Mass Market Microcomputer with DisplayThe Apple II is the first real mass-market microcomputer. It did anything it was programmed to do, and people programmed it to do all sorts of things. Spreadsheets, invented on the Apple II, drove enormous sales to the business market. The computer also featured several word processors and a sizable game library. Jobs & Woz … Continue reading "Mass Market Microcomputer with Display"
Water Frame Spinner / Modern FactoryRichard Arkwright’s Water Frame Spinner created factories that did not require highly skilled labor. Women and children, with no training, worked in factories that churned out low-cost good enough quality fabric at high volumes. This vastly lowered the cost of fabric. Arkwright was from a poor family: his father was a tailor. He improved on … Continue reading "Water Frame Spinner / Modern Factory"
Peer-To-Peer File Sharing (Napster)File sharing allows one computer to connect anonymously with others, sending and receiving files. Most files were single-track MP3s of copyright music. Background The original theory was that because mixtapes were legal then noncommercial “sharing” of any music was legal. The legality of mixtapes, a collection of songs from other tapes, stems from a US … Continue reading "Peer-To-Peer File Sharing (Napster)"
- Blue Ocean Strategy Basics – Breaking the Value/Cost Trade-Off
Oftentimes spending more doesn’t get more and, sometimes, gets less Michael Porter is the father of modern business strategy theory and defined a few basic ideas. Core among them is that business centers around competition. Competitors, new market entrants, suppliers, customers, and substitute products are five forces that influence profitability, he argued in his famous … Continue reading "Blue Ocean Strategy Basics – Breaking the Value/Cost Trade-Off"
Steam Engine (Newcomen)The Newcomen steam engine removed water from mines. It worked but was extremely inefficient. Steam was not recycled (re-condensed) so the Newcomen engine required an enormous amount of coal to continually boil water. When used at a coal mine, where scrap coal was essentially free, this cost less than having workers remove water by the … Continue reading "Steam Engine (Newcomen)"
Color Photography1908 James MaxwellSergey Prokudin-Gorsky Scottish physicist James Maxwell laid the groundwork for color photography. Eventually, Russian Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky perfected the technique using three exposures through a red, green, and blue filter. Recombining each exposure into one print accurately portrays color. This method, combining red, green, and blue, remains the foundation of how color is reproduced … Continue reading "Color Photography"
Archie McCardell: Worst CEO EverArchie McCardell is the worst CEO in history. Sure, there are CEO’s who committed crimes, CEO’s who bankrupt their businesses, and CEO’s who looted their businesses. There are crooks, those who hire cronies, people who paid bribes, plenty who demanded sex or servitude, and countless sociopaths. In fairness to him, Archie did none of these … Continue reading "Archie McCardell: Worst CEO Ever"
Photocopiers“Xerography was an invention we didn’t know we needed until, suddenly, we didn’t know how we lived without it.” Carlson biographer David Owen Chester Carlson Chester Carlson had a childhood nobody would want to copy. His father was perennially ill and poor. Mom, dad, and young Chester lived in a leaky hut in Mexico until … Continue reading "Photocopiers"
DefibrillatorClear! Defibrillators are the electric paddles that restart hearts. In 1957, Dr. Pantridge and Dr. John Geddes invented cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Eventually, he went on to innovate a portable defibrillator that weighed 70kg and ran from car batteries, installing it in a Belfast ambulance. No sooner did the devices prove effective then, by 1968, they … Continue reading "Defibrillator"
SubmarineSubmarines changed naval warfare, increasing the risk of maritime travel from hostile countries. Underwater ships have existed in various forms for ages. There was a semi-underwater boat built for Tsar Peter the Great in 1720, and also one allegedly built during the US revolution in 1776. Steamboat baron Robert Fulton built one for the French … Continue reading "Submarine"
TypewriterTypewriters vastly lower the cost of producing readable text. Before the typewriter people would have to either write carefully (slowly) or hire a calligrapher. Mill patented the first typewriter in 1714. Nothing more is known about him; he has disappeared into history. Christopher Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard and typewriter ー the first commercially successful … Continue reading "Typewriter"
Sound Over RadioAfter a series of other innovations involving radio, Fessenden invented sound over radio in 1906. Before then radio typically carried Morse Code signals. He created a company, NESCO, that struggled with IP, financing, and people issues. The owners, including Fessenden, hoped to sell the company to AT&T or GE but that deal did not close. … Continue reading "Sound Over Radio"
Long Lasting Light BulbEdison’s bulb is well-known but what’s less understood is the enormous infrastructure required to power it. Edison created a power plant in New York City, power cables, transformers, power meters, insulators. When the lights finally came on, at the New York Times building, it represented the end of a herculean undertaking and the beginning of … Continue reading "Long Lasting Light Bulb"
TelephoneThe telephone vastly lowered the cost of communication by eliminating the need for Morse Code and enabling real-time voice conversations. Bell was a Scottish immigrant, a teacher for deaf children. The inventor of the telephone would go on to marry one of his students, a then 15-year-old deaf young woman. Due to his work with … Continue reading "Telephone"
Instant PhotographsLong before the digital camera Polaroid’s delivered instant photographic gratification, albeit it at a steep price. Like countless tech inventors after him, Land dropped out of Harvard. He sneaked into the labs at Columbia while developing early Polaroid light filter technology. Land’s Polaroid created polarizing light filters, especially useful as sunglasses during WWII. Eventually, he … Continue reading "Instant Photographs"
