28 02, 2023

Clippy, The AI Paper Clip Chatbot That Really Wanted To Help You Write Letters (Cool Weird Awesome 959)

By |2023-02-28T08:51:26-05:00February 28, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

AI chatbots are big again, so let's hang out with the OG AI chatbot: Microsoft Word letter writing helper extraordinare, Clippy the paper clip.

10 12, 2020

Ada Lovelace Was The First Computer Programmer, And Almost The First Computer Musician (Cool Weird Awesome 438)

By |2020-12-10T09:51:53-05:00December 10, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Today's the birthday of Ada Lovelace, known as the first computer programmer. She also dreamed up the idea of generating music through a computer program, so if you've ever made music with a synthesizer, you're following in her footsteps. Plus: today's the anniversary of the day Wyoming passed its first-of-a-kind law guaranteeing women could vote and hold office.

9 09, 2020

The Very First Computer Bug Was An Actual Bug (Cool Weird Awesome 377)

By |2020-09-09T07:33:13-04:00September 9, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

On this day in 1947, a team working on a computer at Harvard University discovered the first computer bug: a moth that had gotten trapped in the electronics. Plus: today in 2005, a guy writes to Major League Baseball to get that expressed written consent they always talk about to rebroadcast or retransmit a game.

8 07, 2020

In The 1980s, You Downloaded Video Games Off The Radio (Cool Weird Awesome 337)

By |2021-06-11T08:35:05-04:00July 8, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Today we download video games online all the time. Back in the 1980s, gamers without the Internet (such as it was) had to buy or borrow their games. But a few could download programs off the radio. Plus: there's a comet headed Earth's way, and it might make for some great viewing this month, or 6,000 years from now. Either one.

26 02, 2020

This Program Can Make You Invisible On A Webcam (Cool Weird Awesome 246)

By |2020-02-26T06:43:03-05:00February 26, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Disappearing People is a computer program that can make us invisible on our computer’s cameras! Plus: the story of something that cannot be unseen, the world record longest salami.

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