring sensational stories aimed at mass audience… it stretched the limit of its hand presses with its 10,000 copies a day. (When a series of stories announcing the discovery of life on the moon appeared, it sold 20,000 copies in a day; by then it had switched to a steam-powered press). Benjamin Day, its published, bragged about its power: ‘Since the Sun began to shine upon the citizens of New York, there had been a great and decided change in the condition of the laboring classes, and the mechanics. Continue reading →

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Cash Flow

Posted on September 2, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1969, Chemical Bank installed the first ATM in the U.S. at its branch in Rockville Centre, New York. The first ATMs were designed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when a user inserted a specially coded card. A Chemical Bank advertisement boasted “On Sept. 2 our bank will open at 9:00 and never close again.” Today, there are more than 2.1 million ATMs installed worldwide. And tomorrow? The mobile payment market will reach $670 billion in 2015, according to Jupiter Research.

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Copy Rights

Posted on September 1, 2011 by GilPress

Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus

Today in 1486, the republic of Venice granted its first privilege to an author for a specific book (a history of Venice), the Decades rerum Venetarum by Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus, securing protection against illegal replication. Sabellico’s privilege set the precedent for the custom of granting privileges not just to the printers but also directly to the authors. Continue reading →

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Radio News

Posted on August 31, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1920, station 8MK (today’s WWJ) in Detroit, Michigan, aired the first radio news program. Today, according to SBD, 45% of listeners in the USA rely on their smart phones to access Internet radio.

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Online Education

Posted on August 28, 2011 by GilPress

According to a new Pew Research Center report, just three-in-ten American adults (29%) say a course taken online provides an equal educational value to one taken in a classroom. By contrast, about half of college presidents (51%) say online courses provide the same value.  More than three-quarters of college presidents (77%) report that their institutions now offer online courses, and college presidents predict substantial growth in online learning: 15% say most of their current undergraduate students have taken a class online, 50% predict that ten years from now most of their students will take classes online.

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First Tornado Photograph

Posted on August 28, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1884, the first known photograph of a tornado was taken near Howard, South Dakota. The tornado may have inspired L. Frank Baum to include one in his book, The Wizard of Oz, for he was a news reporter in nearby Aberdeen.

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“Television” Coined

Posted on August 25, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1900, Constantin Perskyi, Professor of Electricity at the Artillery Academy of Saint Petersburg, coined the word “television” in a paper read at the International World Fair in Paris at the 1st International Congress of Electricity.

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Apple: Welcome, IBM. Seriously.

Posted on August 24, 2011 by GilPress

Thirty years ago today, 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 Computer history, PCs, This day in information | 5 Comments

Steve Jobs and the Next Big Thing

Posted on August 24, 2011 by GilPress

[Originally appeared on this blog on October 12, 2010]

Today in 1988, Steve Jobs unveiled the NeXT Computer at Symphony Hall in San Francisco. A day or two later, I was among a standing-room only crowd at Boston’s Symphony Hall admiring the all-black, beautifully-designed “workstation” with a brand-new optical drive (no hard disk drive in the computer of the future according to Jobs) that played a duet with a human violinist. Continue reading →

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Animation Milestones

Posted on August 17, 2011 by GilPress

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. Continue reading →

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