Charging Ahead: 6 Facts About Electric Vehicles

Dive into the world of electric vehicles (EVs), where modern innovations intertwine with environmental mindfulness. Electric cars are not merely contemporary gadgets; their history traces back to the early stages of automotive evolution. Here are five captivating tidbits about the evolution, allure, and sustainable aspects of EVs. 1. Electric Cars: A Peek into the Past: … Continue reading Charging Ahead: 6 Facts About Electric Vehicles

4 Tidbits About Telephone Switchboards: The Lines Connecting History

Before the dawn of our digital age, telephone switchboards stood at the forefront of communication technology. These seemingly archaic contraptions played a pivotal role in connecting voices from coast to coast, city to town, and house to house. Dive into some fascinating facts that highlight the evolution and tales of these manual marvels. 1. Switching … Continue reading 4 Tidbits About Telephone Switchboards: The Lines Connecting History

Inspired by Cinema: The Birth of Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI)

In the 1998 film “Enemy of the State,” the National Security Agency (NSA) pursues Will Smith utilizing real-time satellite feeds, a surveillance technology that was not available at the time. However, the movie’s portrayal of this advanced system inspired a government research engineer to spearhead the development of Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI).

WAMI is a cutting-edge surveillance technology that allows for the continuous monitoring and tracking of a vast area using high-resolution imagery. This innovative system can be mounted on various platforms, including drones and aircraft, to provide real-time information on the ground.

First TV remote

In 1956, Zenith developed one of the earliest wireless TV remote control devices. It featured a small hammer inside the remote that could be used to strike one of four aluminum bars, producing an ultrasonic sound that was too high-pitched for humans to hear. This sound was then used to transmit signals to the TV, […]

The History of Instagram

Instagram is a popular photo and video-sharing social networking platform that was launched in 2010. The app was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, two entrepreneurs who were inspired by the success of similar photo-sharing apps like Flickr and Hipstamatic. The first version of Instagram was released on October 6, 2010, and was available only on iOS devices. The app quickly gained popularity, with over 1 million users in just two months. One of the key features that made Instagram stand out was its use of filters, which allowed users to easily edit and enhance their photos. In April

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People Describe What They Actually Used Their Personal Computer For In The 1980s

During the Super Bowl of 1984, Apple debut a commercial inspired by George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. The commercial was announcing the release of their first personal computer called the Macintosh.

But was the computer actually used to keep “Big Brother” and the threat of totalitarianism at bay like the commercial said it would?

We went to AskReddit to find out what people were actually using their new computers for in the mid 80s.

Redditor incrementaler asked:

“People that had a personal computer in 1984, what did you actually use it for?”

Here’s a list that’s sure to spark some nostalgia.

The games.

“Lode Runner.” – John-Musacha

“And Wizardry!” – OneSidedDice

“And Archon.” – hossbeast

“I’m actually trying right now to get Lode Runner to work in my PC emulator I’ve been writing….” – valeyard89

“I remember a good friend of mine introducing me to that game. I can’t recall how many levels there were, but I think we made it in to the 120’s? We would challenge each other by making our own maps. That was a great game!” – MickeyRipple

“My father has a Mac SE with a Rodine hard drive that still works and plays lode runner (as long as you have the license disk!)” – stevebri

“Hunt the Wumpus.” – fireshitup

“Adventure international expanded on that if I remember correctly…” – Eticket9

Zork.

“Got my first computer in 1983. A Commodore 64 with a 1541 disk drive and a dot matrix printer. I used it for homework (writing papers), but mostly for games. First game I ever played was Zork and the second was a game called Blue Max. (flying/shooting game)”

“By 1984, I also had a 300 baud modem and went online, calling BBSs and joining Q-Link in 1985. Q-Link would, in 1989, become America Online. But, it was mostly BBSs, because Q-Link cost money and the BBSs were free.” – BranWafr

“Zork is a text adventure, something that would’ve probably cost around $40. The computer itself was $595 at launch, but various retailers have cut the price down to around $99 in the 1990s.”

