In a four minute meeting, the stockholders voted 42 million to 11 thousand in favor to the merge Atari and JTS in 1996. Because of the decision, Sam Tramiel picks up the severance checks, but agrees to stay in office while the company transitions. JTS held the Atari name until March 1998 when Hasbro bought the brand for 5 million dollars.

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Other Day in Tech History items:

• The Lisa Project starts
• The PowerPC alliance
• Time Warner joins the WiMAX revolution

This week on the 5 Tech Things You Should Know:

1. Apple updates the Mac Pro, iMac and introduces the Mighty Trackpad. Is it worth $69?
2. Panasonic brings out the HDT-SDT750 3D camera. Will you buy this camera?
3. Foursquare goes local.
4. More on Facebook changes. What also happened with the leak of 171 million users data.
5. Penny asked about Walmart RFID tags now on every garment. Does that mean they are tracking you?

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Download Audio Version of the 5 Tech Things: RFID at Walmart

We dealt with the big buyout bid fight between Microsoft and Yahoo back in 2008. Of course, the outcome was that Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang stepped down and Carol Bartz took the reigns. However, Carol did make a bold move in 2009 as she agreed to a deal with Steve Ballmer. Microsoft would get Yahoo Search engine technologies and create a search engine for Yahoo. In return, Yahoo would handle advertising for premium search advertisers. This was a ten year deal.

BTW – Recent news stated that Yahoo.jp  is using Google in Japan. While it did put a snag in the agreement this week, Yahoo Japan Chief Exec. Masahiro Inoue said Microsoft didn’t localize the service in Japan, therefore, they went with Google.

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Other Historical Events in Technology

• Windows NT 4.0 RTM is released
• 100-nanosecond 64 kbit DRAM
• Sirius and XM finish their merger

Intel has announced a chip which uses the transmission of light to move data between devices at a cost competitive with existing components found inside of gadgets. This effectively brings fiber-optics to the level of being used within and between consumer devices, as contrasted with its current infrastructure use.

Intel has already been working on a fiber-optic patch cable for connecting home gadgets at 20 times current speeds; this new development will potentially increase current speeds by fifty times.

The Silicon Valley dot com website (part of the San Jose Mercury-News) describes it as follows:

But the chip it unveiled Tuesday, which sends data via four lasers, can hit 50 gigabits per second. And that’s just the beginning, according to (Intel CTO Justin) Rattner. By adding a few more lasers, the company expects to be able to boost that to perhaps 1,000 gigabits, he said.

At that rate, the company said, it could transmit the Library of Congress data in one and a half minutes.

There’s a picture of the chip and a pictogram of how it works at the link. From the picture, it appears to be about twice the size of a standard xD picture card.

Sir William James Herschel was using it for more of a signature than anything in 1858 as he was requiring palm prints from people he met. After collecting several prints, though, he started realizing there were unique identifiers that could be used in identifying a person. The Palm prints would eventually change to fingerprints for Forensics to use.

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Other Day in Tech History items:

• Apple invests in Samsung for LCD technology
• Sprint acquires Virgin Mobile and the Boost Mobile brand
• Dell Workstation 400 is announced

*NOTE: The video for this episode did not record. Audio only this week folks!*

One more episode to 150. 2nd Summer of Podcasts contest July prizes drawn on Sunday. I am heading to Nashville, but I cannot tell you why yet. Looking for Video / Audio bumpers. If you have a business or show, just send me an audio or video saying:

Hi. This is {your name} from {your show/business} and you are on Geekazine!

Video to geekazine at Gmail dot Com

Need some clue on YouTube and linking accounts. Can you help?

I will wear your T-Shirt.

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Day in Tech History – 5 Tech Things You Should Know
Geekazine Special Media Feed

I – S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
12 Core Mac Pro
New iMac, Magic Trackpad
Microsoft Hohm Monitoring Device
Facebook Deletion Easier to do
Ford 2011 Explorer Debut on Facebook
Yahoo Invests in Hackers
Yahoo Chooses Google – In Japan
Google Government Applications
New York Phones Off-line Because of Verizon Hardware
Eye Microscope Helps People See
Electric Helicopter using 100% Electricity
Draw Great Tattoos on Lego Characters

QOTW – Now that it’s technically legal, will you jailbreak your phone?
Video – Computer Chronicles: The Commodore 64

II
Walmart Moonwalk
Nvidia Rambus Ruling: NVidia Pays Up
Apple Responding to the Jailbreak Issues
Humans can Mind-Meld

The Geekazine Podcast is under a Creative Commons no-deriv license
Music for Podcast by the John Masino Band

Microsoft released another Operating System in 1993 to focus the business. NT 3.1 was the first release in the NT series. NT stood for “N-Ten,” the codename of the Intel i860 XR processor for which NT was initially developed.

