Why we use base 10, vestigial digit removal or enhancement, bird brains, what dinosaurs tasted like, farming endangered animals, eating invasive species, making good choices for our environments, free trade.
Today in Tech History – October 30, 2016
1938 – Orson Welles pwned the US radio audience with his famous broadcast of War of the Worlds. It was correctly introduced as theater but those not paying attention were fooled into thinking the play was the real thing.
1987 – NEC started selling the first 16-bit home entertainment system, called the TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem or in Japan, the shorter catchier PC Engine. It was originally more popular in Japan than the FamiCom, which we North Americans call the NES.
2012 – Disney and George Lucas announced that Disney would acquire 100 percent of LucasFilm, including ILM, LucasArts and Skywalker Sound. The company also announced it intended to release Star Wars: Episode 7 in 2015.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
FSL Tonight – 2016 Semifinals
Solo-less Senators take out lone Kylo and the Guardians officially close the asylum as the Quill turns a All-Galaxy performance.
Weekly Tech Views: The Tech, No Logic Blog – Oct 29, 2016
Real tech stories. Really shaky analysis.
With Halloween right around the corner, we welcome you to the tech news version of a haunted house. You know something weird–possibly demented–is around every corner, but you can handle it by reminding yourself that it’s all fake.
(As this is the Halloween season, the first story this week takes a bit of a slasher film turn. If horror movies aren’t your thing, maybe skip to the next story where the most disturbing aspect is my refusal to stop making Galaxy Note 7 jokes)
For the week of October 24 – 28, 2016…
Facebook… Live?
Because nobody had stolen an idea from Snapchat in the last 24 hours, Facebook stepped up to add selfie lenses called Masks. The initial batch includes Halloween themes like skeletons and pumpkins, available when a user starts a live video. The main benefit to this, of course, is that 75% of Hollywood horror movies for the next five years now have their opening scene:
“Have you seen Trevor’s cool Facebook Live videos this week? Dude misses three days of school but he’s going non-stop with these freaky Halloween vids. Hacking away with a rusty axe at that ketchup-filled scarecrow.”
“Oh, here–check out this one! Where he’s wearing the skeleton Mask…”
“Yeah! Watch watch watch!… Ohhhhhhh!–THA-WHACK! Look at that spray! Want fries with that?!”
“Um, guys? That’s not Trevor.”
“Uh, yeah it is. Open your eyes. It’s his account. That’s his letter jacket, his cap, his–”
“His scar?”
“What scar?”
“The scar… that’s been on his neck since he ran into a open locker door in fifth grade. That he’s had for six years? Where is it? Where’s the scar? WHERE’S THE SCAR?! It’s not–OH MY GOD THE SCARECROW HAS THE SCAR AND I DON’T THINK THAT’S KETCHUP!”
Hey Fate, Want To Borrow My Hanky? I Think Samsung Just Spit In Your Face
Despite being torched with negative publicity over the exploding Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Samsung surprised many industry analysts by defiantly refusing to abandon the Note brand, indicating there will indeed be a Note 8 next year. In fact, the company is expected to go all in on the device, with the only color choice being Smoke Gray, and introducing it at a launch party aboard the brand new Hindenburg II.
Meanwhile, Coors Crosses Arms Over Chest And Glares
Otto–an Uber-owned self-driving truck company–had a truck complete a 100-mile trip to deliver a shipment of Budweiser from Fort Collins, Colorado to Colorado Springs with no human intervention. A driver remained on board as a precaution, but did not need to do anything.
“Of course I didn’t,” said the driver. “My bosses were like, ‘it’s gonna be fine, nothing to worry about at all.’ But that sure changed when I agreed and showed them the cool bottle opener I was gonna bring.”
And By The Way, Now It’s Game Of Phones
AT&T is acquiring Time Warner for $85.4 billion, giving AT&T content providers like HBO, CNN, and TNT. They also get Warner Bros films, actually bringing the price down by a billion because AT&T was forced to take ownership of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
I Was Only Looking At The Blinking Marquee Font
Google has purchased Eyefluence, a company whose software can tell whether you are bored or interested in what you’re looking at, turning your eye movements into virtual mouse clicks.
“Oh, come on!” said users who, sure, spent a lot of time ogling the model on that “Wanna meet hot singles?” ad but knew damned well if they clicked to see more it would start showing up on every website they visited and their spouse would be sure to notice and never let them hear the end of it.
Those Guys Make Everything Classier
Link, maker of public WiFi kiosks, is following up their New York City installations by bringing them to London. While they will offer USB charging, maps, and free calls to UK phones, they will not have a web browser, a feature removed from the New York kiosks after reports of rampant public pornography viewing. “Thanks for ruining it, America,” said London. “Where are your manners? You couldn’t hold up an open umbrella to privately watch your porn like a gentleman?”
Fluber
In portions of the U.S. on Tuesday, Uber was offering free flu shots. A “Health” option appeared in their app between 11am and 3pm allowing users to request delivery of a “Flu-fighting” package. Now Uber is thinking about expanding the program, having a “Regret” option appear in the app between 2am and 5am on weekends allowing users to request delivery of “Crud-fighting” package of antibiotic shots to help counteract the possible effects of some questionable decision-making earlier in the evening.
