Archive for Technology
The White House Now Has an Official iPhone App
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Link opens in iTunes
Can this be the most technologically inclined administration in history? Yesterday, on the heels of Barack Obama delivering his first *real* tweet (sorry boys and girls, someone else tweets for @BarackObama) the Obama administration released its first official iPhone app. According to the app’s description, it will give you the inside scoop on the goings on in the White House, with news, video, and supposedly live video streaming of White House events. I was excited to take a look at the app, but unfortunately I have a first generation iPod Touch, which isn’t compatible. From the screenshots, though, it looks pretty good, and out of 102 ratings, so far, it has 4 out of 5 stars, so it’s probably not too bad. Head on over to the iTunes app store, where for the price of free, you can have an inside look at the White House (iTunes link). Once you’ve tried it out, come on back and tell me how it is in the comments (since I’m stuck in the Dark Ages).
5 Random Things About Electric Cars
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- The first patent for an electric motor went to Hungarian inventor Ányos Jedlik in 1828. Jedlik created a model for a vehicle that would run on his electric motor, but it was never mass produced.
- In 1900, 38 percent of the vehicles in the U.S. were powered by electricity, while only 22% were powered by gasoline (the rest were powered by steam).
- The first gas-electric hybrid was produced in 1917. It was a commercial failure because it was expensive and difficult to service.
- Electric vehicles were delivered a 3-part knockout before World War I for 3 reasons:
- The discovery of oil reserves in Texas and Oklahoma, which brought the price of gas down.
- The invention of the electric starter (no more hand-cranking gasoline engines).
- The mass production of gas-powered cars by Henry Ford, which made them 1/4 the price of electric vehicles.
- The first vehicle to be driven on the moon, the Lunar Rover aka the “moon buggy”, was an electric car.
The earliest cars were electric, so there is a model. Considering the popularity and renewed interest in electric-powered vehicles, why has it been so difficult to produce a commercially-successful vehicle? For more info, check out the popular documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?
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The Best Scene in Television History
Posted by: | CommentsOver at A Blog About History, there’s a youtube video up showcasing the last 100 years of special effects. I watched it, and was pretty amazed at how far the movie industry has come at faking it. I was disappointed, though when I didn’t see the infamous Batman shark attack TV episode. I’ve posted that video below, for your viewing pleasure. It’s made even more hilarious by the fact that apparently Adam West wanted the show to be more serious, and less silly. Oh well, maybe it’s good that the producers didn’t have their way, otherwise we might not have the crazy Adam West that we have today.
What is the Future of Reading?
Posted by: | CommentsReading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
– Albert Einstein
I’m not what you would call an avid reader. To be sure, I read magazines, newspapers, and stuff on the Internet all the time. But on average, I generally read 3-4 books (novels, non-fiction, etc.) per year. However, in the last month, I have read 4 books, and am currently working on my 5th. I’ve also discovered a newfound interest in classic literature, having read several short stories and essays by various authors including George Orwell and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Why the Sudden Burst in Reading?
It’s no secret that I am an enormous geek, and I love all things tech. I have an iPod Touch with 3 ebook readers on it, and the only reason I don’t have an Amazon Kindle is for fiscal reasons. That’s right, I’ve read the last 4 books this past month on my iPod Touch; and comfortably I might add. Steve Jobs famously said about the Amazon Kindle in January 2008:
It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.
How ironic then, that the device that has renewed my interest in reading is an Apple device. Even more ironic is the fact that technology is the main reason people don’t read anymore, yet technology just might change that. From the availability of a whole library or bookstore in the palm of your hand, to the persistent connections offered on most newer ebook readers, including the Kindle and the iPhone, the convenience afforded by these devices is unparalleled. Of course, many of the details, such as licensing, need to be addressed, but I whole-heartedly believe that ebooks will overtake traditional books within my lifetime.
What do you think? Are ebook readers here to stay, or just a geek-fad?
Happy 10th Birthday Windows Messenger!
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I’ve never used Windows Messenger outside a corporate environment in tandem with Microsoft Exchange, but a milestone’s a milestone, right? If you actually use Windows Messenger for your IM needs, head on over to the Microsoft commemoration page to get your free gift. Everyone else continue wondering why Microsoft even bothered with this one.
