Here we have a quick, 5 minute film clip from 1966, produced by NASA to provide a status update on the Apollo Program. In 1966, as you may recall, we were finishing up the Gemini Program, and the Saturn V rocket was nearing testing completion for it’s first flight, in late 1967, as a test […]
This video from JPL and NASA shows what the “sound” of the space below the rings of Saturn is like – more correctly, what the particle and magnetic sensors on the craft detect, indicating the vastly different environments outside and inside the ring zones around the gas giant. Again, this is what happens when you […]
I’ve been delayed on sharing this, but hey, better late than never. This video clip from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, as you may have seen it listed before) and shows the path Cassini took over Saturn during the first dive of the Grand Final. The clip speaks for itself, really, showing the cloud tops […]
Alright, finally we’re getting to something that will feel familiar to everyone: networking! More correctly, the pre-internet computer networking methodology known as BBS’s, via literally dialing a number and putting a phone on the modulator-demodulator – a modem, if you are old enough to remember those kinds of things! This episode shows our friend Billy […]
Early in the morning on April 27th, 1986, the East Coast broadcast feed for the television station HBO was interrupted by a mysterious message, consisting of a standard color test pattern and a somewhat politely worded warning message: GOODEVENING HBO FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT $12.95/MONTH ? NO WAY ! [SHOWTIME/MOVIE CHANNEL BEWARE!] It’s quite the complex […]
One thing that all computers do in some form is store data, be it programs we install on them, or data we generate ourselves using these programs. This is, of course, by design – computers are tools to help us do work (or at least, that’s why they are made, whether or not we use […]
Windows Vista, the Microsoft operating system that everyone loved to hate, has finally died – it reached end-of-support status back on April 11th. This comes just a little over 10 years since the operating systems release. Now, this would be the part where every other blogger would talk about how terrible Vista was, and tear […]
It took long enough, but patience paid off – I got an NES Classic Edition. Oh, sure, it isn’t something many people are talking about anymore, but it’s still an item fetching high prices on eBay and Amazon, and since it isn’t in stores at all anymore, well, you’re hard pressed to get one if […]
Building your own computer is considered pretty much the standard these days in most computer enthusiast circles – dare to mention you use a store-bought desktop and even if you have done some damn fine upgrades, odds are someone is going to find some issue with it and try to give you hell for simply […]
Ah, programs. You’re using one right now, whether you realize it or not. Actually, you’re using several. Probably several dozen at once, and you don’t even know it. The browser you’re viewing this website with, that’s a program. The operating system your computer or mobile device is using is, guess what, a program. The extra […]
Update: The plugin has indeed had version 4.8.1 released, which seems to fix the issues present in the original 4.8 release. This article is being kept as is for archival sake as a reminder to be careful when using new software in a production environment, at least on day zero. Update 2: In testing the […]
On September 15th, 2017, NASA’s Cassini mission will come to an end after 13 years studying Saturn and just shy of 20 years in space. Known as the “Grand Finale,” the end of life for the Cassini probe will be quite the dramatic event. On April 26th, 2017, Cassini will make a final orbital change […]
YouTube is full of interesting historic films of all types. I’ve been on quite the binge of old 1950’s and earlier informational films (I have no idea why, I’ve just been watching a bunch of them) and one popped up in my feed from 1917 – A film produced by NCR, one of the worlds […]
Returning to Bits and Bytes, we step into the land of ready made programs: that is, software that you just put in and run. You don’t have to write it yourself in basic. Of course, this is how computers are for us today, naturally – we have everything we could ever need, and probably more, […]
It’s tax season, in case you didn’t know. Today, most people do their taxes online, via some preparation software or via a third-party service that invariably uses custom software, or some electronic filing system down the line. to get the actual data to the IRS. 30 years ago, however, it was a different story. Electronic […]