“You’ll also need a disk drive, which costs around $400 for a 1541 disk drive. The price would be just a little over a thousand dollars, at $1035. You would also want a display device, but normally you can use your home TV if it has an RF or composite output.” – pixdoet

“I loved Blue Max…that was a great game! I typed in SpeedScript from Compute’s Gazette magazine and used that word processor through high school and my first year of college.” – sdtopensied

“I remember seeing commercials for something I think it was called prodigy.” – Jolly-Idea-5079

“At the time the big, national online services were Q-Link, Compuserve, and Prodigy.”

“Soon after there was also GEnie, which I joined and where I discovered Babylon 5 since Joe Straczynski was a GEnie member and was talking about the show as he created it and filmed the pilot. That was a lot of fun…” – BranWafr

The bulletin boards.

“Games, using bulletin boards.” – SlimChiply

“That’s about all there was then. Oh, and learning how to write code.” – jcpmojo

Writing you own software package.

“Games mostly. But I also wrote a bowling league software package my dad used for around 8 years! Trs-80, Coco 3, Commodore 64.” – hagemeyp

“Yeah, I had my trash-80 as well. But it was a real computer. Originally has a cassette device for loading and saving software and ultimately hit a disk drive.” – Stay-Thirsty

“I had Trash 80s at school and a C64 at home. And my friend had an Apple IIe. I got to cover all the bases.” – BranWafr

Learning to code.

“Learning to code in good ole BASIC. Playing games that you typed in from the back page of a magazine.” – xilog

“Spending hours typing them in, only to have it crash, then spending another hour going through line-by-line and finally finding one misplaced comma.”

“Of course, that’s assuming the programs worked in the first place. More than a few had typos, and those were the worst. Especially since the code normally wasn’t commented, which is a terrible practice to teach kids.” – APeacefulWarrior

“I had a commodore 64. I used it to print basic word documents that looked like a typed page and spent hours typing in program code from a book so I could see 3 balloons float across the screen in different directions.” – Dapper-Dance5549

“I remember when I was a little kid hearing stories of my grandpa spending loteral hours and hours typing a code just for a ‘song’ to play like 5 notes on repeat.”

“It was beeps also. Not atcual music like today. Sounded like those old Nokia ring tones. But just 5 beeps of a different pitch.” – TaintedTruth222

Homework.

“I was in college and set up a Radio Shack TRS80 with a dial-up modem that connected to the University mainframe. While other kids were stuck in the computer lab (think rows of dumb terminals) late into the night, I sat in my apartment and did assignments any time I wanted.”

“Game changer.” – dartdoug

“Games, typing essays for school.”

“My teachers hated my dot matrix printer.” – I_only_eat_triangles

Definitely not that.

“Not porn.” – TheFutureIsAlmostNow

“No back then it was a tape.” – Jolly-Idea-5079

“You didn’t have copy of Strip Poker by Artworx?” – Amiiboid

“I also didn’t wait for it to download line by painstaking line.” – theriveryeti

An oversized calculator.

“Tried to calculate 2+2. Somehow, I got a 5 as a result.” – EarlyGalaxy

“I had one at work as a process engineer for an electronic component manufacturer. On Lotus 1-2-3 (spreadsheet), I had to set calculations to manual mode from automatic. It would keep the machine from getting paralyzed after each keystroke.”

“I was tasked with getting an ultrasonic scanner mated to a fancy new x286 computer To replace our 1960s vintage analog scanner. What junk.”

“Way too much data for it to work. The cutting edge in computers was pretty blunt.” – Apical-Meristem

Writing letters.

“I received a Commodore VIC-20 as a birthday gift in 1984. It didn’t even run on floppy disks; it had a cassette drive.”

“I used it to play Hangman and Galaxian and a couple other crappy games.”

“I could also write letters and print them out on the archaic dot-matrix printer. One page took about five minutes to print.” – filthy_lucre

“Making greeting cards and posters.” – throwawayb122019

Union work.

“Xerox that ran CP-M. Had a really primitive spreadsheet program we used to keep track of union membership, dues, and print mailing labels. Still have it. Still works. Including the printer.” – ccie6861

“That’s funny. If you buy a printer today it will not last long.” – Jolly-Idea-5079

There wasn’t a lot people could do back then, because the technology was so new.

Games were still incredibly huge back then, but the internet hadn’t really started to get even close to what we know it to be today.

So much has changed in the past few decades.

