Tag: invented
Dave Grohl’s claim that Canadians invented American football put to the test
Poker Face creators desperately wanted a hero to call bullshit, so they invented one
Watching Natasha Lyonne say ‘bullshit’ for those who can’t never gets old
Who Really Invented the Thumb Drive?
Before the invention of the thumb drive, computer users stored and transported their files using floppy disks. Developed by IBM in the 1960s, first 8-inch and later 5 1/4-inch and 3 1/2-inch floppy disks replaced cassette tapes as the most practical portable storage media. Floppy disks were limited by their relatively small storage capacity — even double-sided, double-density disks could store only 1.44 MB of data. During the 1990s, as the size of files and software increased, computer companies searched for alternatives. Personal computers in the late 1980s began incorporating CD-ROM drives, but initially these could read only from prerecorded disks and could not store user-generated data. The Iomega Zip Drive, called a “superfloppy” drive and introduced in 1994, could store up to 750 MB of data and was writable, but it never gained widespread popularity, partly due to competition from cheaper and higher-capacity hard drives.
Computer users badly needed a cheap, high-capacity, reliable, portable storage device. The thumb drive was all that — and more. It was small enough to slip in a front pocket or hang from a keychain, and durable enough to be rattled around in a drawer or tote without damage. With all these advantages, it effectively ended the era of the floppy disk. But Trek 2000 hardly became a household name. And the inventor of the thumb drive and Trek’s CEO, Henn Tan, did not become as famous as other hardware pioneers like Robert Noyce, Douglas Engelbart, or Steve Jobs. Even in his home of Singapore, few people know of Tan or Trek. Why aren’t they more famous? After all, mainstream companies including IBM, TEAC, Toshiba, and, ultimately, Verbatim licensed Trek’s technology for their own memory stick devices. And a host of other companies just copied Tan without permission or acknowledgment.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
QR codes were invented in 1994, with what purpose?
Why the Internet Invented a Fake Martin Scorsese Film Called ‘Goncharov’
“Thousands of Tumblr users have been making posters, soundtracks, drawings and fan fiction for a 1973 Scorsese film starring Robert De Niro — but it never existed.”
Released in 1973, the little-seen Scorsese flick starred Robert De Niro as Goncharov, “a former discotheque owner who comes to Naples after the fall of the Soviet Union” with the goal of becoming a mob boss. Harvey Keitel plays the eye-patched Andrey (or Andrei) “The Banker” Daddano; Gene Hackman plays Valery Michailov; Al Pacino appears as Mario Ambrosini and Cybill Shepherd plays Goncharov’s wife, Katya. Apparently, it was really good and was added to the Criterion Collection.
And you’ve never heard of it because it doesn’t actually exist….
A few years ago, a Tumblr user posted a photo of some “knockoff boots” they had ordered online that had a very strange tag on the tongue: “The greatest mafia movie ever made. Martin Scorsese presents GONCHAROV. Domenico Proccacci production. A film by Matteo JWHJ0715. About the Naples Mafia.” This mostly went ignored until 2020, when another Tumblr user reblogged a comment made on the original post, reading: “this idiot hasn’t seen goncharov….”
The internet works in mysterious ways; earlier this month, Tumblr user beelzeebub made a fake poster for the film, tens of thousands of people were suddenly sharing it and lo: a new Scorsese film was born… [L]ike all of the best jokes, people have really committed to the bit. There’s the film’s poster, which has the tagline “greatest mafia movie (n)ever made”. A music teacher in Indiana composed a theme song for Goncharov, inspired by The Godfather. There is also a cash-in video game, with an accompanying soundtrack, and a fake VHS.
“Academics” wrote essays analysing the film, which were published in (fake) film journals. A representative for the movie reviewing platform Letterboxd even told the New York Times that they had had to remove multiple reviews for the film that had been submitted by users.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A new Sandman comic pits the Corinthian against the angel who invented Mormonism
Talk about American Gods
The naughty novelist who invented the Hollywood sex scene: New book reveals life of Elinor Glyn
Dodge just invented a nostalgic new ‘vroom’ sound for electric cars
As the American carmaker Dodge slowly lowers the curtain on its current Charger and Challenger models over the next few years in favor of EV sports cars, the company is sacrificing some of the products most famous for producing big, dad-pleasing “vroom-vroom” sounds. But Dodge’s latest concept vehicle, which rolled onto a stage Wednesday during a presentation by Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis, might just be the solution to that problem.
Every 21st-century kindergartener knows what sounds phones, clocks, and cars make: “None, none, and none.” The tech world has eliminated many machine noises, for better or worse. In some cases, this is actually a safety problem. Car manufacturers now have to artificially manufacture sounds in order to signal to pedestrians that a multi-ton object is moving toward them. BMW, for instance, went in a more abstract direction, producing programmed sonic experiences for its concept cars that are supposed to evoke themes like sustainability and relaxation.
That is decidedly not the direction Dodge is going in with the concept car in the video above, known as the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT. This machine has a “patented sound chamber,” as Kuniskis puts it. This chamber, located where the exhaust pipe used to be, produces a growl resembling the roar of one of Dodge’s greenhouse gas-spewing Hemi engines, filtered through the intimidating whirs of the servos and dynamos inside ED-209, the electric death delivery system from the movie Robocop.
Kuniskis promises “126 decibels of output.” That’s louder than a chainsaw and necessitates ear protection according to the CDC. Enough to “wake up your neighbors,” according to Kuniskis.
The Charger Daytona SRT concept is reportedly based on a car that will be an actual retail product in 2024. It’s not yet known if that car will create the sonic experience of the concept version, or if it will include the other unnecessary, but equally nostalgic, feature in the Charger Daytona SRT: A gear shift.
Single-speed EV transmissions may be efficient, but Kuniskis says a crucial aspect of the Dodge experience is that “our power throws your shoulders into the seat back at shift points.” This is called the eRUPT system, according to Kuniskis’ presentation, and it’s marketed as an “electro-mechanical” shifting system.
These sounds and physical sensations may not be in any way relevant to actual locomotion in the EV era, but they are, Kuniskis says, “pure Dodge.”
Gorillas Have Invented A Unique Vocalization To Get Zookeepers’ Attention – ScienceAlert
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