Agent Palmer

Of all things Geek. I am…

Don’t Copy Xerox’s Errors as Told in Fumbling the Future

Fumbling the Future Xerox

Fumbling the Future, is a book published in 1988 about “How Xerox invented, then ignored, the first personal computer.” It all starts with three questions: Name the companies responsible for the longest playing series of personal computer commercials? The most creative single commercial? The first personal computer commercial?

The answers, as you find out through the first page and the subtitle, are IBM’s Charlie Chaplin ads, Apple Computers’ 1984 Super Bowl commercial, and Xerox.

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Somehow, A Pepsi Court Case Provides Refreshing Documentary Fodder

“Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?” isn’t just a small documentary series on Netflix about one ad campaign. This is a nostalgia fest of 90s culture, a deeper look into the Cola Wars, and a showcase of documentary-making about a court case.

In 1995, Pepsi launched their “Pepsi Stuff” campaign. At the end of the launch commercial, it displayed on screen that for 7 million Pepsi points, you could get a Harrier Jet. John Leonard took that seriously, and what happens from there is documented in this series.

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Upload on Amazon Prime is Good but its binge formula detracts it from being Great

Amazon Prime Upload

Upload is a good show on Amazon Prime that could be great if it didn’t follow the binging streaming formula. (The following may contain spoilers.)

The writing and biting social commentary on future capitalism, technology, and relationships that still manages to hit close to home. But, and this is, for me, what keeps this show from being a great show, is the “whodunnit” nature of the plot throughline.

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Why Audio CD Length is Not Exactly Exact

Compact Discs (CDs)

There is a moment that changed the path of CD technology into the format we once loved. It occurred 18 years after the technology for compact disks was created and it was as much about politics as it was about standards. It also turned out to be more of a guideline than a rule.

Invented in the 1960s by James Russell the technology for the CD wasn’t new when it took the music landscape by storm in the ’90s.

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