#technology history

[thoughtportal]

He didn’t invent anything

#tiktok #bill gates #technology history #technology #tech bros #tech billionaires #philanthropy #billionaire #taxes #it industry #india #wages and salaries #wages #outsourcing

[indelibleevidence]

Brace yourself - I'm going to make an 'old person' post. 😁

When I was a toddler, back in the mists of time (a.k.a. the mid-to-late '80s), my dad was a TV technichian. Part of his job was to deliver people's new TVs, sit in their living room, hook them up to the power, then tune in the channels for them.

What this involved was getting your TV guide magazine, then sitting in front of the TV and doing a weird kind of manual search through the static, like tuning in a radio with a dial, but you needed a clear sound AND picture. None of the channels were visually labelled, so you had to get a good reception, then try to figure out what channel it was based on what your TV guide said was airing at the time. And then you'd allocate the signal you were receiving to correspond to one of the numbered buttons on your remote, so you could just skip straight there with one button press next time.

Luckily, the UK only had 4 channels at the time (it went up to 5 in the early 90s, and that was a Big Deal because we got a whole new soap opera), so it would only take about 15 minutes to figure out. This was pre-satellite/cable channels, so your choice of what to watch was very limited. And you could do it yourself - you didn't need a technician - but it could be a bit of a chore, and it was a service the store offered, so people paid for it.

I have no idea where I was going with this post (something, something, 'wow, technology really has evolved!') but there you go. That's the work that put food in my mouth as a kid.

#the olden days #these kids today don't know they're born etc etc #technology history

[millionmovieproject]

X

#tv #technology #technology history #television #history

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Railway bridge and Zemgales bridge across Daugava seen from above, Riga, Latvia, 1938. Source:  Latvian Railway History Museum

During World War II, the Zemgales bridge was blown up in battle on June 29, 1941, and again in October 1944. It was never rebuilt..

#Latvia #Riga #vintage photography #european history #Baltic States #railway #steam locomotive #technology history #Northern Europe #railway bridge #Daugava #river #horse

[taraross-1787]

This Day in History: “Amazing Grace” Hopper

On this day in 1906, future Rear Admiral Grace Hopper is born. The feisty Navy officer has been called “Amazing Grace” because of her many accomplishments during decades of service.

You might be surprised to learn that you can credit Amazing Grace for much of the functionality in your computer. It was once thought that computers could only operate in mathematics and numbers, but Grace was convinced that computers could be programmed to respond to words, too.

This early pioneer of computer programming foresaw a world where people could use computers, even if they were not professional programmers—then she helped make it happen.

But, then again, Hopper was one who was always expecting change, innovation, and improvement. She hated to hear someone say “but that’s how we’ve always done it.”

The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-grace-hopper

#tdih #otd #this day in history #history #history blog #us navy #technology #technology history #America #freedom #sharethehistory

[harmlessvillain]

#chainsaw man #technology history

[restonse]

Some history of video games

#technology history #nintendo #sony #magnavox #radio shack #fun #video games

[fcfvafeed]

Unleashing the Power of Streaming: From Concept to Global Phenomenon

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, few innovations have had as profound an impact as internet streaming. What began as a mere concept, a seemingly far-fetched idea of delivering media content over the World Wide Web, has blossomed into a global phenomenon that has reshaped the way we consume entertainment, information, and education. The Origins of a Digital Revolution The roots of…

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#digital entertainment #internet streaming #music streaming #online media #streaming #technology history #video streaming

[cmdrjanus-2]

Konrad Zuse: German inventor and computer pioneer

#youtube #konrad zuse #technology history #video

[realityfragments]

Writing Software Nostalgia.

It wasn’t long ago I mentioned that I had picked up Scrivener, and I’m enjoying it. It’s very much becoming a valuable tool for me as I plod away. I make my writing mistakes much more quickly now, and I can correct them much more quickly mainly because of the research capacity of the software. I’m not easily impressed. It’s pretty cool, though not as cool as Stephen King balancing a typewriter…

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#technology history #typewriter #wordstar #writing software

[thoughtportal]

During the Second World War, six talented mathematicians were brought together to make history. These women had one mission: to program the world’s first and only supercomputer. Speaking with Rachel Dinning, Kathy Kleiman explores the vital but overlooked role the “Eniac 6” played in the history of computing during and after the Second World War.

