The Host Unknown Podcast

Episode 222: The Curious Case of the Oxford Comma Episode

Episode Summary

This Episode discusses the use of the Oxford comma, video call technology advancements, and the implications of AI refusing shutdown commands. They also share personal anecdotes, highlight the challenges of remote working tools, and examine a SentinelOne outage. We also get commentary on an internet-connected toothbrush

Episode Notes

  1. 26th May 1995: Realizing his company had missed the boat in estimating the impact and popularity of the Internet, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates issues a memo titled, “The Internet Tidal Wave,” which signaled the company’s focus on the global network. In the memo, Gates declared that the Internet was the “most important single development” since the IBM personal computer — a development that he was assigning “the highest level of importance.” Still, it is curious why it took someone who was regarded as a technology “innovator” so long to realize this.

https://thisdayintechhistory.com/05/26/bill-gates-internet-tidal-wave/

  1. 30th May 1996: AT&T Announces Video Phone Call System.  AT&T held a meeting to announce a system that would allow personal computers to make and receive video phone calls over standard telephone lines. In years of efforts by AT&T and others to find success in the technology, the AT&T system made use of Intel's Pentium processors and compression software to allow both video and audio information to share a phone line rather than a high-capacity ISDN, T-1, or T-3 line.

https://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/may/30/#att-announces-video-phone-call-system

Security outfit SentinelOne's services back online after lengthy outage

OpenAI model modifies shutdown script in apparent sabotage effort

https://bsky.app/profile/robmesure.bsky.social/post/3lqcn6kq5oc26