Tech News Today 584: Thunderbolt and Lightning

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

Is Apple’s latest worth the hype? What Zuck really said about HTML5, Intel’s latest pitch to revive the PC, and more.

Guests: Kevin Purdy and Leo Laporte

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Running time: 48:16

Tech History Today – Sep. 13

1983 – Osborne Computer declared bankruptcy in Oakland, CA, federal bankruptcy court, listing assets of $40 million, liabilities of $45 million, and 600 creditors. Two years earlier, Osborne produced the first portable computer, the 24-pound Osborne I.

In 1985 – Nintendo released Super Mario Brothers in Japan. It became the best selling video game for 20 years until it was surpassed by Wii Sports.

In 2000 – The public beta of Apple’s Mac OS X, code named Kodiak was released. Users had to pay $29.95 for the beta.

Tech News Today 583: Beware Flying Babies

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

GoDaddy face plants, the looming Instapaper war, big look at Steam’s Big Picture, and more.

Guests: Jason Hiner and Sean Buckley

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Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

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Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 48:20

Tech History Today – Sep. 12

In 1962 – US President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech at the stadium of Rice University, declaring “We choose to go to the moon.” Many consider the speech the beginning of the space race.

In 1985 – Steve Jobs announced to the Apple board that he would resign. Jobs said, “I’ve been thinking a lot, and it’s time for me to get on with my life. It’s obvious that I’ve got to do something. I’m 30 years old.”

In 1994 – Mosaic Communications introduced its first software, the Mosaic NetScape network navigator and the Mosaic Netsite server line.

Tech History Today – Sep. 11

In 1928 – Radio station WGY of General Electric made the first TV-radio simulcast in Schenectady, New York. A play called “The Queen’s Messenger” had audio broadcast over radio with the picture in sync over television at same time,.

In 1985 – ISEE-3, renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) flew through the gas tail of comet P/Giacobini-Zinner.

In 1998 – The US Congress released the contents of the Starr report on the internet. The report led to the impeachment but not the removal of President Clinton. The websites that hosted the report were slammed with traffic.

Tech News Today 582: Granger Danger

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

Spotify coming to the Web, HP’s new Windows 8 PCs not so touchy, Google makes it rain fiber in KC, and more.

Guest: William “Dills” Gregory

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

Check out the full show notes for today’s episode.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend the wiki entry for this episode at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 52:18

Tech History Today – Sep. 10

1990 – Peter Deutsch posted to comp.archives about the Internet Archive Server called “Archie” that he, Alan Emtage, and Bill Heelan had put together. It is often considered the Internet’s first search engine.

In 1991 – Paul Lindner posted to comp.unix.misc introducing “The Internet Gopher” a distributed information service. Before the World Wide Web, Gopher was the prime way to find and share documents online.

In 2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN powered up in Geneva, Switzerland, on its quest to discover the secrets of particle physics, especially evidence for the Higgs Boson.

Tech History Today – Sep. 9

1940 – At McNutt Hall at Dartmouth College, George Stibitz demonstrated the first remote operation of a computer. He connected to his Complex Number Generator at Bell labs by telephone using 28-wire teletype cable.

In 1947 – While troubleshooting the Harvard University Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator, operators found a moth trapped between the points of relay #70 in Panel F. They affixed the bug to the log and wrote “First actual case of bug being found.” While this was not the first use of the term’bug’ for a computer problem, ‘debugging’ became popular for fixing bugs after this case.

In 1999 – The Sega Dreamcast debuted in North America. However many were distracted by the supposed 9/9/99 bug that ended up being just as much of a non-problem as the Y2K bug.

Tech History Today – Sep. 8

In 1930 – The first roll of waterproof, transparent, pressure-sensitive tape was sold. Its brand name “Scotch” has become synonymous with cellophane tape.

In 1966 – The TV show Star Trek made its network television debut with the episode “The Man Trap”. Star Trek would have a profound influence on future technology thought and design.

In 2004 – NASA’s unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-landed when its parachute failed to open.