Post 3

This scavenger hunt was… interesting to say the least. (and trust me, you don’t want to hear my litany of complaints).

Just to be finished with this, here are my three links I found. It may not be exact, but its the closest I got and the best links I found.

1. Earliest desc. of seance:

Seance Article

The only reason this link exists is because of the OED online. Researching the origins and history of seance led to this silly find. Earliest usages of a word can be very useful in tracking down popularity trends. Knowing it was a word from france led me to Proquest’s news database and a search for this.

2. Most detailed desc. of electric car in before 1910 book:

Electric Car Information

While there were easier sources to find on books about the car, this was the most technical source I could find on the inner makings of that car before 1910. Thanks Google Books for making it easy to find books in a time period search.

3. Best source for voting patterns in Fairfax:

Voting Patterns

So, this one’s a bit.. hinky. I figure the best source for any information is public records. Its not MY fault they’ve not been digitized, blame lack of funding… and interest. But this is the best source for the answers to any and all Fairfax data.

Extra Post

Its shocking, I know. Posting for something that WASN’T required. Its absolute madness, I know but bear with me.

I stumbled across this video a few years ago and I’ve used to it explain the Web and Web2.0 to friends and family that are slightly… behind on technology. I figured, what the hey, maybe it’ll be enlightening to someone else too.

 

Post 2

For the practicum assignment this week, the choice of computers was difficult. I couldn’t decide which computer actually seemed halfway decent. They all just seemed to be beep-boop lights that I had no interest in whatsoever. But as I read through them all, one seemed to be the most interesting. Okay, well the picture seemed interesting…

 The UNIVAC I. In 1951, it debuted as the first commercial computer that actually got some attention. Its shocking, such a big honking machine could actually be interesting.

But with 46 sales, it made a million for each of them. The first one of these was given to the US Census Bureau. Guess they had to have a VERY long training session to learn how to use this thing.

 

It uses magnetic tape memory with 1000 12-character words saved into it. Numbers were represented with 6 decimal codes. The input: the UNITYPER. A lovely typewriting station desk that looks like something out of Star Trek.  The printer output device, which was an extra 250,000 dollars, was another large station this thing came with.

Interesting factoid: the fifth was used by CBS to predict the results of the 1952 election. It got it right. Way to go Ginormous Computer.

Post 1

I’ll be first to admit, blogging isn’t the easiest for me. Its not the actual technology part. No, that’s the only fun part of it. The part I struggle with is finding something interesting enough to blog about. That’s why I’ve chosen to make this post about techno-silliness.

I know our first class lecture seemed to reinforce this idea that all historians are technophobes and that history and technology run in two different circles. But Technology and History have never seemed like foes to me. In fact, I’ve always tried to see them as something quite similar.

Both are concerned about the facts but are riddled with bias and misinformation. Both technology and history are concerned with keeping the past alive for the future.

There are many attempts to make these worlds connect. Through all sorts of digitization of old records, using programs to try and relive and track out a timeline of past events.

A semi-amusing version of this virtual timeline is by twHistory. twHistory is a website that takes a past event from a period of days and tweets one person’s perspective of the event. Its an amusing idea to take events like the Boston Tea Party and put it into 160 characters. Least, I’m easily amused by it.

 

Digital Past

All posts are under digital Past page.

Blog Specimen #2

For my last blog specimen, I decided to pick two of my latest entries:

Blog post #12: 101 reasons why and

Blog Post #10 Reflections on Mulan

enjoy.

Blog post #13: 9 Old Men

This is the last post for the year and to top everything off, I decided to end with yet another Disney Classic that we should all be able to easily recognize:  Peter Pan.

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Blog post #12: 101 reasons why

No, I’m not about to give you 101 reasons for anything. This post would be enormously too long and I might go crazy trying to write it.
But I want to mention a movie with 101 things that were cute and adorable. That movie would be, you guessed it, 101 Dalmatians

Blog Post #11 Extermination Song

Some great minds intermingled to create the 1981 film The Fox and the Hound. This film was right before Bluth left and was his last Disney film. It was also right before the Disney Renaissance where the men who worked on this film really gained their names. These men included: Don Bluth, Larry Clemmons, Ron Clements, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Musker, and Glen Keane. These among others were some of the best animators that Disney had to offer. All of their hard work was put into a film that took a total of four years to create.

Blog Post #10 Reflections on Mulan

reflections on Mulan: