A computer designed to be used with a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and printer could sound like any computer you've used, all made possible by a graphical user interface used on the Xerox Alto. Tom explores its history. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The way you interact with computers was probably shaped by a small team working at Xerox in the 1970s. Tom explains the history of Smalltalk. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From room-sized machines to barely an inconvenience on your desk, laser printers are in nearly every office. But where did they start? Tom explores the origins of the laser printer. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Computers talk to each other via networking, most commonly over a wired ethernet connection. Tom explains how that started and why it was such a breakthrough. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1969, the chief scientist at Xerox, Jack Goldman, decided to found a west-coast research center in Palo Alto, right down the road from Engelbart's SRI. Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center or PARC was far enough from headquarters in Rochester, New York, that scientists could feel a little freer to experiment. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full show transc…

Tom explains what GPUs are, why they are different than CPUs, and how they kinda just evolved into a product. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom discusses the origin of the term "log in", it's early use, and how it became something most of us do every day. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full transcript can be found here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The last 120 years or so have seen tons of change for Korea, but what does the future hold? Tom shares what one heir is doing with their legacy. Featuring Tom Merritt. Episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The predictive capabilities of ChatGPT and other programs based on Large Language Models really seem to infer an artificial intelligence. How do the applications work...and are they sentient? Tom explains why you shouldn't fear ChatGPT. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

With all the talk about banning TikTok in the United States, Tom dives in to explain who actually owns and controls its parent company, ByteDance, and why there's so much discourse about security. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full transcript can be found here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

What's really being celebrated on Black Friday and is it the biggest shopping day in the world? Featuring Tom Merritt. Full Episode Transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The backbone of nearly every network you use on a daily basis is based on a system designed to be cheap and easy to implement. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if you could have a secure password generated fresh each time you need it? Authenticator apps do just that. Tom explains how. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Douglas Engelbart demonstrated how two people connected over a network could work together editing a document at the same time in 1968. It took much longer to see a real product. Featuring Tom Merritt. Episode Transcript available here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video conferencing was a vital method of communication during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's roots go back much longer than you think. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did RISC-V grab the attention of nearly every major tech company and what was the need for yet another computer processor architecture? Tom walks you through the history and use case of RISC-V. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript found here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Internet's directory was once a simple text file on a single computer but has evolved into many directories world-wide that enable the Internet as you know it. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The word processor never got "invented" as such, it just slowly developed out of things like typewriters and even slowly merged from electronic appliances into software. To understand the origin of the word processor you and I would recognize, the one with bold, italic, underline, we need to follow the journey of future space tourist Charles Simony…

You all know what a mouse is. It’s so common, that you probably don't even think that much about why it's called a mouse. But back in 1968, the man generally credited with the invention of the mouse, Douglas Engelbart, had to apologize for what was certainly a silly name. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See aca…

You may have used them hundreds of times today, but the origin of hypertexts dates all the way back to at least 1963. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a single 90 minute presentation, Douglas Englebart showcased technologies that would eventually find their way into nearly every computer you've ever used. And he did it in 1968. Featuring Tom Merritt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Passkeys use something called public key cryptography. They have your public key. And because it’s public, it doesn’t matter if anyone gets it. That public key and your private key combine to validate who you are. But how does that work? Wouldn’t they have to know something besides the public key that’s unique to you? No. That’s the brilliance of i…

We update the history of Section 230 in light of the recent Supreme Court decisions. What it is, what it isn't and how those decisions affected or didn't affect the future of the "safe harbor" law in the US. Featuring Tom Merritt. Full episode transcript here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

By 1998 the US had passed its Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And partly because the US generates so much copyrightable material, and partly just because it’s the US and is a little pushy on the world stage, the DMCA became the de facto way of handling copyright protections on the internet around the world. But what is it? Why did we need the DMC…

Taiwan is at once one of the most vexing political situations on the globe and one of the most important to the world of technology. But few people understand how it got to be either. And understanding that is essential to understanding what might happen next and how that matters a LOT for the technology industry. Let's help you Know a Little More …