Geek Fact for December 30th

In 1938, the electronic television system was patented by Vladimir K. Zworykin.

Throughout the 1920s, RCA’s Vladimir Zworykin was busy developing the Iconoscope camera tube that would become the foundation for the all-electronic systems that would follow. Zworykin’s work was based on a CRT receiver invented by his instructor at St. Petersburg Institute of Technology in Russia in 1907. Zworykin’s 1923 patent would not be approved until 1938 because so many revisions were made.

For more information on early television, visit http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=videoTV+history&i=53869,00.asp

 

In 1973, the first picture was taken of a comet from space.

The crew of Skylab SL-4 (Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, William Pogue) obtained the first picture of a comet from space. The comet was Comet Kohoutek.

For more information on space missions, visit http://www.windows2universe.org/space_missions/manned_table.htm

 

In 1985, IBM PC-DOS Version 3.2 was released.

PC DOS 3.2 required 128 KB RAM and added 3.5-inch floppy disk drive support. The operating system was supplied on one 720 KB 3.5-inch floppy disk or two 5.25-inch 380 KB floppy disks.

For more information on computer operating systems, visit http://trillian.randomstuff.org.uk/~stephen/history/timeline-OS.html

 

In 2010, the internet population of China reached 450 million.

It took about seven years for the total number of Chinese Internet users to go from 30 to over 300 million, but it took less than half that time for mobile Internet users to do the same. China has as many Internet users as the total population of USA, the UK, Canada and Germany combined.

For more information on China internet usage, visit http://www.east-west-connect.com/15-years-chinese-internet-usage-13-pretty-graphs

 

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