Maybe We Should DM Them To See If They Like Us Or “Like” Like Us
It’s being reported that Disney has renewed interest in acquiring Twitter. The change of heart comes after brainstorming the idea of Twitter Town, which would, like the Magic Kingdom, have its own Hall of Presidents, where visitors can delight in watching a remarkable animatronic timeline of a nation’s leaders frown, cringe, and sometimes even cry as members of the audience, embracing their hard-won freedom of speech, tweet opposing-party hatred at them.
Did You Get The Pic Of The Whole Company Wearing Mouse Ears?
Twitter will cut 9% of its workforce in an attempt to become profitable. Said a Twitter spokesperson, “See, Disney? See? Hunh? How about now? We’re doing good, right?”
Not To Be Confused With The Creator’s Update, With Noah And The Ark And Everything
Microsoft’s Windows 10 Creators Update includes a new version of Windows Paint capable of creating 3D designs, which may sound like an impressive advancement, but I’m guessing a lot of resources went toward that while we still seem to be sitting here without a virtual reality Minesweeper.
Guess We Didn’t Need To Order The Danish Tray
After last week’s denial of service attacks, The Department of Homeland Security held a conference call with eighteen communication service providers to discuss strategic principles regarding the security of Internet of Things devices. We were able to get our hands on a copy of the call’s transcript:
Service Provider: “So how is everybody do–”
Homeland Security: “Get your s*** together.”
(click)
Tech, Please!
In keeping with the scariness of the season, I’m getting ready to take the harrowing step of launching a Kickstarter for the year-end Weekly Tech Views book, this time titled Tech, Please!
Last year I put out The Internet is Like a Snowblower, covering the final six months of 2015, as an ebook . This time around I’m looking to make this collection of hilariously (humorously? amusingly? come on, give me amusingly, okay?) inaccurate tech “analysis” available in paperback as well. It will have another awesome Len Peralta-drawn cover (this time I’m taking full advantage of Len’s talents and cranking the ambition meter to 10), possibly some cool art inside, and a full year’s worth of nonsensical tech stories!
So if you’d like to support the Weekly Tech Views, this Kickstarter is the way to do it. I’m not saying I wouldn’t try something like Patreon some day, but for now the year-end book is the only financial support for the weekly blog foolishness.
If you are interested, it would be great if you checked out the Kickstarter on its opening day, Wednesday, November 16. Early interest increases the chance that, not only will my friends be less inclined to whisper “poor sap” behind my back just loud enough for me to hear, but that Kickstarter could help promote the campaign.
Even if kicking in for a book isn’t your thing, letting others that might be interested know about it would be amazingly helpful. Many experts say promoting this Tech, Please! Kickstarter is actually why Twitter and Facebook were created.*
If nothing else, you can watch me try to not make a fool of myself in a video.
* Where “many” = “one” and “experts” = “members of my family.”
————————————————————————————-
All this tech news the week before Halloween, but inexplicably, still nothing about a candy bowl that can accurately launch fun-sized Kit-Kats across the room to your couch after syncing with your universal remote.
So that’s it until next week, when, if you’re good, I’ll probably mention the Kickstarter again.
Mike Range
@MovieLeagueMike
Weekly Tech Views: The Tech, No Logic Blog by Mike Range is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Today in Tech History – October 29, 2016
1675 – Gottfreid Leibniz wrote the integral sign in an unpublished manuscript. It’s a sign that would later haunt the nightmares of students and be widely misapplied on blackboards in movies. So happy Integral Day!
1969 – The first ever computer to computer link was established on the ARPANET. UCLA student Charley Kline sent the characters l and o to Stanford. The connection crashed before he could finish sending ‘login’. The Internet has been crashy right from the start.
1988 – Sega launched the Mega Drive console in Japan. It would be released elsewhere in the world later as the ‘Genesis.’
1998 – The Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off on STS-95 with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.
2012 – Apple announced Scott Forstall would leave the company in one year, and that retail head John Browett had left the company as well.
2013 – Motorola announced its modular phone project called Project ARA. It would end up becoming Google’s project after Google sold Motorola.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
DTNS 2890 – Alice In Cryptoland
Geohot cancels his self-driving car and Facebook is accused of enabling ad discrimination. Plus, Google Mind is teaching AI to roll its own encryption and teaching other Ai to try to break it. Darren Kitchen talks with Tom Merritt about how successful it is and Len Peralta illustrates.
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Show Notes
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Daily Tech Headlines – October 28, 2016
Apple’s new MacBooks, a merger of internet titans, RIP Vine.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
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Today in Tech History – October 28, 2016
1793 – Eli Whitney applied to patent his improved cotton gin, capable of cleaning 50 pounds of lint per day, and powering patent metaphors and arguments for centuries to come.
1955 – A pair of proud Seattle parents welcomed their new son into the world, having no idea he would become one of the most loved and hated men of all time. Happy birthday William Henry Gates the third. You know him as Bill.
1998 – President Bill Clinton signed into law the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, making it illegal for you to use computers the way they were designed to be used, if big companies didn’t want you to.
2014 – The W3C published its recommendation of HTML5, the final version of the standard. It included the video and canvas tags among other improvements.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
DTNS 2889 – End of the Vine…
Apple announces new laptops and an Apple TV app while Twitter shuts down Vine and lays off 9% of its staff. Justin Robert Young and Tom Merritt discuss that and more.
Using a Screen Reader? Click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
Follow us on Soundcloud.
A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
Daily Tech Headlines – October 27, 2016
Twitter beats expectations, announces layoffs; Qualcomm moves into automotive, Apple delays AirPod.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
Follow us on Soundcloud.
A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the theme music.
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!