In the late evening, just an hour before midnight on January 31st, 1958, the United States launched it’s first satellite – Explorer 1. Explorer 1 was our answer to Sputnik 1 and 2. At least, it was our successful answer – our previous attempt, Vanguard TV3, ended in a very famous disastrous failure barely leaving […]
Ah, simulation software. Flight simulators, driving simulators, space simulators… you think of it, someone has probably coded a simulator for it. Hell, there’s even a joke name for a genre of game today called “walking simulator” where most of what you do is simply, well, walk. Computer simulations hold an interest to gamers in that […]
The computers of the 80’s are somewhat well known for the unique sounds they produced. While CD quality audio and digital sound samples are the order of the day now, and have been for several decades, in the early days of computers sounds, and thus, music, were produced via internal hardware that directly generated tones […]
In a bit of rocketry news that I’m long overdue for writing about, back on January 21st, 2018, the New Zealand company Rocket Lab had the first successful launch of their Electron rocket – a booster designed to launch very small payloads into Earth orbit. Not only does this mark New Zealand’s entry into orbital […]
Okay, I’ve spent a good bit of time tearing down the YouTube Partner Program changes. I’m not going to lie, I was rather upset by them initially myself – I still think the principle of creating these kinds of limits to people earning any money via Adsense, SuperChat, or any other built into YouTube feature […]
As the YouTuber Partner Program madness kicked in this past week, one extremely common point I saw being brought up by large YouTuber Content Creators time and time again was that most of the channels being affected by this were making under $100 a year. Noting that the payout threshold for Google Adsense is $100, […]
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off yesterday from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the 4th Geostationary Satellite in the Space-Based Infrared System, a collection of specialty satellites operated by the United States Air Force designed to assist the United States military in situational awareness in the battlefield, especially […]
I never did get a chance to write about the “Adpocalypse” of 2017. Super long story cut short, varying incidents with high profile YouTube content creators resulted in many advertisers pulling their advertising from the platform entirely, due to not wanting to be associated with objectionable content creators. It got worse recently when a high […]
Yesterday proved to be a bit interesting for me on Twitter. I was giving my own comments on the Delta IV launch yesterday, one of which was my typical congratulations tweet to United Launch Alliance, the operators of Delta IV, and the CEO of the company, Tory Bruno. At the end, though, I left a […]
Here’s one I should have gotten to back in December but couldn’t get to for, well, reasons. This is a launch highlights compilation for year 2017 produced by United Launch Alliance, showing of the past years launches of 1 Delta IV booster, 6 Atlas V boosters, and the second to last Delta II launch ever. […]
I’m not going to do a full commentary on the Nintendo Direct today:I didn’t watch it and since I don’t have a Nintendo Switch, not much said there has any real direct impact on me. I do however pay attention to what is announced, in general anyway and I, like everyone else, noticed one very […]
Ah, now we’re getting into one of the more interesting nuances of the 80’s computer scene – graphics! While today our systems simply use software to create everything we see on screen, with hardware doing the raw math to make it all happen, back in those days, you didn’t have processing power, memory, or, well, […]
Apparently, less than a year after bankruptcy, gaming accessory maker Mad Catz is back! Apparently a company in China that was involved in the manufacturing side of some of their products purchased what remained of the company and brought the brand back, alongside many of the more popular and well received PC gaming accessories the […]
Ah, the Commodore 64. The best selling computer of all time, one that most anyone involved in the classic gaming scene is aware of, and those into old computers certainly must have at least tried to experience. What a better way to do this holiday than to go back to 1982/1983 and experience the in-store […]
I thought it fitting, given recent events, to share this episode of the Computer Chronicles discussing the Internet in 1993. I don’t have to explain the internet to you – you know what it is, but understanding how it became what it is and why it was such a major thing, that’s something else entirely. […]