Old Is The New New

Write up and reflection on THATCamp 2008, an excellent “unconference” on digital technology and the humanities.

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I’m psyched for this weekend’s digital humanities conference but feel a bit the phony.

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Just a cool little story about electrification from the early days of the USSR.

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Synopsis of my new course on science, technology, and global history.

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More robots, more infomancy, more “wonderful and pathetic factoids”: the internet is our flying car.

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Paul Collins on the Mundaneum, a networked encyclopedia on fifteen million index cards (shades of the Memex?). Plus index cards as (literally) the U.S. War Department’s killer app.

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Feast your ears on the oldest known sound recording–from 17 years before Edison’s phonograph. (Via Corn Chips & Pie.)

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I think we all knew the truth as early as Usenet: social networking is a pain.

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That’s an actual NYT headline: Monkey’s Thoughts Propel Robot. Troubadour Jonathan Coulton is the sole voice of reason: “Is this really a good idea?”

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Cabinet of Wonders recalls the semaphore towers of 18th-century France’s optical telegraph network.

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