#How six women programmed the world’s first modern computer #podcast #podcasts #history extra podcast #history extra magazine #history extra #women in STEAM #women in stem #women's history #technology history #technology #tech #computer science #computers #computer #STEM

[prokopetz]

There are alleged incidents from the earliest days of military aviation of enemy recon pilots taking potshots at each other with handguns because aircraft-mounted weapons hadn't been invented yet and they couldn't use rifles because they needed to use the other hand to fly the plane. I'm not aware that anyone ever actually got shot down in this way, but imagine if you did. Imagine tootling around in your shitty little wooden-frame biplane when another guy in a shitty little wooden-frame biplane comes flying up to you and shoots your plane with a revolver. Imagine surviving the resulting crash and having to explain that this is why you went down.

#history #technology #airplanes #aviation #military aviation #war #violence mention #swearing

[digitalyogii]

A three-decade journey to transform WiFi into a tangible connectivity solution.

The ubiquitous connectivity of Wi-Fi has played a pivotal role in shaping today’s consumer tech landscape. Acting as the wireless bridge for our mobile devices and smart appliances, it facilitates streaming, global internet access, and much more. Greg Ennis, the co-author of the proposal that laid the groundwork for Wi-Fi technology, recounts the intriguing journey behind this ubiquitous…

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#connectivity evolution #Greg Ennis #technology history #Wi-Fi #Wi-Fi Alliance #wireless LAN #wireless networking #wireless technology

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Yet, price data from Europe’s five biggest carmakers (BMW, Mercedes, Stellantis, Renault, and Volkswagen) shows that they have raised the prices of their cheapest models by up to 41% since 2019, almost double the average EU cumulative inflation (21%). Notably, the price of small, affordable models, the Peugeot 208, Seat Ibiza and Renault Twingo, which previously retailed at (€10,300-€15,500) have increased by almost €6,000. The more premium but still small Mercedes A and B class models increased in price by over €10,000. The price increase of 7% of the BMW Series 1 and 2 was more limited only due to a sharp reduction in pricing since May 2023(..)

P.S. Today, the concept of "affordable" car or "people's car" is disappearing faster than last year's snow! In essence, the light passenger car is completely deliberately turned into a privilege of the ruling class... but the people have an answer - an old, used and heavily smoky diesel. More and more often I meet people who say: "The government will only take my old diesel from the late 1990s and early 2000s off my dead hands...Mostly new ICE vehicles are expensive junk...: expensive to buy, expensive to own, expensive to drive, expensive to maintain and repair...poorly designed and manufactured. After the warranty expires, many of these new car models will be a nightmare of expensive repairs

#demise of legacy automakers #technology history

[gvslover]

Escalators and elevators. How would we get up and down without them?

(Part of an educational booklet published by Coca-Cola for use in school classrooms, during World War II. This one focused on all aspects of American transportation. The booklets included factual information and beautiful stickers which children could paste in various areas of the book.)

#coca cola #escalators #elevators #technology history #vintage brochure #vintage design #vintage advertising #gvslover

[girlwarlock]

this post bugs me

I'm making my own post rather than ranting in the tags for that person's post bc i don't want to seem aggressive to them, but yeah.

TL;DR - there's no specific evidence this type of cart was used for actual navigation, and the specific type shown would have been mostly useless for that purpose

We don't have any recovered examples or detailed plans of these ''south pointing carts'' which leaves us in a state where we're not sure how they would have been used. in the 20th and 21 centuries, people have made reconstructions that use a differential gear to accomplish the counter-rotation of the pointer, but we don't have any specific evidence that that was something that was in the chinese lexicon of technology at the time these carts were supposed to have been created.

Technology isn't linear and video game tech trees are bullshit, but at the same time, the first conclusive records we have of differential gears being created was in I think the early 19th century? and while it's possible the engineering principal was developed for this one piece of technology and subsequently discarded (because there aren't many uses for a differential outside of delivering power from a drive shaft to a pair of wheels) it would still be a little weird for no records of it to exist.

arguments from technological advancements aside, though, the differential-based south-pointing cart has other flaws that would render it pretty near useless for navigation. The big one that I think is relevant is that certain paired parts (the wheels in particular) must be identical for the cart's pointer to keep pointing in its original direction.

A difference in size between the cart wheels of one part in 1000 (eg one millimeter for one-meter wheels) can cause accumulating error that results in a drift of up to 20 degrees over the course of one kilometer. If you're on a road and just need to know the general direction to take at a crossroads, 20 degrees might be manageable, but the error will only grow the further you drive; it doesn't take a very long journey before your "south-pointing" cart is pointing due north.

And while other things like solar and stellar observations along the course of your journey can be used to reorient your cart (by picking it up and turning it so the arrow points south before setting it back down), if you're using those every few kilometers to reorient your gadget, why are you using the gadget instead of the other things?

anyway rant over more or less post now

#south-pointing cart #technology history