Sorry if I've posted this before, but I don't think I have.
The iPlayer has some old "proper" Horizons, including this fab one from 1978. It's all about them there new-fangled microchips and how they're gonna change the world.
Also has some interesting stuff about the current state of play in the computer world as it was then, and of course it all seems positively antediluvian now.
Interesting discussion afterwards too, and again you can see how differently the Unions were seen and the influence (or otherwise) they had.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z4rrj/horizon-19771978-now-the-chips-are-down
Also, and irrelevantly, for bonus points, with no googling, what do YOU think wi-fi stands for? Because it's taken me decades to suddenly ask myself that question, and bother to look it up.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 4 Apr 19 at 19:11
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WiFi was branding, of course in the trade we loved calling it 802.11b.
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>> in the trade we loved calling it 802.11b.
...and how you laughed.
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>> >> in the trade we loved calling it 802.11b.
>>
>> ...and how you laughed.
we did, but were prepared to say "802.11b. wireless. And it was important, because back then there were different incompatible standards
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 4 Apr 19 at 21:37
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The excitement must have been unbearable.
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>> Also, and irrelevantly, for bonus points, with no googling, what do YOU think wi-fi stands
>> for? Because it's taken me decades to suddenly ask myself that question, and bother to
>> look it up.
IIRC it's an extension of hi-fi/high fidelity to wi-fi/wireless fidelity but i might be wrong.
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>>what do YOU think wi-fi stands for?
I don't know, but it's NOT fidelity.
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All I know after a lot of blank looks when enquiring at the hotel is that the French pronounce it wee fee.
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>> >>what do YOU think wi-fi stands for?
>>
>> I don't know, but it's NOT fidelity.
Err it is. It was a branding agency exercise, and they based it on Hi Fidelity - HiFi as a buzz word people would recognise.
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Nope.
'Fi' had no meaning, translation, call it what you will.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 4 Apr 19 at 21:57
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>> Nope.
>>
>> 'Fi' had no meaning, translation, call it what you will.
The question was, how did it get its name, you got the answer, suck it up.
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The one I remember, though Wikipedia suggests it may not be entirely true, was that TWAIN as in TWAIN technology (used in early scanners as far as I remember) was an acronym for Technology Without An Interesting Name.
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>> The one I remember, though Wikipedia suggests it may not be entirely true, was that
>> TWAIN as in TWAIN technology (used in early scanners as far as I remember) was
>> an acronym for Technology Without An Interesting Name.
Jeez connecting and making scanners work with an application was a complete PITA back in the day.
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www.techopedia.com/definition/3631/twain
or
whatis.techtarget.com/definition/TWAIN
The software was developed by a work group from major scanner manufacturers and scanning software developers and is now an industry standard. In several accounts, TWAIN was an acronym developed playfully from "technology without an important name." However, the TWAIN Working Group says that after the name chosen originally turned out to be already trademarked, an 11th hour meeting of the group came up with TWAIN, deriving it from the saying "Ne'er the twain shall meet," because the program sits between the driver and the application. The name is not intended to be an acronym.
or
Sometimes TWAIN is incorrectly referred to as technology without an interesting name, TWAIN is from Kipling's poem "The Ballard of East and West" - "...and never the twain shall meet...". Therefore, it is important to realize that TWAIN is not an acronym, but could be considered a backronym.
I like the word backronym :-)
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>> >> Nope.
>> >>
>> >> 'Fi' had no meaning, translation, call it what you will.
>>
>> The question was, how did it get its name, you got the answer, suck it
>> up.
Crankcase Thu 4 Apr 19 19:11
"what do YOU think wi-fi stands for?"
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Microchip history - Zero
