Compact Disc Turns 30
[Thanks, Sylva]
birthday posts
[Thanks, Sylva]
World's First MP3 Player Is 10 Years Old
It was back in March of 1998 that the world first got a glimpse of the MPMan F10 at the CeBit tech trade show in Hanover, Germany. The prototype garnered enough attention that, by May of that year, the Korean company Saehan Information Systems was mass producing the devices. By summer of 1998, the 32-megabyte (MB) flash device was on sale in the U.S. for $250.
At 3.6 x 2.75 x 6.5-inches, the MPMan was significantly larger than any media player on the market right now, save some of the largest wide screen video players. The Walkman-sized-device could only hold a small handful of songs, and its display was only slightly fancier than your standard digital alarm clock.
By now, of course, Saehan Information Systems and its MPMan are all but forgotten. In fact, many mistakenly point to the Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 as the first commercially available MP3 player, but the MPMan beat that CD-player-sized wonder to market by several months.
The bulkiness and limited capabilities of both devices may make them seem quaint when compared to your 32-gigabyte (1000 times the capacity of the original MPMan) iPod Touch, but these archaic devices helped spark a revolution that has completely changed the way we buy and consume music and media.
Gallery: The First MP3 Player
From Register Hardware (via Engadget)
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Happy Birthday Wikipedia
It's hard to believe but this week Wikipedia is only 7 years old. Just 2,561 days ago the free and editable by every one encyclopedia that has become a staple in so many people's lives didn't exist.
In that short time, Wikipedia has gone from interesting experiment, to a fairly reliable source on an absurdly broad range of subjects. As of this morning the English version counts over 2.1 million articles in it's database.
For all the controversy surrounding the reliability of the open-source knowledge encyclopedia, it has certainly proven its worth. Some studies have found Wikipedia to be just as reliable, or more reliable than many commercial, peer-reviewed tomes, and the site can be credited with helping to jump start the user-generated content revolution we all know as "Web 2.0".
While we would never say that Wikipedia is perfect, we sure are glad it's here.
From Wired
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Computers, MySpace, Google, YouTube
The 'Blog' Turns 10
Back in 1997, blogging was hardly the phenomenon it is today. Some of the most conservative estimates put the number of true 'weblogs' at that time in the lower double digits. These days no one can really say how many blogs are out there. Technorati, a blog tracking service, estimates that 120,000 new blogs pop up every day. In April the site was tracking just over 72 million blogs.
The blog has morphed from its early days as a way of sharing cool finds (like Digg minus the voting), to the primary form of information dispersal on the Web. Blogging has become the format of choice in the fast-paced world of tech (like Switched.com) and politics, and has empowered a generation of new journalists. Now the New York Times has blogs, the Daily Kos is one of the most important forces in the Democratic party, and even CNN has the YouTube-esque iReport citizen journalism program. Like it or not, in less than 10 years time, blogs have completely altered the face of media.
From the BBC
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Happy 30th Birthday, Atari!
It's hard to believe it's been 30 years since the release of Atari's famous VCS (Video Computer System) or as it's better known, the 2600. The 2600 was the first successful home video-game console of its kind, and the first 2,600 of them rolled out of the factory in October of 1977.
Fantastic original games and home versions of popular arcade titles helped make the 2600 the ubiquitous entertainment machine it went on to become. Atari and Activision titles are still bundled and played to this day on everything from cell phones to iPods to controllers with the games built right in -- even key chains!
Sometimes it's easy to forget what a cultural touchstone the 2600 and games like 'Pitfall!' were. But think of it this way: People are still willing to pay $5 to play 'Pitfall!' on the tiny screen of their cell phone; Can you imagine anyone doing that for 'Halo 3' in 30 years?
Check out the rather thorough Wikipedia article if you're not up on your Atari history.
From Engadget
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Geek Gifts for Bush's Birthday
Believe it or not, President George "Dubya" Bush turns 61 years young today. And just in case one of his pals/cronies is stuck on what to buy him, we've made a few suggestions.Franklin's Speaking Language Master
One bit of information that we picked up early in the president's career -- he's not too proficient with his native English language. Sure, it makes for good late night TV jokes, but the poor guy has got to be a bit embarrassed. At last, he can find the words he needs and have them pronounced for him phonetically before a big speech -- now no one will ever misunderestimate him again.
_thumbnail.jpg "Vintage Keyboards")
