Early Technology

In the gripping Never Panic Early, Fred Haise, Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 13, offers a detailed firsthand account of when disaster struck three days into his mission to the moon. An oxygen tank exploded, a crewmate uttered the now iconic words, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” and the world anxiously watched as one of history’s most incredible rescue missions unfolded. Haise brings listeners into the heart of his experience on the challenging mission—considered NASA’s finest hour—and reflects on his life and career as an Apollo astronaut.

Ever wondered what It takes to transform an early-stage technology startup or nascent organization into an effective software product enterprise? The kind that attracts significant market traction, investment, and ultimately, valuation? It’s not all about genius or luck, but rather, focused execution of good practices over time. The trick is to iterate pragmatically on a path that continuously builds value and results while avoiding costly distractions. If you’re a technology or product leader in one of these firms, or considering a move into the startup world, you’ll find this book ...

Early True Believers: The Untold Story of Silicon Alley is a 1990s saga of ambition and innovation set in Manhattan’s Silicon Alley, a swath of downtown that served as New York City’s nerve center of tech entrepreneurship. The series features the stories of a forgotten cohort of early internet visionaries, countercultural social networks, the digital gold rush, and the lavish events that came with it, including one held in an underground Tribeca bunker that abruptly ended in a police raid—a harbinger of the upheaval to come.

This is the complete history of the synthesizer—from electromagnetic experiments in the 1870s to the software and hardware you use today. You'll discover how these instruments evolved from room-sized laboratory equipment to portable analog classics to digital dominance to the software revolution to the analog revival happening right now. Every major instrument, every breakthrough, every paradigm shift that shaped how electronic music gets made. You'll understand why the Minimoog became legendary, how the Prophet-5 changed everything with patch memory, why the DX7 killed analog synthesis ...

Before tanks. Before gunpowder. Before missiles. Ancient civilizations were already building weapons so advanced, so brutal, and so ingeniously engineered that modern historians are still trying to understand how they worked. And almost none of it made it into your history class. That’s the problem this book was written to fix. Most ancient warfare content falls into two traps: dry textbook summaries that list names and dates without explaining anything… or exaggerated stories that sound impressive but lack real evidence. Neither gives you what you actually want. You want to know how a ...

What if everything you thought you knew about the ancient world was wrong? Across the globe, colossal monuments, intricate artifacts, and impossible feats of engineering stand as silent witnesses to a past we barely understand. *Few people know that some of history’s most baffling creations cannot be explained by modern science alone.* From the towering megaliths of Baalbek to the precision-carved stone spheres of Costa Rica, these wonders challenge the very timeline of human civilization. What you’re about to discover will change how you see our ancestors—and their capabilities—...

Palm: The Genius That Forgot Its Own Hands by Adam Langweiler Before the iPhone. Before Android. Before the world carried its life in its pocket—there was Palm. In the 1990s, Palm revolutionized technology with a simple dream: to make computing personal, portable, and human. From the iconic PalmPilot to the visionary Treo smartphone, the company invented the digital future before anyone else could see it coming. But brilliance, as this story reveals, isn’t always enough. Palm: The Genius That Forgot Its Own Hands traces the company’s meteoric rise, its breathtaking innovations, and ...

After the Apollo program put 12 men on the moon and safely brought them home, anything seemed possible. In this spirit, the team at NASA set about developing the space shuttle, arguably the most complex piece of machinery ever created.

The untold story of the people who make the calls. Every great game has its heroes — but not all of them wear the team colors. Umps & Refs: The History of Officiating – From Early Whistles to the Digital Age takes you behind the scenes of sports’ most misunderstood role, revealing how officiating has evolved across soccer, football, baseball, basketball, and more. You’ll discover: How referees in the early 1900s worked without standardized uniforms or training. The birth of iconic tools — from the pea whistle to penalty flags and scorecards. Legendary officials who became as ...