It’s incredible to think we only used computers for coding, games and essays. Now, we hold them in the palm of our hand.

People Explain What They Miss Most From The Early Days Of The internet

Do you remember when the internet was new? We had grunge, and dial-up and the computer was a mystery.

Can you believe how far we’ve come? Now the internet rules the world.

Those who can think back, admit it, we all kinda thought… “This will never last.”

How wrong we were.

But with growth comes massive change.

Redditor ransom0374 wanted to discuss the good ole days of the internet, a much simpler time.

They asked:

“What do you miss from early internet times?”

Do you remember the time?

All that was new…

“I miss the wild unknown frontier that the internet was.”

“It seemed there was so much discovery to be had on the internet. And if you were good at the internet ‘Hackerman’ you were like a God amongst your peers.”

“It seems like there isn’t anything ‘new’ on the internet anymore. No discoveries to be made.”  ~ SmallTownJerseyBoy

It had the look…

“I miss the look and aesthetic of old websites. Now everything is so clean and boring.”  ~ LucianaLeak

“I personally like the designs from 2003/2004 for example. If you go on sites such as Spacehey or YTMND, they look very unique with the basic layouts of text and GIFs.” 

“The moving text and how damn smooth it is, also appeals to me.”

“It looks very satisfying and futuristic. The crispy gifs always feel homely. And you could copy and paste images and icons that the site had.”

“But many modern sites, just not the “high-end” ones still allow you to do this.”

“Sites made for a Windows XP computer do look better than sites made especially for a phone.”  ~ KappaMazinksy

Ads, ads and ads… I hate ads. 

“Variety. There’s a popular tweet that says something like ‘the internet has turned into four websites where on each one people share screenshots of the other three.’”

“I miss when you could search a term and there would be dozens of sites dedicated to it or forums especially for it. Now it’s just ads, Wikipedia, and Reddit.”

“Oh, and not having ads shoved down your throat every time you search a term or navigate to a page.”

“I know there were pop ups and banners, which weren’t any better.”

“There was a few years there where you could Google something and half the first page wasn’t sponsored ads, that had nothing to do with what you looked up, and you could go to a website and it didn’t block the page with a full screen ad asking for your email to join their mailing list, or save 10% on their merchandise.”  ~ SociallyInept2020

Use responsibly…

“How people used to treat it.”

“The internet was, not just a novelty, but an amazing piece of technology that let anyone share anything.”

“It was so wholesome and loving, with everyone still being amazed at what we could do now.”

“Now? There’s so many websites that are designed to make you angry and radicalise your beliefs.”

“It’s quantity over quality. There was a time when nobody on Reddit shared politics, when Facebook was for socialising, when YouTube was where people uploaded stuff they were passionate about.” ~ CameOutAndFarted

Silly language…

“AIM away messages saying stupid crap like ‘BRB going to get some bagel bites.’”  ~ fluffy_boy_cheddar

“Don’t forget to update your personal profile with Blink 182 lyrics and the initials of your school sweetheart and some ASCII.”

“Browse for a new inappropriate buddy icon and strike up a convo with SmarterChild.”  ~ YOLOswagBRO69

“It was dumb and fun.”

“That all the webpages were just random people trying to figure out HTML.”

“There really wasn’t a corporate presence at all. You could click on a button and make a cardboard hand wave at someone’s cats.”

“You could dispense a coke from a machine in some dorm. It was dumb and fun.”  ~ diegojones4

Too much to know…

“The learning was endless.”

“There were almost an infinite source of information from all over the world.”

“If you wanted to find something all you had to do was search for it in Ask Jeeves or whatever and you’d find any website that had ever mentioned that thing.”

“There were more than 10 different websites. And at least it didn’t feel like I was being forced to sign up for a subscription after every click.”

“There were so many fun, cute stores to shop. Now it feels like everyone dresses and decorates the same.”

“I miss a lot of things about the early internet. I’m probably wrong, but it just felt safer than it does now?”  ~ thatgirlfromthething

Let’s chat

“AOL and Yahoo! chatrooms.”

“And the Population Zero forum (I think it was a forum). It was for a local band that attended Orange Glen High School in Escondido, California.”  ~ Reddit

When times were good…

“I was in my late teens when the internet was becoming accessible to everyone.”

