In 1996, Ray McIntire, the inventor of STYROFOAM®, died at age 77. During World War II, when rubber was in short supply, McIntire’s work focused on developing a rubber-like substance that could be used as a flexible insulator. The result was extruded polystyrene foam, or […]
Geek Fact for February 2nd Read More »
In 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed over Texas when returning to Earth, killing all seven crew members. The crew consisted of Shuttle Commander Rick D. Husband; Shuttle Pilot William C. McCool; Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson ; Mission Specialists David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla
Geek Fact for February 1st Read More »
In 1961, Ham was the first primate in space. Ham’s name was an acronym for H olloman A ero M ed. His sub-orbital flight aboard the Redstone Mercury rocket was very similar to the flight that Alan Shepard would take later that year. Read more
Geek Fact for January 31st Read More »
According to Dante D’Orazio at The Verge, the SlingPlayer app for the Kindle Fire will be available tomorrow for $29.95. Read his hands-on review. We have been watching for this app since my husband got a Kindle Fire when they came out in November. According
SlingPlayer App for Kindle Fire Read More »
In 2007, Microsoft released Windows Vista. For the most part, early Vista reviews were mostly favorable. However, consumers were slow to adopt Windows Vista due to some heavy-duty hardware requirements and effort involved in upgrading from XP to Windows. The corporate world did not rush
Geek Fact for January 30th Read More »
In 1810, Earnest Kummer, a German mathematician, was born. Earnest Kummer made major contributions to function theory. In addition, his work on number theory led to a major breakthrough on Fermat’s Last Theorem. Learn more at http://fermatslasttheorem.blogspot.com/2006/01/ernst-eduard-kummer.html
Geek Fact for January 29th Read More »
In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members. The crew of Space Shuttle Challenger consisted of Mission Commander Francis R. Scobee; Pilot Michael J. Smith; Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe; Mission Specialists Judith A.
Geek Fact for January 28th Read More »
I’ve always been curious about running Windows-based applications on my Mac but was never willing to pay $80 or so to find out about it. So when Jim Hillier sent me an email about this Mac bundle (http://www.macsuperbundle.com/) offered by Nova Development, I couldn’t resist.
Mac SuperBundle – Wow! Read More »
In 1967, the Apollo 1 fire killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. In one of the worst tragedies in the history of spaceflight, the crew members were killed in a fire in the Apollo Command Module during a preflight test at Cape
Geek Fact for January 27th Read More »
In 1998, Intel launched the 333 MHz Pentium II chip. It was codenamed Deschutes. It didn’t offer much of a performance boost over its predecessor, a 300 MHZ chip. However, using a new fabrication process allowed for a smaller die size and less power consumption.
Geek Fact for January 26th Read More »
After so-called disappointing earnings and revenue last quarter, Apple has pretty much blown the numbers out of the water for Tim Cook’s first quarter as CEO. Its growth is rather staggering, especially given the competition from Android devices on both the smartphone and tablet fronts.
Apple’s Juggernaut Earnings Read More »
In 1627, chemist Robert Boyle was born in Ireland. He is best known for Boyle’s Law aka the Ideal Gas Law. We all remember it from our high school chemistry class. The law states for a gas of constant temperature, changes in pressure are inversely
Geek Fact for January 25th Read More »
In 1984, following up the ‘1984’ commercial that aired two days earlier, Apple Computer unveiled its Macintosh personal computer. Apple was so adamant that you use the mouse that the original Macintosh keyboard had no arrow keys. Learn more at http://lowendmac.com/history/1984dk.shtml In 1986, Voyager
Geek Fact for January 24th Read More »
In 1959, Robert Noyce conceived of the idea of an integrated circuit, aka microchip. It was at Fairchild Semiconductor, where he was the General Manager, that Robert Noyce invented the microchip for which he received patent #2,981,877. In 1968, Noyce founded Intel with Gordon Moore
Geek Fact for January 23rd Read More »
