Today in Tech History – March 11

105 – Ts’ai Lun demonstrated his process for making paper to the Han emperor in China. He probably didn’t invent it, but he certainly turned it into an industry for the first time. And the industry still survives 20 centuries later even in the face of the computer that plot its doom.

1890 – Hypertext Pioneer Vannevar Bush is Born

              Pre-World War II computer pioneer Vannevar (pronounced “Van-ee-ver”) Bush is born in Everett, Massachusetts. Bush, who also was deeply involved with wartime computer projects, invented an electromechanical differential analyzer that used mechanical integrators to help solve differential equations. Bush was a co-founder of Raytheon, a military contractor. He also became very interested in interested in information retrieval, which led him to imagine a machine he called “memex” – an electronic extension of an individual’s mind and memory base – that mimicked human associative linking of information, and anticipated hypertext research. He died on June 28, 1974.

1985 – The Southern New England Telephone Company turned on ConnNet, the nation’s first local, public packet-switching network. Customers could access CompuServ, NewsNet and other services at a blistering 4,800 to 56,000 bits per second. The service’s X.25 protocol went obsolete in the 1990s with the popularity of the Internet Protocol.

1986 – NFL Adopts Instant Replay … For The First Time

              The NFL adopts a limited instant replay system. This system was dropped, however, in 1992 before the current instant replay system was instated in 1999. In effect, you could say the current system is an instant replay itself!

2007 – The Move of Daylight Savings Time

              The Energy Policy Act of 2005 ammended Daylight savings time 3 weeks. The theory was to move clocks forward 1 hour 3 weeks earlier than usual and Fall back in first week of November (instead of last week in October). From a previous study, it was concluded this change would save households 1% of energy each day of DST.

The history of Daylight Savings Time dates back to Benjamin Franklin. He noticed people had their shutters closed to keep out the morning sun, then burned more candles in the evening. Through time he convinced others to change the times so people would get up earlier and enjoy the summer sunlight.

With more energy efficient devices, some have debated that Daylight savings Time is not needed anymore. However, reports state that when we spring forward, our energy bill reduces 2-4%.

2011 – Apple began selling the iPad 2, a thinner version of the first iPad, that also included a camera.

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