What is Digg?88 Comments
- Spamcan, on 02/15/2009, -0/+132I wish such a technology was actually possible, I'm getting sick of texting people constantly.
- AaronCo, on 02/15/2009, -2/+93Voice over metallic wires? What kind of sorcery is this?!?!?
WITCH! Burn the WITCH! - ThinkBox, on 02/15/2009, -3/+51Beware of the poor jokes that will follow this comment
- dalexandruz, on 02/15/2009, -6/+49Thomas Edison, the bill gates of his time, saw the tech that he liked and got rid of competition.
- TheMachine1, on 02/15/2009, -2/+40Edison and Ford were my hero's when I was young. But it turns out Edison was a slimeball and Ford was a nazi sympathizer. I guess the lesson is we are all highly flawed.
- clichecow, on 02/15/2009, -1/+30Does anyone know the full story behind this? Just because the telephone was invented later doesn't mean that Joshua Coppersmith wasn't scamming people, but I can't find much on Google about him
- directedition, on 02/15/2009, -2/+27I hear you can do it over short distances using string and tin cans, but that might be just another superstition.
- CharlesMay, on 02/15/2009, -1/+20More like the power of the press
- govsucks, on 02/15/2009, -0/+17WARNING:
Society is a dangerous, ignorant and very arrogant mob as a whole. Use caution when approaching the collective. - voteobama4, on 02/15/2009, -3/+20People who yammer on and on about media bias don't understand this is actually what newspapers were like back then.
- inactive, on 02/15/2009, -0/+17This is no fake. This kind of ***** happened all the time back then. Edison spent millions of today's dollars trying to smear George Westinghouse in the press, trying to prove this his direct current was better than Westinghouse's alternating current. And Edison ended up losing that one. There's also the famous quote from the IBM guy back in the '30s saying that there was absolutely no reason that anyone would personally want to own a computer and that there was a world market for 'maybe 10 computers'. There's all kinds of instances like that where even the people who created these brilliant inventions didn't realize their potential. And if anyone came up with an invention that would diminish the importance of a powerful man's invention, these 1800s rags would go after them all the time. They had no shame back then.
- jester55, on 02/15/2009, -0/+15Kids these days with their crazy gadgets and gizmos.
- JCPahl, on 02/15/2009, -0/+15You know nothing; the Internet is a series of tubes.
- chieflbm, on 02/15/2009, -6/+20People fear change. Early astronomers were shunned for suggesting the earth was not flat. People will always find reason to burn the witches.
- Secret7000, on 02/15/2009, -0/+14Or just cr0wn her.
- meatmcguffin, on 02/15/2009, -2/+15Um.. hate to point this out but at no point in history did the majority believe that the Earth was flat. Even thousands of years ago, people knew what the horizon meant and that the curvature of the Earth was the cause. The whole 'flat earth belief' thing was a myth generated in a book written about a hundred years ago (title escapes me) but it took hold in the public consciousness.
Now if you said that they were shunned for believing that the Earth went around the Sun, then that's a very different, religion-based matter. - PeppermintPig, on 02/14/2009, -8/+20That's government collusion for you!
- badenglishihave, on 02/15/2009, -1/+13No, that's the internet backbone in the USA.
- turtwig, on 02/15/2009, -0/+10How about Alexander Graham Bell (not Edison), you dolts? However, in your defense, Edison was pretty well known for being one of the most repugnant pricks scientific history has to offer. Especially to the likes of Nikola Tesla.
- inactive, on 02/15/2009, -8/+18Boston newspaper - 1865's Fox News
- Metasquares, on 02/15/2009, -0/+9You can still admire Tesla.
- iBleeedOrange, on 02/15/2009, -1/+9I thought this was the Onion at first... :(
- MysticKatDaddy, on 02/15/2009, -0/+8That's why you never look too closely at heroes. No matter who it is you will always find something rotten. Heroes are remembered for what they did not who they are.
- PxCxG, on 02/15/2009, -2/+9good thing we have people like you around who were alive back then to tell us what it was like...
- DivisibleByZero, on 02/15/2009, -1/+8He was trying to get investors, not sell actual telephones. I'd like to see you invent something with no capital.
- MindStalker, on 02/15/2009, -0/+7I did a bit of research, it was real but the guy was trying to sell stock in his idea of the telephone. He most likely hadn't actually invented it yet just was trying to collect money based on the idea.
- vanza001, on 02/15/2009, -1/+8uhh... its how newspapers are now...
