Kermit was a data transfer protocol that was the de facto standard the the 1980s. It could transfer data between different systems and worked with 7-bit or 8-bit data and could run at half or full duplex.
Along with Jim Henson, some other notable alumni from UMD include:
- Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google
- Carl Bernstein, investigative journalist
- Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld
- Connie Chung, TV journalist
- Boomer Esiason, former NFL quarterback
- Kevin Plank, founder of Under Armour
- Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader
- Robin Quivers, co-host of The Howard Stern Show
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Kermit was a data transfer protocol that was the de facto standard the the 1980s. It could transfer data between different systems and worked with 7-bit or 8-bit data and could run at half or full duplex.
A “duplex” is a type of residential building. The exact definition of a duplex home varies by country and region, but the term is most typically used to describe a home which consists of two living units which are attached to one another, either side-by-side (sharing a common wall), or one above the other (sharing a floor/ceiling).
A “duplex receptacle” is a standard home outlet (or ‘plug’) in US households. It can accept two devices such as lamps and usually has a rating of 15 amps. An outlet with only one set of slots is usually called a “simplex outlet”.
Printing/Copying on one side of the paper? That’s simplex printing. Printing/Copying on both sides of the paper is called duplex printing.
I used Kermit extensively in the mid to late eighties. I hadn’t thought about it for decades!
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The technology that underlies the modern photocopier was first used in an apartment in Queens, New York. Inventor Chester Carlson used static electricity created with a handkerchief, light and dry powder to make the first copy on Oct. 22, 1938. The first commercial model wasn’t introduced until 1959, by Xerox. That machine weighed close to 650 pounds, was the size of about two washing machines, and was prone to spontaneous combustion.
RanXerox is an Italian science fiction graphic novel series by Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberatore Conceived as a bizarre antihero, RanXerox was a mechanical creature made from Xerox photocopier parts. First published in 1978 (in the Italian magazine Cannibale), it was sebsquently published in the English versions of Heavy Metal, and described as “a punk, futuristic Frankenstein monster.”
Xerox is known to be fiercely protective of its copyright, and its lawyers routinely write to news outlets or public figures who use the corporate name as a synonym for “copy” or “photocopy.”
The Palo Alto Research Facility (PARC) was founded as a division of Xerox in 1970, with the goal of developing new computer systems and technologies.
A number of important advances in computer technology were developed or refined at PARC, including the graphical user interface, the computer mouse, laser printers, Ethernet, and object-oriented programming; however, Xerox proved to not be good at commercializing (or recognizing the potential of) many of the technologies developed at PARC.
While Steve Jobs’ house is in Palo Alto, at 2101 Waverley Street, Palo Alto, the original garage where he formed the Apple Computer Company on April Fools’ Day, 1976 together with Steve Wozniak, and Ronald G. Wayne, is about 10 miles away at 2066 Crist Drive, Los Altos.
Jobs bought the 2101 Waverley Street, Palo Alto house in the mid-1990s. That is where he passed away on 05 October 2011.
April Fools’ Day, also called All Fools’ Day, in most countries the first day of April. It received its name from the custom of playing practical jokes on this day—for example, telling friends that their shoelaces are untied or sending them on so-called fools’ errands. Although the day has been observed for centuries, its true origins are unknown and effectively unknowable.
Some have proposed that the modern custom originated in France, officially with the Edict of Roussillon (promulgated in August 1564), in which Charles IX decreed that the new year would no longer begin on Easter, as had been common throughout Christendom, but rather on January 1. Because Easter was a lunar and therefore moveable date, those who clung to the old ways were the “April Fools.”
“Everybody Plays the Fool” is an R&B song, first recorded by The Main Ingredient in 1972; their version of the song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B song (though it lost to the Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”).
The song became a hit again nearly 30 years later, when covered by vocalist Aaron Neville in 1991. Neville’s version reached #8 on the Billboard chart.
Grammy Awards were originally called the Gramophone Awards, as the trophy depicts a gilded gramophone.
Nipper the Dog was a pet who served as the model for an 1898 painting by Francis Barraud titled His Master’s Voice.
The original painting depicted the attentive dog with an Edison cylinder phonograph. Barraud presented it to the Edison-Bell Company, thinking they could use it for marketing purposes. The company refused, telling him “Dogs don’t listen to phonographs.” In 1899, Gramophone Company founder and manager William Barry Owen was shown the painting. He suggested replacing the cylinder with a Berliner disc gramophone, and the image soon became the successful trademark of the Victor and Gramophone Company Ltd. record labels, and eventually the Radio Corporation of America, or RCA.
Thomas Edison had six children, three with each of his two wives. His first child, born in 1873, was Marion Estelle Edison; his second child, born in 1876, was Thomas Alva Edison, Junior. Marion’s nickname was ‘Dot’, and Junior’s nickname was ‘Dash’.
S.O.S. isn’t an acronym of anything. It just happens to the letters that are associated with 3 dots followed by 3 dashes followed by 3 dots, which is a code that is easy to remember and recognize.
SOS replaced CQD: CQ for attention all stations and D for distress.
“All-dressed” is a Canadian term for “fully-loaded”.
A fully loaded baked potato can come with toppings including butter, sour cream, chives, shredded cheese, and bacon bits, and more.
Potatoes were introduced to Europe from the Americas by the Spanish in the second half of the 16th century. As of 2014, potatoes were the world’s fourth-largest food crop after corn, wheat, and rice.