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3Com's Ergo Audrey was an internet appliance, released in 2000 and discontinued 7 months later. Designed by Don Fotsch and Ray Winninger, Audrey was intended to be part of a family of devices, each serving a specific room in the house. The kitchen was their initial focus "Internet Snacking" - lightweight web browsing in a home setting. Audrey had a touchscreen LCD interface and came equipped with a stylus. It was powered by a 200 MHz Geode GX1 CPU, with 16 MB of flash ROM and 32 MB of RAM, a modem, two USB ports, and a CompactFlash socket for connectivity. Available in colors like "linen", "meadow", "ocean", "slate", and "sunshine". Named in honor of Audrey Hepburn. 3Com discontinued Audrey in June 2001. The hardware hacker community embraced the leftover Audreys, discovering exploits and modifying the device for their own needs. Despite its short lifespan, Audrey's innovative design and functionality made it a unique piece of internet appliance history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Com_Audrey #3Com #3ComAudrey #InternetAppliance #RetroTech #Retro
In our previous episode, we looked at the history of flight - from dinosaurs to the modern aircraft that carry people and things all over the world. Those helped to make the world smaller, but UAVs and drones have had a very different impact in how we lead our lives - and will have an even more substantial impact in the future. That might not have seemed so likely in the 1700s, though - when unmann Unmanned Aircraft Napoleon conquered Venice in 1797 and then ceded control to the Austrians the same year. He then took it as part of a treaty in 1805 and established the first Kingdom of Italy. Then lost it in 1814. And so they revolted in 1848. One of the ways the Austrians crushed the revolt, in part employing balloons, which had been invented in 1783, that were packed with explosives. 200 balloons packed with bombs later, one found a target. Not a huge surprise that such techniques didn't get used again for some time. The Japanese tried a similar tactic to bomb the US in World War II - then there were random balloons in the 2020s, just for funsies. A few other inventions needed to find one another in order to evolve into something entirely new. Radio was invented in the 1890s. Nikola Tesla built a radio controlled boat in 1898. Airplanes came along in 1903. Then came airships moved by radio. So it was just a matter of time before the cost of radio equipment came down enough to match the cost of building smaller airplanes that could be controlled with remote controls as well. The first documented occurrence of that was in 1907 when Percy Sperry filed a patent for a kite fashioned to look and operate like a plane, but glide in the wind. The kite string was the first remote control. Then electrical signals went through those strings and eventually the wire turned into radio - the same progress we see with most manual machinery that needs to be mobile. Technology moves upmarket, so Sperry Corporation the aircraft with autopilot features in 1912. At this point, that was just a gyroscopic heading indicator and attitude indicator that had been connected to hydraulically operated elevators and rudders but over time would be able to react to all types of environmental changes to save pilots from having to constantly manually react while flying. That helped to pave the way for longer and safer flights, as automation often does. Then came World War I. Tesla discussed aerial combat using unmanned aircraft in 1915 and Charles Kettering (who developed the electric cash register and the electric car starter) gave us The Kettering Bug, a flying, remote controlled torpedo of sorts. Elmer Sperry worked on a similar device. British war engineers like Archibald Low were also working on attempts but the technology didn't evolve fast enough and by the end of the war there wasn't much interest in military funding. But a couple of decades can do a lot. Both for miniaturization and maturity of technology. 1936 saw the development of the first navy UAV aircraft by the name of Queen Bee by Admiral William H. Stanley then the QF2. They was primarily used for aerial target practice as a low-cost radio-controlled drone. The idea was an instant hit and later on, the military called for the development of similar systems, many of which came from Hollywood of all places. Reginald Denny was a British gunner in World War I. They shot things from airplanes. After the war he moved to Hollywood to be an actor. By the 1930s he got interested in model airplanes that could fly and joined up with Paul Whittier to open a chain of hobby shops. He designed a few planes and eventually grew them to be sold to the US military as targets. The Radioplane as they would be known even got joysticks and they sold tens of thousands during World War II. War wasn't the only use for UAVs. Others were experimenting and by 1936 we got the first radio controlled model airplane competition in 1936, a movement that continued to grow and evolve into the 1970s. We got the Academy of Model Aeronautics (or AMA) in 1936, who launched a magazine called Model Aviation and continues to publish, provide insurance, and act as the UAV, RC airplane, and drone community representative to the FAA. Their membership still runs close to 200,000. Most of these model planes were managed from the ground using radio remote controls. The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, was established in 1934 to manage the airwaves. They stepped in to manage what frequencies could be used for different use cases in the US, including radio controlled planes. Where there is activity, there are stars. The Big Guff, built by brothers Walt and Bill Guff, was the first truly successful RC airplane in that hobbiest market. Over the next decades solid state electronics got smaller, cheaper, and more practical. As did the way we could transmit bits over those wireless links. 