Collaborate Disseminate
Elsewhere on the Internet last week, people were solving a mystery about a PDP-1 running a model train. People who know about such things acknowledge that the “Tech Model Railroad Club” (TMRC) at MIT used a PDP-1 to operate its layout for a few years. … Continue reading PDP 1s and Model Trains
By Dick Pence This story appeared in The Washington Post in 1991, shortly after a computer glitch caused a “long-distance blackout” on the East Coast. Those big phone outages of the past couple of weeks have had me feeling a bit guilty over what’s been happening. You see, I remember exactly how all this started. … Continue reading Two Longs and a Short →
The post Two Longs and a Short appeared first on Security Boulevard.
GameWorks was a Hollywood-powered barcade so glamorous, Carmen Elektra hosted its launch. Continue reading That Time Steven Spielberg and Sega Built the Arcade of Your Dreams
The keyboard-laden Psion Series 3 personal digital assistant helped prove that computers could be both small and highly functional—though the real star of the device turned out to be its operating system. Continue reading Was This the Best Small Computer of the 90s?
The story of the Apple QuickTake 100, a primitive early digital camera that had Apple’s name on the front but another company’s technology buried inside. Continue reading Apple’s Failed Camera Cost $750 and Could Only Take 8 Pictures
In 1998, a Hong Kong telecom firm spent $1.5 billion trying to make video-on-demand happen. iTV was so ahead of its time that it beat Netflix’s DVD service. Continue reading Before There Was Netflix, Hong Kong Had the First On-Demand Streaming Service
Bose Wave stereo systems were legitimately innovative when they launched in the 90s—as was Bose itself. The marketing might make you forget that, though. Continue reading The Story of the Bose Wave, the Stereo System Built for the Infomercial Era
It’s a reminder that Pixar could have been a very different company. Continue reading Pixar’s 1986 Imaging Computer Was So Advanced, It Changed Medicine
They’re big, clunky, and annoying, but AC adapters are a fact of life in consumer electronics. Why? Let’s just say Thomas Edison’s getting his comeuppance. Continue reading The Story of the AC Adapter, Thomas Edison’s Revenge on the Power Grid
Staffed by former Atari employees and with a big hit on its hands, Worlds of Wonder tried to ride Teddy Ruxpin to the promised land. They failed, fast. Continue reading The Astonishing Failure of the Toy Company That Made Teddy Ruxpin