“Our one household computer was in the kitchen & facing in a way so anyone coming in could see your screen.”

“I remember looking at someone’s website and my Dad passing by to get something to eat, asking me if the person on the website was my friend.”

“I miss those old days! The internet seemed endless & friendly.”  ~ LusciousofBorg

Now it’s a business…

“I miss when streaming was a hobby and now everyone wants to make it a career.”

“Meanwhile for every streamer that makes a living, there’s tens of thousands with 0 viewers, or 1 if they’re logged into their own stream.”  ~ Shadow_Bannedit

Crazy at my fingertips…

“The pure unadulterated wildness of it. This was the first video I was ever sent. Blew my damn mind. Lol.”

“It was funny, crass and anti-establishment. It was crap my parents wouldn’t, in a million years, let me watch.”

“But here it was, unrestricted and at my fingertips.”

“One thing folks born with the internet will never get to experience is that moment of pure joy when something as simple as a low quality and crass cartoon just blows your damn mind because of all the POSSIBILITIES it represents.”  ~ Vanviator

All the popular kids…

“I can’t remember what it was called, but Yahoo had this great music video program where it showed popular artists, and some very unknown folks.”

“I discovered some of my favorite artists having it play in the background all the time.”  ~ AtheneSchmidt

Oh, the good old days—they were wild and fun.

The internet is our bread and butter now. Can you even imagine life without it?

Do you want to?

7 Fun Facts About Snapchat that Would Leave You Pleasantly Surprised

If you are not a Snapchat user yet, there’s a lot to catch up on. But, if you’re a Snapchat user, you’re going to love this list of fun facts we are about to present. Read on and enjoy! Before that, you need to keep these three-pointers in mind: You can share photos and videos using this insanely popular social media app. Your content is not stored permanently, however. Content once viewed is gone forever and cannot be retrieved. Well, that’s what noobs believe. Now, here is the fun part: 1.  You Can Retrieve Lost Messages Apps like Dumpster and

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People Explain Which Scientific Advances May Sound Futuristic But Are Actually Reality Today

The future is now. There are so many advances happening on the daily, it’s impossible to keep up.

Science seems to be moving at warp speed. Everything we thought would be possible is now more than possible.

Soon, we’ll all be in space.

Well, those of us with billions of dollars of course.

Redditor emeister26 wanted to discuss all the fascinating facts about life and science that are already upon us by asking:

“What is something that sounds futuristic but is happening now?”

It’s all about the T…

“CAR T cell therapy.”

“They take the T cells out of a cancer patient. They train the cells to kill the specific type of cancer that the patient has and then they put them back in.”

“This therapy doesn’t work 100 % of the time, but when it does it does miracles.”

“(It’s also expensive as sh*t for now)”.  ~ strange_socks_

“I currently work in this field, and am currently commercializing my second CAR-T product in my life (my first was Kymriah).”

“It doesn’t always work 100% of the time, but the next generation of CAR-T’s have shown 100% remission rates.”

“Example of 100% remission.”

“CAR-T is roughly the same price as a monoclonal antibody, Amgens Blintocyte is $300k roughly, and Kymriah and Yescart are about $220-350k depending on where you are in the world.”

“So it’s pretty competitive.”  ~ arabidopsis

How many types are there?

“I’ve been a type 1 diabetic since 1982.”

“Back when I was first diagnosed, I had to pee on a stick and match the color up to colors on the vial to see approximately what my blood sugar was a couple hours ago.”

“Now I have an anamatronic fish that tells me what my sugar levels are and I don’t even have to prick my finger! We truly are truly living in the future.”  ~ rhett342

A.I. is upon us…

“Robotic prosthetic limbs. I know a guy who lost his arm from a construction accident.”

“He now has an arm that has a fully articulated hand, and is good enough that he can even write with it, though not very well.”

“He said it’s worth about half a million dollars, and also it has done wonders for his ability to hook up with women.”

“I guess a lot of people are curious and that starts off the conversation.”  ~ Youpunyhumans

“There are actually some amazing innovations in the robotic prosthetic scientific field that have JUST been published!”

“Scientists have been able to make a prosthetic arm with a sense of touch! This is very important, as it allows for better gripping of objects.”