1947 saw the first radar-guided missile, the subsonic Firebird, which over time evolved into a number of programs. Electro-mechanical computers had been used to calculate trajectories for ordinances during World War II so with knowledge of infrared, we got infrared homing then television cameras mounted into missiles and when combined with the proximity fuse, which came with small pressure, magnetic, acoustic, radio, then optical transmitters. We got much better at blowing things up. Part of that was studying the German V-2 rocket programs. They used an analog computer to control the direction and altitude of missiles. The US Polaris and Minuteman missile programs added transistors then microchips to missiles to control the guidance systems. Rockets had computers and so they showed up in airplanes to aid humans in guiding those, often replacing Sperry's original gyroscopic automations. The Apollo Guidance Computer from the 1969 moon landing was an early example of times when humans even put their lives in the hands of computers - with manual override capabilities of course. Then as the price of chips fell in the 1980s we started to see them in model airplanes. Modern Drones By now, radio controlled aircraft had been used for target practice, to deliver payloads and blow things up, and even for spying. Aircraft without humans to weight them down could run on electric motors rather than combustable engines. Thus they were quieter. This technology allowed the UAVs to fly undetected thus laying the very foundation for the modern depiction of drones used by the military for covert operations. As the costs fell and carrying capacity increased, we saw them used in filmmaking, surveying, weather monitoring, and anywhere else a hobbyist could use their hobby in their career. But the cameras weren't that great yet. Then Fairchild developed the charge-coupled device, or CCD, in 1969. The first digital camera arguably came out of Eastman Kodak in 1975 when Steven Sasson built a prototype using a mixture of batteries, movie camera lenses, Fairchild CCD sensors, and Motorola parts. Sony came out with the Magnetic Video Camera in 1981 and Canon put the RC701 on the market in 1986. Fuji, Dycam, even the Apple QuickTake, came out in the next few years. Cameras were getting better resolution, and as we turned the page into the 1990s, those cameras got smaller and used CompactFlash to store images and video files. The first aerial photograph is attributed to Gaspar Tournachon, but the militaries of the world used UAVs that were B-17 and Grumman Hellcats from World War II that had been converted to drones full of sensors to study nuclear radiation clouds when testing weapons. Those evolved into Reconnaisance drones like the Aerojet SD-2, with mounted analog cameras in the 50s and 60s. During that time we saw the Ryan Firebees and DC-130As run thousands of flights snapping photos to aid intelligence gathering. Every country was in on it. The USSR, Iran, North Korea, Britain. And the DARPA-instigated Amber and then Predator drones might be considered the modern precursor to drones we play with today. Again, we see the larger military uses come down market once secrecy and cost meet a cool factor down-market. DARPA spent $40 million on the Amber program. Manufacturers of consumer drones have certainly made far more than that. Hobbyists started to develop Do It Yourself (DIY) drone kits in the early 2000s. Now that there were websites, we didn't have to wait for magazines to show up, we could take to the World Wide Web forums and trade ideas for how to do what the US CIA had done when they conducted the first armed drone strike in 2001 - just maybe without the weapon systems since this was in the back yard. Lithium-ion batteries were getting cheaper and lighter. As were much faster chips. Robotics had come a long way as well, and moving small parts of model aircraft was much simpler than avoiding all the chairs in a room at Stanford. Hobbyists turned into companies that built and sold drones of all sizes, some of which got in the way of commercial aircraft. So the FAA started issuing drone permits in 2006. Every technology had a point, where the confluence of all these technologies meets into a truly commercially viable product. We had Wi-Fi, RF (or radio frequency), iPhones, mobile apps, tiny digital cameras in our phones, and even in spy teddy bears, we understood flight, propellers, plastics were heavier-than-air, but lighter than metal. So in 2010 we got the Parrot AR Drone. This was the first drone that was sold to the masses that was just plug and play. And an explosion of drone makers followed, with consumer products ranging from around $20 to hundreds now. Drone races, drone aerogymnastics, drone footage on our Apple and Google TV screens, and with TinyML projects for every possible machine learning need we can imagine, UAVs that stabilize cameras, can find objects based on information we program into it, and any other use we can imagine. The concept of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has come a long way since the Austrians tried to bomb the Venetians into submission. Today there are mini drones, foldable drones, massive drones that can carry packages, racing drones, and even military drones programmed to kill. In fact, right now there are debates raging in the UN around whether to allow drones to autonomously kill. Because Skynet. We're also experimenting with passenger drone technology. Because autonomous driving is another convergence just waiting in the wings. Imagine going to the top of a building and getting in a small pod then flying a few buildings over - or to the next city. Maybe in our lifetimes, but not as soon as some of the companies who have gone public to do just this thought.
