Birthday Spam May 2, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, History.add a comment
Or rather, spam’s birthday. A lot seems to happen at the end of April and the first part of May. The BBC is reporting that the first spam was sent out 30 years ago this weekend. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another 30 years before the last spam is sent out!
BBC NEWS | Technology | Spam reaches 30-year anniversary
Past and Future of Technology May 2, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, History.add a comment
Interesting contrast between a Wired Blog Network post with video of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine and a CNET News post about the world of technology in the year 2050. For the numbers people reading this post, that’s a difference of 201 years on the same day.
Exclusive Video: Babbage’s Mechanical Calculator Comes to Life | Gadget Lab from Wired.com
Imagining the tech world in 2050 | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com
Introducing Univac February 15, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, History.add a comment
Okay, so this isn’t such a new computer, coming from the early 1950’s, but this is a fascinating look at the history of computing. It seems interesting to me to see how many people it took to serve.. I mean how many people it took to use one computer. Now I have more computers in my house than we have people.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs
Netscape Is Dead! Long Live Netscape… er Firefox! January 31, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in History.add a comment
In case you hadn’t heard yet, the Netscape browser will officially pass away February 1, 2008. I remember it well, and even remember the earlier Mosaic browser. While this momentous event could provide the opportunity to wax nostalgic for the ‘good old days’ of Gopher or Archie, lets not forget that good code never dies, it just gets forked. In other words, check under the hood of Firefox, which apparently as many as 30% of you are using, and you’ll find more than a little Netscape under the hood. Any way, in honor of the passing of Netscape, let’s all roll our browsers back to gray time, when bookmarks were precious, and to ability to write html code made it seem like the world could be your audience.
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/01/netscape-the-br.html
Early Internet TV Coverage December 23, 2007
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, History.1 comment so far
I enjoy exploring the history of the Internet, and I’m very happy that Steve Borsch from Connecting the Dots has posted a “Computer Chronicles” video from the Internet Archive. I can’t get over how they keep calling it “Internet” instead of “the Internet” as in “connecting to Internet.” Oh, and everything is text based. You’ll even hear the old modem squawk. It is also surprising how all of the issues (like security, online music, standards) mentioned are still issues today. Who knew the Internet once had a 1-800 help line?
http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2007/12/think-the-inter.html
