Chatroom
 

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum > Space and Astronomy > General Science
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Mark Forums Read

   

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 19-June-2008, 11:25 PM
Drunk Vegan's Avatar
Drunk Vegan Drunk Vegan is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: If it's a software mod there shouldn't be any risk of fire.
Posts: 876
Default The Internet in 1934

The ultimate Steampunk invention was a network proposed by a Belgium scientist in 1934, over 11 years before the first stored-memory electronic computer, ENIAC, was invented by a team working for the U.S. military.

In place of computers, it would have featured hyperlinked index cards and electric telescopes directly imaging documents and transmitting them for viewing across telegraph wires. The network would have been capable of transmitting audio, video, and text messages and allow users to communicate in real time.

Imagine how different the world would have been had the Internet been invented before the computer..

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/sc...hp&oref=slogin
Reply With Quote
  #2 (permalink)  
Old 19-June-2008, 11:31 PM
Veeger's Avatar
Veeger Veeger is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ohio, USA
Posts: 850
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Drunk Vegan View Post
Imagine how different the world would have been had the Internet been invented before the computer..
And 14 years before the birth of Al Gore!



Interesting article, D-V.
Reply With Quote
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 19-June-2008, 11:49 PM
Chip's Avatar
Chip Chip is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: 38.582 N / -121.49 W
Posts: 2,073
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Veeger View Post
And 14 years before the birth of Al Gore!
Except Gore didn't say he did.
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

Just keeping misnomers to a minimum.
__________________
"Insignificant molehill sometimes more important than conspicuous mountain." - Charlie Chan
Reply With Quote
  #4 (permalink)  
Old 20-June-2008, 04:17 PM
Chuck Chuck is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: The Valley of The Sun
Posts: 1,856
Send a message via AIM to Chuck
Default

Too late. The Al Gore story is now common knowledge even though it isn't true.
__________________
Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.
Reply With Quote
  #5 (permalink)  
Old 20-June-2008, 04:41 PM
JohnD JohnD is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,481
Default

Read Victorian novels, or the Sherlock Holmes stories. Frequent references to several mail deliveries every day, or to exchanges of telegrams within the day. OK, no means of searching the British Library from your smoke filled study, but no spam and no e-viruses either. Floreat Victoriana!

John
Reply With Quote
  #6 (permalink)  
Old 21-June-2008, 05:09 PM
eburacum45's Avatar
eburacum45 eburacum45 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: old york
Posts: 4,770
Default

I have always been impressed by this nineteenth century fax machine
http://web.archive.org/web/200604271...y/caselli.html
Quote:
Made of cast iron and standing more than 2 m high, this primitive, but effective machine worked as follows. The sender wrote a message on a sheet of tin in non-conducting ink. The sheet was then fixed to a curved metal plate. The stylus of the transmitter scanning an original document by moving across its parallel lines (three lines per millimetre). The signals were carried by telegraph to the marked out the message in Prussian blue ink, the colour produced by a chemical reaction, as the paper was soaked in potassium ferrocyanide. To ensure that both needles scanned at exactly the same rate, two extremely accurate clocks were used to trigger a pendulum which, in turn, was linked to gears and pulleys that controlled the needles.
Reply With Quote
  #7 (permalink)  
Old 21-June-2008, 11:23 PM
Chip's Avatar
Chip Chip is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: 38.582 N / -121.49 W
Posts: 2,073
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuck View Post
Too late. The Al Gore story is now common knowledge even though it isn't true.
Sad isn't it. There will always be people who believe anecdotal stuff; like that or the moon hoax believers.
__________________
"Insignificant molehill sometimes more important than conspicuous mountain." - Charlie Chan

Last edited by Chip; 21-June-2008 at 11:26 PM. Reason: spelling, grammar.
Reply With Quote
  #8 (permalink)  
Old 22-June-2008, 01:24 AM
Veeger's Avatar
Veeger Veeger is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ohio, USA
Posts: 850
Default

Next you're gonna tell me that Dan Quayle really didn't claim people in Latin America spoke Latin.

Reply With Quote
  #9 (permalink)  
Old 22-June-2008, 07:52 AM
Chip's Avatar
Chip Chip is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: 38.582 N / -121.49 W
Posts: 2,073
Default

Snopes clears that up too. (But there's plenty of real Quaylisms further down on this page, including one about Mars.)
__________________
"Insignificant molehill sometimes more important than conspicuous mountain." - Charlie Chan
Reply With Quote
  #10 (permalink)  
Old 24-June-2008, 12:05 PM
novaderrik novaderrik is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Ashby, MN, USA
Posts: 2,539
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Veeger View Post
Next you're gonna tell me that Dan Quayle really didn't claim people in Latin America spoke Latin.

and i suppose GW Bush never uttered the word "strategery"..

just think of how great it would have been if the first president Bush hadn't picked Quayle as VP and GW chose him instead of Cheney.. that there would have been comdey gold, folks..
__________________
"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Need help with Internet Explorer problem Jeff Root About BAUT 1 09-November-2007 01:37 PM
Read it on the Internet Swift Fun-n-Games 12 05-June-2007 06:40 AM
Announcement for this Friday Sticks Off-Topic Babbling 9 31-March-2005 03:12 AM


All times are GMT. The time now is 08:06 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
LinkBacks Enabled by vBSEO 3.0.0
©  2006 Bad Astronomy and Universe Today