TechByter Worldwide (formerly Technology Corner) with Bill Blinn
Smart watches aren't exactly new because they've been around in one form or another since 2004. Apple's introduction of a smart watch in 2015 gave the market a kick start, but only one fifth of US adults currently own one. Women are more likely to have a smart watch than men are. In Short Circuits: Many crypto-currencies have lost significant value in the past several months, but they still have worth. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation says 244 investors lost nearly $43 million worth of crypto-currency in the past six month. The scam has been traced back to a fraudulent app. • Most Wi-Fi routers can transmit signals in the 2.4GHz range and 5GHz range. Some of the newer devices also can communicate in the 60GHz range. Although channel selection is largely automatic in the higher-frequency bands, it's fully manual in the 2.4GHz range. Selecting the wrong channel can reduce your link speeds and those of your neighbors. Twenty Years Ago (only on the website): I was excited about bargain prices for CompactFlash memory cards that were used by some camera manufacturers, but have virtually disappeared now in favor of memory cards that are physically smaller. Twenty years ago, CF cards were the primary choice and 2002's "bargain" prices are laughable now.
In-Depth How to Video for copying files using only an iPhone Aaron shows you how to back up your SD (Secure Digital) or microSD (from GoPro, Osmo, Yi, DJI, drone) or CF (Compact Flash) to an external solid state drive (SSD) using only an iPhone, USB hub, and a cheap battery pack. This method doesn’t […] The post How to Back Up SD microSD CompactFlash to External SSD with iPhone iPad NO COMPUTER iOS 13 appeared first on AARON LINSDAU Adversity Expert.
Bob Woolley, Atari 1200XL hardware hacker Bob Woolley has been upgrading and modifying Atari 8-bit computers — primarily the 1200XL — since it was released. His hardware products include video output improvements, keyboard repairs, built-in CompactFlash cards, a dual-ANTIC computer, and a parallel bus interface for the 1200XL. Bob was editor of Atari Classics magazine from approximately 1994-1997. He is still active in the San Leandro Computer Club and on the AtariAge forums. This interview took place on March 14, 2017. "I actually use the Atari as my computer. I couldn't write any code on one of my PCs. Whereas if I'm going to write code, I do it on the Atari." Bob on AtariAge San Leandro Computer Club Atari Classics Magazine A Parallel Bus Interface for your 1200XL 1200XL Keyboard Tune-up
David Zimmerman, President of the well known global data recovery service, talks to us about his product. LC Technology recovers from all types of digital media including Memory Stick, SmartMedia, CompactFlash, Micro Drives, all types of SD cards, XD cards, MMC, USB flash drives and any other type of flash storage media. LC Technology can help every type of photographer no matter how their image data has been lost or damage. LC Technology provides data recovery, hard drive recovery, all types of digital media recovery. Even when you think all is lost, LC Technology can recover your valuable data. Whether it was wet, crushed, bent, vandalized, hardware failure, or in a fire. Check out their free demo program and see for yourself how much data can be recovered. Visit LC Technology on line at: www.lc-tech.com
‘Épisode #33 : Les compléments d'optique, des nouveautés dans Lightroom 5, une carte CompactFlash avec RAID, une photographe pro (Sylwia Skibinska) qui nous raconte son cheminement, et critique du iUSBportCamera!’
