Hackers On The Net – 3

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Here’s a brief bit of video about the iPod. Watch that, then read this quote.

Since huge quantities of information can be computer-digitalized [sic] and transmitted, music researchers could, for example, swap records over the Net with “essentially perfect fidelity.” So much for record stores (in present form).

Stewart Brand
Rolling Stone
December 7, 1972

When vinyl was king, and FM Album Rock had yet to completely take over from AM Top 40 radio, Stewart Brand made the conceptual leap past CD, all the way to Napster.

DeSouze, Glick, Maynard, LaPierre

lapierre

You’ll recognize the names in the subject of this post only if you live around Boston. Gary LaPierre, the morning man on WBZ 1030 AM, is the fourth major ‘BZ radio announcer that I can think of at the moment to retire since my family moved to Massachusetts when I was 13.

Carl DeSouze, Dave Maynard and the uniquely quirky Larry Glick all called it quits many years ago. I believe DeSouze is now deceased, but the voices of Maynard and Glick can still be heard from time to time as guests.

LaPierre’s last day on the air was Friday. At 64 he’s still in fine form, but he had coronary bypass surgery last year. A couple of years ago he was cornered into making the embarrassing admission that during the winter he was rattling off the school snow cancellation lists from his home in Florida.

I admire anybody who can make a lifelong career in the radio business, let alone become something of an institution in a major market. Gary LaPierre is a top-notch announcer who I enjoyed listening to, and he deserves a long and comfortable retirement.

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The audio player has some of LaPierre’s farewell, and a three-minute tribute. Take note of the Acton and Acton-Boxborough (the regional junior and senior high) school cancellations. What a perk it was, going to a school that’s always first on the list!

Hackers On The Net – 2

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This series isn’t a history of the Internet, per se. It’s a gosh-wow look back at an article in Rolling Stone that I read in 1972, while still in high school. Part 1 showed a mock-up of a proposed personal computer called a Dynabook, that was the brainchild of Alan Kay.

Here is Kay’s original drawing for the Dynabook, which was ahead of its time, to say the least. Kay is credited with uttering the notable quote, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Another visionary whose work was discussed in the article is Ivan Sutherland, who between 1961 and 1963 created the groundbreaking computer program called Sketchpad. The video above is an excruciatingly dry, but exceedingly significant, 20-minute demonstration of Sketchpad. It was produced for Boston PBS station WGBH by Russell Morash, who introduced TV viewers to Julia Child and created the show “This Old House.”