The NT kernal was different than the Windows 3.x version. It implemented the Win32 API, or 32 bit programming. Windows NT also was for the business. It didn’t push multimedia like it’s home counterpart.

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Wikazine – July 27th

• Tandy 1000 SL is released
• OJ Simpson launches askoj.com
• Cuil Launches

Today I learned that the Librarian of Congress is required every three years to clarify requirements of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) (primarily, I gather, to take into account changes in technology).

The latest update, issued today, included a ruling that copyright cannot be used to prevent purchasers of smartphones, including iPhones, from jailbreaking them so they can install applications not approved by the manufacturer. The Bloomberg report indicates the reasoning for this is that jailbreaking for this purpose is not to duplicate or steal anything, but to promote interoperability. From the Bloomberg report:

Owners of Apple Inc.’s iPhone can unlock the device in order to use applications not authorized by the company, the U.S. Library of Congress said.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington added the practice, described in the ruling as “jailbreaking,” to a list of actions that don’t violate copyright protections. The decision affecting iPhones and other smartphones was posted today on the agency’s website as part of a periodic review.

Jailbreaking a phone may still be considered to violate the terms of a warranty.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation, who petitioned for the issue to be considered, quotes from the ruling at its website (emphasis added):

“When one jailbreaks a smartphone in order to make the operating system on that phone interoperable with an independently created application that has not been approved by the maker of the smartphone or the maker of its operating system, the modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses.”

“Fair use” is strong language in the copyright biz.

You can see the full ruling here (PDF).

Apple has not yet issued a statement on the ruling. According to Bloomberg, in comments period during the comments period before the ruling, Apple claimed that

“arguments really amount to an attack on Apple’s particular business choices” for the iPhone and the company’s iPhone App Store.

Call me jaded if you will, but I suspect that maintaining the position of the iPhone App Store as the sole source for iPhone apps has a lot to do with Apple’s position on this pleading.

Here is a PDF of the U. S. Copyright Office’s summary of the DMCA.

Update:

Just for grins and giggles, I checked the license and warranty of T-Mobile G1. There is no prohibition against software from sources other than the Android Marketplace, but, if third-party software damages the phone, I’m on my own. The copyright provisions apply specifically and expressly to HTC software supplied with the phone (HTC manufactures the G1).

Here’s a link to the warranty (PDF).

Frankly, that sounds reasonable to me.

The device comes set to accept software only from the Android Marketplace, but the settings contain a toggle to allow software from other sources.

I could not find a reference to “jailbreaking,” but I am sure my carrier wouldn’t like it and I paid too much for this thing to take that chance. If someone wants to send me one, I’ll happily jailbreak it.

The Recording Industry Association of America was after Napster ever since the site came on-line. It was the promotion of illegally searching and downloading music and sometimes video. in 2000, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued a preliminary injunction against Napster, ordering the company to cease operation by July 28th.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would stay the injunction and raise questions to judge Patel and the injunction.

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Other Day in Tech History items:

• Cyrix and Texas Instruments part ways
• The auction of Quokka.com assets
• The Google – Digg acquisition talks were reported to have fallen through.

Sometimes it’s time to move on…

WordPress Logo

For all you Bloggers that are on the popular blogging software, WordPress announced support will be ending for PHP4 and MySQL4. For WordPress v. 3.2, they will support PHP on v. 5.2 and MySQL 5.0.15. It doesn’t mean you cannot use PHP4, but you might have to do some re-coding.

There are significant upgrades for PHP5. There are some plugins that are requiring PHP5 to work (CAPTCHA plugins, for example). The security is also increased.

It’s good to hear that they will be moving on. In the meantime, if you have a WordPress site, you might want to make sure your server provider can make the switch.

The sale of Video Games began to really heat up in 2005 as Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich signs a bill into law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors. You could be fined up to $1,000 for selling games with adult ratings. Immediately, video game groups sued, claiming the law is a restriction on free speech.

The law would be deemed unconstitutional and repealed by US District Judge Matthew Kennelly.

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Other Day in Tech History items:

• Ericsson purchases Nortel’s CDMA and LTE assets
• Sinclair Radionics is founded
• Duck Dodgers and the 24 1/2 Century is first aired