Welcome to the inaugural episode of Open Apple, the Apple II community’s first co-hosted podcast. In this show, hosts Mike Maginnis and Ken Gagne reflect on their Apple II history before welcoming guest Andy Molloy. Segments include “II News”, a roundup of the latest events in the Apple II community, such as a CompactFlash adapter […]
Markertek News Channel coverage of all the new Redbox solutions from Sonifex at NAB 2009. Products covered include the RB-VHDA8, a high performance, reliable eight way digital video distribution amplifier for re-clocking and distributing an HD (high definition) or SD (standard definition) SDI source to eight outputs. The unit provides automatic input detection, re-clocking and cable equalisation of the input signal to 200/400 meters (HD/SD) of coax cable; as well as the RB-PD2 Stereo Profanity Delay, a stereo audio profanity delay used for live broadcast programs to prevent unwanted or obscene material from being transmitted. It features an automatic audio stretch algorithm that allows between 2 and 55 seconds of delay to be built up live whilst "on air", whilst maintaining the correct pitch. The delay can also be acquired whilst playing a pre-selected audio file on a CompactFlash memory card. When the program is complete, the audio stretch algorithm seamlessly reduces the delay to zero.
Les imprimantes laser abordables, les sacs de voyage pour photographes, un lecteur de cartes mémoire pour PC et un compagnon de voyage avec GPS intégré. Top branché, 1re partie Voici une imprimante laser couleur de Lexmark, qui fait exactement tout ce que font les grosses imprimantes d'entreprise. Elle est rapide : elle peut imprimer jusqu'à 24 pages par minute et la première page sort après seulement onze secondes d'attente. Elle est capable d'imprimer des images couleur à une résolution comparable à celles d'une imprimante photo. Top branché, 2e partie Il y a toujours la considération des « Tout-en-un » quand on magasine une imprimante laser. Est-ce qu'on va faire des fax? Numériser des documents? Si oui, une Tout-en-un est plus recommandable. C'est beau mais c'est quoi? Le lecteur Imatumi de LaCie peut lire et écrire sur les formats de cartes mémoire les plus populaires, incluant les formats CompactFlash, SD et xD. Il est aussi capable de lire les différents formats de cartes MemoryStick, de Sony. Attrape techno Les disques durs externes sont bien chers, comparativement à un disque qu'on monte soi-même à partir d'un boîtier et d'un disque dur achetés séparément.
What if computers programmed us?Welcome to Show 063! This week's Topic: The Joystick! Topics and links discussed in the podcast... Want to take your retro hobby into your virtual reality world? Now you can buy retro computer models for Second Life. No, really.The DECWriter printing terminal. Whether it's black and white or color, it's prettay. It's so prettay...Now you can play Centipedes anywhere you've got Java and a web browser. Check out Atari's Games site!If you need a CompactFlash card for your Apple II, you're in luck. And, for the Apple I. Yes, you read that right!A2Unplugged is coming out with new episodes - they are at #4 and counting... Be sure to send any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com. For online discussions on Retrobits Podcast topics, check out the Retrobits Podcast forum on the PETSCII Forums page! Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan. Thanks for listening! - Earl
LOAD "RETROBITS",8,1RUNWelcome to Show 044! This week's Topic: Retro Assortment (Variety Show)! Topics and links discussed in the podcast... Do kids still program? Join in on this discussion forum topic at the PETSCII Forums, and let us know!Speaking of which, here's a programming environment designed for kids - the Kids Programming Language.The Commodore16.com site revived my excitement for one of my favorite computers, the Commodore 16.What do you do with that old, non-functional Commodore CBM 3032? Well, turn it into the coolest PC case ever invented, of course!CompactFlash for the Apple II - Flash memory is not just for the new stuff, folks!Also, CompactFlash and IDE drives for your Commodore 64? Believe it! Check out the ide64.org site for more details.For fun music and retrocomputing goodness, nothing beats the C64 remixes and SID tunes on The C64 Takeaway! Be sure to send any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com. For online discussions on Retrobits Podcast topics, check out the Retrobits Podcast forum on the PETSCII Forums page! Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan. Thanks for listening! - Earl