Nerds doing homework at Pizza Hut?
Author: ryan
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Happy birthday Macintosh – This Geek in Review for 25 Jan 2019
Sure, the mother of all demos celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, but yesterday was the 35th anniversary of the debut of the Macintosh.
Most people only remember the Macintosh Super Bowl ad, but it cannot be understated the effect the release of the Macintosh had on the world. At a time when most computers were difficult to use, the Macintosh showed us a world where a simple mouse with one button could control the whole machine.
The Macintosh opened the door for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga the next year, and the initial release of Microsoft Windows, also in 1985.
Technology moments like this are pretty rare. After the Macintosh release in 1984 came the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the Microsoft Hololens demo in 2015. Yes, the Hololens was announced prematurely, but it has potential.
Although I’m not a big fan, it will be sad not to see the Sweethearts candy this Valentines day.
Finally, an esports league where my years of farming will finally pay off!
Millions of people have become addicted to the smartphone, bordering on addiction, but how many would sell their kidney for one? I know the new iPhone is expensive, but selling body parts really isn’t a long term solution.
If you have kids, you’ve had those moments where the darling child hasn’t responded to a text. Well, a dad got tired of getting the cold shoulder so he created an app that locks the kid’s phone until they respond.
To demonstrate the flexibility Microsoft’s Azure DevOps, Tony Landi set out to develope for the Commodore 64 with it.
Isaac Asimov was way off in his optimism for the pursuit of space when asked to predict 2019 back in 1983.
Do you think you’re good at Tetris? What about a version of Tetris that selects the worst possible piece to give you on each round?
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The city streets of Kenton are very much improved over yesterday morning.
The city streets of Kenton are very much improved over yesterday morning.
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The Betamax decision – This Geek in Review for 18 Jan 2019
Yesterday, thirty five years ago, one of the most important supreme court cases in my lifetime was decided, Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. – Wikipedia. More commonly called the Betamax decision, this case allowed the sale and use of the video cassette recorder. The case started with the release of Sony’s Betamax video tape recorder in the early 1970s. Universal Studios and the Walt Disney Company reasoned that since the VCRs could be used for copyright infringement, then Sony should be liable for such infringement.
Luckily for us, the supreme court ruled that time shifting content in your home is not copyright infringement, and that VCRs had enough non-infringing use that VCR sales should continue. This ruling also helped make ripping CDs to MP3s legal. If the case would have gone the other way, then pop culture would look really different today. The home market for videos would be basically non-existent, you would only be able to see movies in the theater, on pay cable, or broadcast TV.
Although these are VHS and not Betamax, here’s a visualization of vhs covers. A lot of these are surprisingly recognizable.
I’m not a fan of online quizzes, but the subject matter of this one is brilliant.
Facebook has made it in the news a lot recently, and now conspiracy theories are starting to rise. What if Facebook’s ’10 Year Challenge’ is really a way for Facebook to train its facial recognition features. And apparently, most Facebook users don’t realize Facebook is tracking their interests. I’m not in the #deletefacebook crowd, I just try to not feed the beast. I only check FB every couple of weeks for messages, and when I check FB, I do it from an incognito window. My phone is devoid of Facebook and Messenger.
Oh my, daughter calls the cops after her father takes away her smartphone.. Boy is she in for a rude awakening once she gets out to the real world.
If you have others using your iPhone, such as child, there is a hack to let you password protect your apps. The hack uses the screentime protection features of iOS 12 to require a password to launch apps. Pretty ingenius.
In my day, we microwaved pizzas like poor college students should, but now, Ohio State students can get their pizzas from an ATM!
Computer security is hard, and if you’re going to fake documents, do some research on your fonts.
Finally, if you are trying to create some photos for Snapchat with your guns, you may want to unload them first. And if you’re arguing with your SO, don’t hand her a loaded gun and have her point it at you.
