historical

If you're a fan of America's long and storied history of great engineering, the National Park Service has got something for you.

On Monday, the park service's Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) Autodesk and kubit will announce the technological process of documenting these structures, a process that resulted in a broad collection of 3D imagery of projects like the Space Shuttle Discovery, as well as NASA launching pads, famous bridges, and more. The imagery was used to generate what are known as "point clouds" of data that, together, show a 3D version of the object. … Read more

IBM and the European Union are teaming up to offer a better way to scan the massive collection of Europe's treasured historical documents.

Expanding on an existing collaboration project, Big Blue and the EU will now be working with more than two dozen libraries, research institutes, universities, and companies across Europe to help them digitize their rare books and documents.

The project known as Impact (Improving Access to Text), is using new tools and tapping into crowd sourcing to speed up the mass digitization process and ensure that the scanned documents are as accurate as possible. Impact will also … Read more

WEST ORANGE, N.J.--I have come to the mountaintop of invention.

Today, this is the Thomas Edison National Historic Park, but for decades, it was the laboratory complex where the great innovator and the many people he employed did their work. For a geek, it doesn't get much better than this.

As part of Road Trip 2010, I'm paying a visit to a complex that, when it was fully operational, comprised dozens of buildings and employed hundreds of people. And I have to say that, while I'm no Edison scholar, this was definitely one of the … Read more

Within the last week, Dutch manufacturer Spyker Cars completed its acquisition of the Swedish Saab brand from General Motors--a deal that's been in the works for quite a while now. And so it seems that Saab has a new lease on life in the automotive world, but exactly what that future is or how it will pan out is a topic of mere speculation. It has been said that often times one must know about the past to understand the future, and with this credo I present today's video--a tribute to the rich history of Saab brand automobiles.… Read more

Ashkon Technology's Historical Quotes Downloader is a free download that costs just shy of $50. Before you look up who said "A fool and his money are soon parted," be advised it's not that kind of historical quote. This software instantly downloads intraday and daily historical quotes for stocks, mutual funds, and indices traded in the United States or Canada, including NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX. With a customizable ASCII output, it's compatible with leading financial tools like MetaStock and Omega TradeStation. The program downloads quotes from free Internet sources, so there are no subscription fees … Read more

IN-HEH Timeline offers to help organize a family tree by creating a time line of people and events. While its aim is not uncommon, its confusing setup and total lack of direction stall this program before it ever begins.

The program's interface was our first clue that things would be difficult. Dissected into separate stark white boxes with many commands that don't make sense, it mandated a retreat to the Help file. Unfortunately, there was no Help file, just technical product information. We soldiered on, experimenting with the program in hopes of creating a timeline. The program allowed … Read more

John Quincy Adams might not be re-tweeting Ashton Kutcher and Shaq anytime soon, but he does have a Twitter account now. The Massachusetts Historical Society has launched a Twitter account, @JQAdams_MHS, and will officially start tweeting Adams' personal diary entries on Wednesday.

Adams died in 1848, right around the time that people first started flooding the San Francisco Bay Area in search of quick money. Except then it was in the form of gold, not venture dollars from Sand Hill Road.

As an Associated Press article explained, "a high school student touring the sixth U.S. president's archives … Read more

PROMONTORY SUMMIT, Utah--On May 10, 1869, the extraordinary happened here.

After crews from the Central Pacific Railroad had started in Sacramento, Calif., and laid 690 miles of track to the east, and teams from the Union Pacific Railroad had put down 1,086 miles of track to the west of Omaha, Neb., they met on that spring day at this spot just north of the Great Salt Lake.

They completed the Transcontinental Railroad.

For the first time, trains could traverse most of the United States. The huge event was celebrated on that day when the Central Pacific's Jupiter and … Read more

UPDATE: An earlier version of this blog incorrectly described the technology used in an advertisement for the A&E's TV show Paranormal State. The technology, developed by the Holosonic Research Lab, uses a beam of ultrasound as a "virtual source", which changes into audible sound as it travels through the air. Please read the technology's inventor, F_J_Pompei's comment or visit the Holosonic Research Labs site to learn more.

The folks who heard the ad for A&E's TV show Paranormal State emitted from a billboard in New York City's Greenwich Village … Read more