Today in Tech History – October 12, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1979 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first published unleashing in book form, the world of Vogon Poetry, essential towel behaviour, and the BabelFish.

http://www.information-britain.co.uk/famdates.php?id=1237

2001 – An era ended as the Polaroid Corporation filed for federal bankruptcy protection, killed off by 1-hour developing and the rise of digital cameras. Bank One bought most of the company and re-launched a company under the same name.

http://money.cnn.com/2001/10/12/companies/polaroid/

2003 – Adam Curry posted an AppleScript called RSS2iPod that took MP3s downloaded by RSS to a folder and automatically transferred them to a connected iPod. Christopher Lydon’s Radio UserLand was used as the example.

http://radio-weblogs.com/0001014/2003/10/12.html#a4604

2005 – After previously assuring us nobody wanted to watch videos on an iPod, Steve Jobs reversed course and Apple started making videos available on iTunes. ABC/Disney was the only TV network available at the time but you could get episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives the day after they aired.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/10/12Apple-Announces-iTunes-6-With-2-000-Music-Videos-Pixar-Short-Films-Hit-TV-Shows.html

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3135 – My New Life As A Cyborg

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAmazon’s new waterproof Kindle, Oculus’s new VR headset and why your unsent text message could be your will.
With Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang and Raj Deut.

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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 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, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Daily Tech Headlines – October 11, 2017

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500Amazon wants more teen purchases, DoJ wants more encryption access, Google buys 60db.

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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, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Today in Tech History – October 11, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1950 – CBS’s mechanical color system was the first to be licensed for broadcast by the FCC. Color TV would not become widespread until the late 1960s.
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/timeline/1946-1950/

1957 – The Jodrell Bank observatory, with the world’s largest radio telescope, designed by Sir Bernard Lovell, began operation. It’s first job was to track the just-launched Sputnik satellite.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9307367/Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-60-crowning-glories.html

1958 – NASA launched the lunar probe Pioneer 1 the first of the Pioneer program. It didn’t get very far, falling back to Earth and burning up in the atmosphere.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2372.html

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 3134 – Skype’s The Limit For Cortana

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.com If NFC payments technologies like Apple Pay, Google Pay and others are the future why is it taking so long to gain acceptance? And will the be Post Office be the first civilian government agency to employee autonomous vehicles?

Featuring Sarah Lane, Roger Chang and Patrick Beja
MP3

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, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Today in Tech History – October 10, 2017

Today in Tech History logo1964 – The opening ceremonies of the summer Olympics in Tokyo became the first Olympic broadcast relayed live by geostationary communication satellite. Too bad all the US networks gave up on live broadcasts of the Olympics.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/09/05/the-1964-tokyo-olympics-a-turning-point-for-japan/

1967 – The Outer Space Treaty came into force, banning nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction from being placed in Earth orbit or on any other celestial body. It also prevented any state from claiming sovereignty over any celestial resource like the Moon.
http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/space1.html

1994 – Håkon Wium Lie published “Cascading HTML style sheets – a proposal.” He proposed addressing the problems of existing style sheets being static, platform-specific and not allowing enough influence by the HTML author.
http://www.w3.org/People/howcome/p/cascade.html

1995 – The Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrapped up “A Day in the Life of Cyberspace” an attempt to chronicle what people did online that day.

http://www.media.mit.edu/events/1010/1010_intro.html

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

Daily Tech Headlines – October 10, 2017

DTH_CoverArt_1500x1500YouTube bans some gun mod videos, USPS going autonomous, and Facebook’s AI is just okay at StarCraft.

MP3

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, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Cordkillers 190 – The Sidekick: Bevin (w/ MikeTV)

Netflix is more expensive, the Stephen King visual universe expands, and less TV on Google Fiber. With special guest MikeTV.

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CordKillers: Ep. 190 – The Sidekick: Bevin
Recorded: October  9 2017
Guest: MikeTv

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Netflix Raises Its Subscription Prices
    – Netflix raised prices of two of its three plans by $1 a month. The basic single screen plan stays at $7.99. The two screen “standard” plan goes from $9.999 to $10.99 and the 4-screen 4K “Premium” plan goes from $11.99 to $13.99. New customers get the new prices now. Existing customers will be informed by Netflix soon and see it on their bill in November.

How to Watch

  • Google Fiber Drops Cable TV Package For New Cities
    – Google Fiber announced that for its upcoming launch in Louisville and San Antonio markets, it will only offer internet service, with no TV package. Last year, Google announced that Fiber would halt future deployments, making these two markets the last confirmed committments to roll out the service.

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

Dispatches from the Front

Hi guys, just wanted to let you know that as an old guy, I enjoyed Blade Runner 2049, but apparently it is a failure because only old guys like it. But on a related note, why do the studios fail to promote the sequels that seem to be so endemic these days by pushing the previous films in a series on the streaming platforms. Blade Runner is a great example since, though I find it hard to imagine, so many have never seen the first film. Another example was the Kingsmen sequel; I saw the previews for the Golden Circle several months ago, and had never heard of the original. I had to use my Netflix DVD subscription to get a chance to see it.

Without a TV or cable, I can’t see whether I would want to spend money on seeing either show, but without seeing them, I won’t spend the money to buy them on Amazon. Shouldn’t there be a better way? Or should I just wait till they show up on Prime or Netflix?

Keep up the good work

Dave

 

 

 

Hey Bri,

I signed up for Movie pass when they dropped the price to 10 dollars a month and loved it initially. I could use their “E-Ticket” feature at my local theater. Meaning I could pick my seat and buy the ticket from my house without ever using the MasterCard they shipped to me. It was great and I’ve seen more movies in the past 3 weeks then I did in the last 3 months.

Till… something change… They apparently lost the deal with Goodrich Theaters that allowed E-Tickets and now every theater in my area requires me to buy the ticket within 100 yards of the theater. The love is now gone… I like picking my seat and planning ahead of time and I’m willing to go to the theater less and get the best experience (picking my seat… etc) for the big movies than get some second class access to the smaller films while their in theaters.

So I cancelled my membership – which you can do directly from the app so no complaints there. But its just not worth it, even at 10 bucks a month. I mght start it back up again if they get the E-ticket feature back but until then… I’m out.

Thought you and Tom would like the input – thanks for the show(s)!

Sincerely,
Norman

 

 

 

hey, I have no idea whether anyone else has been similarly affected, a google search turned up nothing, but while looking over my credit card bill I noticed that I had been charged 3 times in September for Filmstruck. Twice on the usual billing day, and then once again on the following day. I used the chat option from the Filmstruck help page and they immediately resolved the issue and refunded two of the charges. I don’t always go over my monthly transactions and very easily could have missed this, so I was thinking there’s probably a lot of other subscribers who (if this isn’t just something that just happened to me) might never know they’ d been overcharged.

Thanks! Love the show 🙂
James
 

 

 

CBS All Access and Big Brother

One aspect of CBS All Access I think is missed often in discussions is the inclusion of Big Brother Live feeds. For years CBS has been selling access to the feeds and have a faithful audience for them. One Year ago they ran a Special Season of Big Brother over the top which was only available on CBS All Access. So for those customers everything else is Value add.

Still debating on if its worth it to watch the New Star Trek.

– Scott
 

 

Links

2017 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers

 

DTNS 3133 – Tom Cheques in to London

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comLive from London we talk the difficulties of fighting fake news and whether tech is too US-centric.
With Tom Merritt, Roger Chang, Wil Harris and Ian Morris

MP3

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, Jack_Shid, KAPT_Kipper, and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!