The Great Geek Manual

1831
Charles Darwin visits Maer Hall, home of his uncle Josiah Wedgwood II, whom he told of his father’s opposition to his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. Charles is enthusiastic about the opportunity, but his father considers it to be a waste of time, delaying his career as a member of the clergy. His father said, however, that he would might swayed if Charles found a man of high esteem who would regarded the trip as worthwhile. That man turns out to be Charles’ uncle Josiah, who writes a letter to Robert Darwin, answering all of his objections favorably, and ultimately changing his mind.

1842
The US Naval Observatory, one of the oldest scientific agencies in the US, is authorized by an act of Congress. Its primary task is to act as a depot for the Navy’s charts, navigational instruments, and chronometers, which are calibrated by timing the transit of stars across the meridian. Visit the agency’s official website.

1880
Thomas Edison is granted a patent for an “Electro-Chemical Receiving-Telephone.” (US No. 231,704)

1895
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents the rigid airship, known as the Zeppelin.
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A man said to the universe,
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”

- “A Man Said to the Universe” by Stephen Crane.
From War is Kind, 1899.

1831
Charles Darwin replies to the letter from Reverend Henslow, telling him of the offer to sail on the HMS Beagle. Darwin had learned natural history from Henslow, who had recommended him for the unpaid position as a naturalist. Darwin told Henslow that his father would not permit him to leave on such a the voyage. Meanwhile, his father had written to his brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood II, about his concerns regarding the proposed two-year voyage.

Michael Faraday demonstrates the first electrical transformer.

1963
A new telephone hotline connecting the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the Kremlin in Moscow is first activated and tested. It will provide a direct two-way communications channel between the American and Soviet governments in the event of an international crisis. The hotline is installed in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, one year earlier. During the incident, messages sent between US President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev required five or six hours each way for transcription, transmission, translation, and delivery. This new hotline could cut down the delays in sending messages from hours to minutes, but it will only be used for emergencies. It is modeled after an emergency command system used to connect seventy US Air Force bases around the world. It consists of one full-time duplex wire telegraph circuit, routed through Washington, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Moscow, for the transmission of messages and one full-time duplex radiotelegraph circuit routed through Washington, Tangier, and Moscow used for service communications and for coordination of operations between the two terminal points. Teletype machines are used at each end of the ten thousand mile circuit, not telephones. A tape encryption system is used to keep messages secure. The hotline will be active twenty-four hours a day.
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There was one field in which man was unsurpassed;
he showed unlimited ingenuity in devising bigger and more efficient ways
to kill off, enslave, harass, and in all ways make an unbearable nuisance of himself to himself.
Man was his own grimmest joke on himself.

- “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert A. Heinlein, 1961.

75 Powerful Adobe Fireworks Extensions will have you waving good-bye to Photoshop.

GameRadar has an enormous directory of photo galleries of nothing but Sexxy Con Girls.

It’s official. Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1.

Kevin Pang has an excellent article on the Top 10 Things That Annoy Programmers.

Mathway is a brilliant website that walks you through math problems step-by-step.

PC World looks at Twenty Tech Habits to Improve Your Life.

Scientific American’s article “How I Stole Someone’s Identity“ had me resetting my passwords. You might want to read it through if you blog.

These Twenty Websites To Help You Learn and Master CSS turn out to be very useful.

What the front page of Reddit would look like during a Zombie Uprising.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. All progress depends on the unreasonable man.

- George Bernard Shaw

1831
Charles Darwin returns home from a geology field trip in North Wales to find letters from Reverend John Henslow and George Peacock informing him that he will soon be invited on a scientific voyage of HMS Beagle. He is just twenty-two years old and has just graduated from Cambridge University. The offer is to be a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle for a two year survey of South America, leaving on September 25th. Although he immediately accepts the offer, his father and sisters are opposed to the trip. They regard the trip as an idle pursuit that will delay his expected career in the clergy. His father is prepared to change his mind, but only if Darwin can find a qualified man who views the exploit as worthwhile. Darwin will spend the next two days doing just that.

English chemist Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction, the production of an electric current by a change in magnetic intensity, which is the fundamental principle behind the electric generator.

1842
The design patent, a new form of patent, is authorized by an act of Congress. The first US design patent will be issued for typefaces and borders to George Bruce of New York City on November 9, 1842.

1893
A patent is issues to Whitcomb L. Judson for a “Zipper Clasp Locker or Unlocker for Shoes.” (US No. 504,038)
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That’s right! You can now make instant coffee with your two-kilowatt laser, and if you don’t have a two-kilowatt laser, this is the perfect excuse to buy one! Of course, if I were going to abuse my access to a multi-million dollar laser, I think I could do better than instant, but hey…