From the author of The Five Year Lie comes a new twisty thriller that probes how well we actually know the men in our lives. Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But...

Why does the city of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy feature one of the best public systems of early education in the world? This book documents the comprehensive and innovative approach that utilizes the "hundred languages of children" to support their well-being and foster their intellectual...

Today's most urgent problems are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planetwide action if we are to secure a long-term future. But humanity's story has always been on a global scale. Sachs takes listeners through a series of seven distinct waves of technological and institutional change, starting with the original settling of the planet by early modern humans through long-distance migration and ending with reflections on today's globalization. 

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the financial, legal, and technological complexities of dementia caregiving? You're not alone. Millions of families struggle to balance the emotional and practical demands of caring for a loved one with dementia. "Compassionate Care: A Practical Handbook for Dementia Caregiving" is your essential guide to navigating this challenging journey with confidence and peace of mind. This comprehensive resource provides expert advice, practical strategies, and compassionate support to help you: Secure your loved one's financial future: Discover key resources, ...

B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree Like landing at D-Day, this author recreates a murder at the tragic 1911 fire at the Triangle shirtwaist Factory (a turning point in NYC history) with such detail and terror that you feel like you’re watching it. Ken Kuhlken, author of the Tom Hickey’s California crime series Using her passions for history and science as well as her abundant writer's gifts, Lynne Kennedy has created the best kind of historical mystery. She transports us to another time and place yet offers truths that apply to the present. When a young reporter is pushed from a ninth story ...

The Echo of the Past: Information Networks from Stone to Silicon and Beyond AI How Information Networks Shaped Humanity — From Ancient Civilizations to the Age of AI Explore the fascinating journey of humanity through the lens of information networks. The Echo of the Past takes you on a deep dive into how communication and information-sharing have shaped our species — from the earliest cave paintings to the age of artificial intelligence. This book is a must-read for history enthusiasts, tech lovers, and anyone curious about how information has defined and transformed our world. ...

A toy whistle from a cereal box once handed a teenager control of the American phone network. The people who figured out tricks like that weren't criminals in any sense the law had words for yet. They were curious, restless, and a decade ahead of everyone trying to stop them. Digital Outlaws: The Rise of Early Hackers traces the first generation of people who treated technology as a puzzle to be cracked — and who, almost by accident, built the foundations of modern cybersecurity in the process. Before there were firewalls, antivirus software, or computer crime statutes, there were phone ...

Are you worried your child spends too much time on screens — but do not know what to do about it? You have read the headlines about "digital dementia" and "smartphone addiction." You have tried taking devices away, only to face meltdowns and resentment. You have felt guilty about the tablet time your toddler accumulated while you just needed five minutes to breathe. This book is not another panic-driven lecture. It is a clear-eyed, research-grounded framework for raising balanced kids in a digital world — written by a parent who has made every mistake he describes. What You Will Learn ...

Before hackers became household names, before cyberwar reshaped nations, there was a sound — 2600 hertz — that changed everything. In the 1970s, a handful of restless dreamers discovered that a toy whistle from a box of Cap’n Crunch cereal could trick the world’s most powerful phone network. Among them was John Draper, a radar technician turned underground legend, whose homemade “blue boxes” opened the hidden arteries of global communication. They weren’t thieves; they were explorers — probing the seams of a system that was never meant to be seen. Their curiosity would ...

How big is the universe? In the early twentieth century, scientists took sides. One held that the entire universe was contained in the Milky Way galaxy. Their champion was the strong-willed astronomer Harlow Shapley. Another camp believed that the universe was so vast that the Milky Way was just one galaxy among billions—the view that would prevail, proven by the equally headstrong Edwin Hubble.

Bloomsbury presents Electronic Dreams by Tom Lean, read by Mark Meadows Remember the ZX Spectrum? How about the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, or Commodore 64? Did you marvel at the immense galaxies of Elite or master digital kung-fu in Way of the Exploding Fist? For anyone growing up in the 1980s...