- inactive, on 02/15/2009, -1/+7Oh I'm sorry Fox News doesn't make anything up. Of course! How could I be so naive. They say they are fair an balanced, so it MUST be true!
/s - zeebo, on 02/15/2009, -0/+6The myth that educated people in Columbus's day thought the earth was flat is indeed a myth from relatively recently. However, the idea of a flat earth was indeed widespread for thousands of years, even if there were educated people who knew better. Certainly some of the authors of certain religious materials such as that contained in the Bible and the Quran thought the earth was flat.
- jakash, on 02/15/2009, -0/+6The same thing happened to me in the school bulletins when I tried to sell my magic algebra pills...
- ColdDimSum, on 02/15/2009, -4/+9You have got to be kidding right? I hope I missed the /s in your post:
Microsoft sues over Google hire: http://news.cnet.com/Microsoft-sues-over-Google-hi ...
Microsoft Sues Mouse Maker: http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/17443/m ...
Microsoft Sues Immersion over Sony Deal: http://www.i4u.com/article9652.html
Microsoft is not named in any of the WebXchange lawsuits. In its suit, Microsoft asks the court to declare WebXchange’s patents invalid because they are overly broad: http://www.coderetard.com/2008/11/30/microsoft-sue ... [oh sure, M$ patents are sacrosanct but any patents M$ violates are bad and so they have to invalidate them]
Microsoft sues Google for tempting search expert: http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39 ...
Microsoft says open source violates 235 patents: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-152099.html
The list goes on and on, not to mention competitors that M$ has forced out of business with (at the least) highly questionable business practices (some resulting in DOJ and EU investigations). - InSearchOfTruth, on 02/15/2009, -0/+5Hopefully this schemer was burned at the stake in a public assembly. This charleton must be made an example of.
- jackal42, on 02/15/2009, -1/+5"So... if she weighs as much as a duck... then she's made of wood."
"And therefore....?"
"A WITTCCHH!!!" - Jordan117, on 02/15/2009, -0/+4Oh man, Futility Closet is a great site. Greg finds weird historical oddities like this on a daily basis.
- oriondr, on 02/15/2009, -0/+3What you say is true, but flat earth is also a religious issue for some religions
http://people.howstuffworks.com/creationism1.htm - zeebo, on 02/15/2009, -0/+3This actually isn't that uncommon. A charlatan will make a claim to having a device that many suspect is on the horizon, people will believe them because they think that the technology is right around the corner. When the time comes to actually demonstrate it though, it will either not work as advertised, or won't work at all.
There are all sorts of claims for devices along these lines even today. - inactive, on 02/15/2009, -1/+4There's still another guy, although I can't remember his name, whom some historians agree came up with the idea just before Bell did, but he wasn't able to get the whole patent thing sorted out before Bell swooped in and claimed it for himself. Interesting stuff....
- groo68, on 02/15/2009, -1/+4No, just people like Ford and Edison. People like Tesla, and Divinchi are less flawed because they show their own work and show the highest quality, not the cheapest to produce.
- drexy, on 02/15/2009, -0/+3Quite right. You are find evidence in Homer that they knew the earth was round and not flat
- inactive, on 02/15/2009, -0/+3"Boston newspaper, 1865, quoted by Edison's assistant Francis Jehl in Menlo Park Reminiscences, 1937"
In other words, this isn't actually from 1865, it's from a guy in 1937 quoting a newspaper from 1865. Nearly 70 years after the fact. - jknevitt, on 02/15/2009, -1/+4***** Edison.
- fafaforza, on 02/15/2009, -0/+3There were also many scam artists selling all kinds of tonics and eliksirs. You can't completely blame an author of an editorial (which this could possibly be, notice lack of detail and personal opinion) for being cynical or incredulous.
- govsucks, on 02/15/2009, -0/+3I like the part where the press arrested him.
- hfactor, on 02/15/2009, -0/+2You probably mean Johann Phillip Reis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Philipp_Reis - hfactor, on 02/15/2009, -0/+2That famous quote is probably a misquote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson
Still entirely believable. Nobody can see the future. - randumbusername, on 02/15/2009, -0/+2the best and brightest in government back then
the best and brightest in government today.
they know what's best. - jcaino, on 02/15/2009, -0/+2Now, what do burn besides witches?
- Metasquares, on 02/15/2009, -0/+2As opposed to now, when everyone is perfectly tolerant of new ideas.
-
Show 51 - 93 of 93 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is