“The test subject was able to pour a glass of water in half the time it took him with a non-feeling prosthetic.”

“It also allows people to enjoy the sensation of feeling, which is pretty awesome!”

“Also, piggybacking because it’s somewhat related, scientists have also recently discovered a way to allow a paralyzed man to type and control computers with only their thoughts!”

“The outside of the brain is the part that deals with bodily motion, so they surgically implanted electrodes and asked him to imagine hand-writing letters.”

“Then, a little bit of machine learning magic, and boom! He was able to write on a computer!”

“He was able to write 90 characters a minute! Kinda the ultimate “look ma, no hands!”

“Links to articles:”

“https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/20/998725924/a-sense-of-touch-boosts-speed-accuracy-of-mind-controlled-robotic-arm

“https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/medical-advances/553323-in-amazing-first-paralyzed-man-is-able-to-type”  ~ cancer_dragon

Photos and texts of the future.

“A program that is able to generate almost any (!!!) photo using short text input.”

“A San Francisco street? Done. Avocado chair? Yes, why not. A photo of buildings of Poland? YES, it can do that.”

“It can generate almost any stock photo you can imagine, like any any, you can add parameters, lighting, ask to specific picture in the room.”

“It uses 12 billion of pictures and descriptions to do this. There are two downsides of course: the first one is lots of lots of computational power.”

“The second is that the program is losing the track after few parameters.”

“Also it can do only 100×100 pixels at the time but it will change fast.”

“It’s called DALL-E and was premiered this year. It’s an AI made by OpenAI. Terrific and amazing at the same time.”  ~ umotex12

Know the Survey

“I’m fourth generation of an excavating company and some of our surveying techniques now are unbelievable.”

“When we started in the 60’s you used a contraption called a theodolite and prism (a fancy level used to measure the distance and elevation change of the prism).”

“One of the fondest memories I’ll ever hold happened two months ago shortly before my Grandpa (the founder) passed away.”

“I showed him how to survey a 30 acre site with a drone in about 45 minutes (all automated), something that would have taken a crew well over a week in his time.”

“I then took the data, had it processed, and showed him the prints of the site right on site with my laptop. He cried.”   ~ cmde44

Visualize it and See it!

“I work in the construction industry.”

“Technology has really made projects easier to plan out and do. Like back in the day, paper blueprints were how you visualized a job.”

“Big huge paper rolls that were a pain in the a** to carry around and store, and the prints were easy to damage because well… they’re paper.”

“If there was ever a change to the prints, you’d have to wait for the drafters to draw them, print them, and send them to your job.”

“Nowadays the foreman or project manager carry an iPad with all of the blueprints, both in 2D and 3D CAD drawing and can look up every detail of the drawings in seconds.”

“And if the drafters have to make changes, they can email or message the site foreman and give them new prints in a matter of minutes.”

“This isn’t your dad’s construction site anymore.”  ~ Mercurydriver

Just think reeeeal hard!

“Being able to control objects with your brain. I know it’s still in its infancy but the fact that we can even attempt do stuff like that is crazy.”  ~ Cruise_alt_40000

Year One

“A blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s.”  ~ Geekla

“It was on Jeopardy tonight, actually, yes! I’ve been reading about it.”

“It’s less than a year old, just getting started and I’m guessing just the first version of more to come, but it’s real and it made my whole day to hear it.”  ~ Geekla

Body Parts

“3d printed organs.”  ~ turn_your_compote 

“I really hope that one day they can just scrape a few of your stem cells, and 3 weeks later they’ve grown you a new heart, liver, kidneys, etc.”  ~ Diligent_Slide

The lifespan of light…

“Something I just noticed the other day.”

“CFL light bulbs became popular and all but got replaced by LED bulbs all within the lifespan of a single bulb.”

“I was replacing a bulb the other day that was a CFL and I remember the last time I replaced it, the previous bulb was an incandescent.”  ~ Restil

The Good Landing

“Rockets landing upright… to me it looks like bad special effects, because it was never in any good movies.”  ~ redmaybe

Technology and science, two things I’ll never understand. But two things I can’t avoid.

We are close to living in The Jetsons.

I can feel it. Can you?