Today in Tech History – Jan. 3, 2015

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1957 – Hamilton Electric held a press conference to announce the World’s First Electronic Watch. The Hamilton Electric 500 never needed winding, just batteries.

In 1977 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak incorporated Apple Computer Company. Ron Wayne famously backed out, selling his shares for $800. Ouch.

In 1999 – The US Mars Polar Lander was launched. It would spend most of the year wending its way towards Mars before it lost communication with Earth in December, presumably after crashing.

In 2009 – “Satoshi Nakamoto” created a virtual currency called Bitcoin posting an announcement and 31,000 lines of code on the Internet.

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DTNS 2398 – Curve Skeptics

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJust the headlines as we ramp up to CES, plus a surprise visit from someone, and new goals for 2015.

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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!

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Show Notes

Today in Tech History – Jan. 2, 2015

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the Moon, was launched by the USSR.

In 1979 – Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston incorporated Software Arts for the purpose of developing VisiCalc, the world’s first spreadsheet program.

In 2004 – NASA’s Stardust spacecraft successfully flew past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples it brought back to Earth two years later.

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New 2015 Team Logos

The 2015 season is closer than you think. In celebration of the new year, The FSL announced the brand new Phil Meadows logos for the new 2015 teams.

The Los Angeles Guardians of the Galaxy try to capitalize on their roots playing in the Galaxy while identifying with the upmarket LA metro area.

GUARDIANSofthe GALAXY

While The Cheyenne Mountain Gators make no secret of the pride in their teams ability to play to all fields.

Cheyenne Mountain Gaters

Today in Tech History – Jan. 1, 2015

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1939 – In a garage in Palo Alto, California, William Hewlett and David Packard founded Hewlett-Packard a little company that made audio oscillators– and later TouchPads.

In 1983 – A new Internet and Transmission Control Protocol (Yep called IP/TCP by some at the time, weird I know) went into effect on the ARPANet, replacing the Network Control Protocol. The result was a new ARPA Internet combining ARPA hosts of the time new systems.

In 1985 – The Nordic Research Network NORDUnet registered the first domain name NORDU.NET.

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Today in Tech History – Dec. 31, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1923 – The chimes of Big Ben were broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC, beginning a new year’s tradition.

In 1938 – Cops in Indianapolis put Indiana University professor Rolla Harger’s drunkometer to its first practical New Year’s Eve test as a breath analyzer. Suspected drunks blew into a balloon and the air was mixed with a chemical solution that turned darker the more alcohol was present. The more portable Breathalyzer replaced the drunkometer in 1958.

In 2001 – Microsoft provided its last day of support for Windows 95 making it officially “obsolete” according to the Microsoft Lifecycle policy, after only six years.

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DTNS 2397 – Predictions for 2015

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja and Justin Robert Young share their predictions for what to expect in tech in 2015.

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 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!

Cordkillers 51 – I’m Not a Reality Show Kinda Guy

The Interview hits online, Netflix says goodbye and hello and 4K apps on Vizio.

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CordKillers: Ep. 51 – I’m Not a Reality Show Kinda Guy
Recorded: December 29, 2014
Guest: None

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

2014 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv

  1. Scott: $378,364,906
  2. Tom: $325,740,292
  3. Brian: $317,556,820
  4. Brett: $223,479,164
  5. John: $133,316,656
  6. Justin: $74,147,621

Dispatches from the Front

Brian,

I already told you… eBay your jail broken first gen AppleTV. You will get enough money to buy at least two current gen AppleTVs in return. Look on eBay and see for yourself. Get it done, and stop bashing the AppleTV!

David

 

 

Hey Brian and Tom,

I just thought you would find this confirmation of the ending of the legend of korra series.
One of your bosses

Rodrigo

 

 

Im now saving 136.00 a month I cut the cable tv and phone and just kept internet went from 187.00 down to 51.00. I spent around 200.00 to install a DB8E antenna on the roof with a four way distribution amp. I live about 40 miles from new orleans and mississippi gulf coast so i have one antenna bay pointed to new orleans and the other to the gulf coast and I get all the channels from both markets a total of 41 channels. I have a roku stick on each of the four tv’s and with the antenna and roku’s with amazon, hulu, and netflix im set.

Randy

 

 

Hi Brian and Tom,

I have been watching you all for a couple of years now and really like the show. I wanted to let you know about this device I came across the other day, it’s called Brilliant TV. It’s from a small start up company near West Palm Beach, FL where I live. From what I can tell, this device seems to be close to what the old Boxee Box use to offer. It’s a small set top box that runs a version of Android and it’s an aggregate of all on-line content that is available for free. To include TV Shows, Movies, sporting events and foreign television as well.

Again, they are a small company and the device is a little expensive.($500 is what they told me but is says $599 on their web site.) However, these guys seem to have done a pretty good job on the delivery of the product from what I saw in the demonstration.

Take a look at this device and see what you think. You can find it at this URL: http://geekypickers.com/product/brillianttv-set-top/

I look forward to hear what you all have to say about this device.

Keep up the great work Brain and Tom.

Jimmy 

 

 

[SPOILER TALK] for The Walking Dead

On the last spoilerin’ time I listened to you mentioned that you stopped reading The Walking Dead comics before the Eugene reveal and I realized that you did the exact same thing as me. I read the comic up to the point where Abraham’s crew appeared and stopped, and I watched the show until the disappointment that was the governor and stopped. My roommates continued to watch the show in the living room where I catch glimpses and can tell what part of the story they are in (me being the only one to have read the comics in the house) and they got to the point where Abraham appeared and I thought “Oh no… I don’t want the crappy show version to ruin the comic for me” (though now that I have seen parts of season 4 and 5 I see that they are taking even more liberties with the source material and is at best loosely based on the comics) so I took the plunge and read (renting from the library) the nearly 100 issues I needed to to catch up, it was the best decision I have made in a long time. The most recently completed story arc literally shook the core of my humanity (maybe not so much, but it was really good), so I suggest that you continue the comics.

TL;DR Continue the walking dead comics!

 

 William

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

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Today in Tech History – Dec. 30, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1873 – A number of gentlemen in New York City founded the American Metrological Society, feeling that a change to the Metric System was needed by civilized nations. 100 years later they’re defunct and gallons, miles, and Fahrenheit rule the US.

In 1913 – Dr William David Coolidge received his patent for improvements in tungsten and methods for making the same for use as filaments in incandescent lights. It made light bulbs last a lot longer. Too bad that in 1928, GE got a court to declare the patent was not an invention.

In 1924 – Astronomer Edwin Hubble announced that he had found stars in the spiral nebula Andromeda, and using Leavitt’s formula measured them as 860,000 light years away proving Andromeda was a separate galaxy. He would go on to find a dozen more galaxies.

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