A Short History of Distance Education
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Though it may have come to the forefront in recent years with the growth of online universities and colleges, distance learning has been in existence since the early 1900’s and perhaps before then through mail-based correspondence courses. Even then, distance education owed its success to the development of new forms of media. Starting with catalogs of instructional films, distance education has been adapting to the latest forms of communication ever since.
While radio made an early attempt to provide instruction, it was not until the invention of television that instructional programs really started to garner a lot of interest. Even as early as 1932, schools were working on developing lessons through televised programming, though they did not attain widespread attention until the 1960’s. Televised instruction failed to ever really take hold and in 1967 it was judged that to discontinue it would have little lasting effect on education.
Many attempts were made during the 70’s and 80’s to create high quality educational program and it was Britain’s Open University that served as an inspiration for many programs that arose. These experimented with everything from teleconferencing to videotaped lectures to try to come up with an effective solution for learning at a distance, something that was in high demand with rising college costs and a more mobile population.
Distance learning would get a tried and true partner in the web, however, and the 90’s saw a surge in distance education programs and the students hoping to take them. Through the internet, course materials were relatively inexpensive to deliver and students could communicate with each other and instructors easily through email.
Further advances in internet technology have made the division between online education and more traditional classroom instruction even narrower. Now, lectures can be recorded on video, allowing students to see and listen to their professor as they would in a real class and webcams can make it possible for students to interact with one another in real-time. Quizzes can be taken online, programs have expanded and grown more sophisticated and even some of the most distinguished universities have added distance learning programs.
Distance learning has changed a lot since its early days of correspondence schools and with the rapid fire pace of technological development it’s likely to change a good deal in the coming years as well.
This post was contributed by Meredith Walker, who writes about the online bachelors degree. She welcomes your feedback at MeredithWalker1983 at gmail.com
Why is it called Tivo? (And Other Tech Name Origins): Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsThis is the last of a two-part series. Click here for part one. Many products are so ubiquitous that we don’t even try to think of where their name originated, but as the tagline says, “haven’t you ever wondered?” In this part, I’ll show you an ironic name, a name with less history than you’d think, and a product that had so many names it almost never had a name.
BenQ
BenQ is consumer electronics manufacturer most notable for their line of projectors. The name BenQ is actually an acronym which stands for Bringing ENjoyment and Quality to life. Ironically, I’ve only ever seen BenQ projectors in corporate meeting rooms, which usually do the opposite of bring enjoyment to life.
TiVo
I chose TiVo because I thought for sure that it would have an incredibly interesting story about its etymology. Boy was I disappointed. Originally a whole-home concept called Teleworld, this device was meant to control every aspect of your house. However, while in development, the company decided to hone in on one aspect of home control, which turned out to be the television. Multiple brainstorming sessions lead to the name TiVo, with multiple roots related to marketing as opposed to something interesting. Case in point, according to Michael Cronan, creator of the name and mascot, the name TiVo was applied because it sounded most like TV. I don’t know why, but considering some of the other companies I’ve written about, I somehow expected more. For more insights into the origins of the name TiVo, visit PVRblog.
Mozilla Firefox
This one is a two-for-one deal, as the origins of both Mozilla and Firefox were worthy of sharing, and thus makes for a grand finale. Firefox is an open-source web browser based on the original Mozilla Suite, a collection of software of which the web browser was just a piece. The original Mozilla Browser was created by Marc Andreesen, the co-founder of Netscape, and while it was in development was named Mosaic-killer, Godzilla (Mosaic being one of the earliest web browsers).
Firefox on the other hand, is actually a settled-upon name. Originally called Phoenix, the name had to be changed due to trademark issues with the BIOS manufacturer Phoenix Technologies. The name was changed to Firebird, but there was already a database server called that, and that user community didn’t take to kindly to their name being borrowed. Finally, the name Firefox was chosen because it was similar to Firebird, but unique in the information technology field…or so they thought. Turns out that a software company in the U.K. already registered the trademark for the name Firefox. However, the Mozilla Foundation was given a license by the software company to use the trademark in Europe, and they were able to keep the name Firefox.
I think Firefox is great, and it is my browser of choice. If you don’t already use Firefox, give it a try:
