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Progressive Era Hacker Griefed Marconi Demonstration
nbauman writes "In June 1903, Gugliemo Marconi and his partner Ambrose Flemming were about to give the first demonstration of long-range wireless communication at the Royal Institution in London, which, Marconi said, could be sent in complete confidentiality with no fear of the messages being hijacked. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a huge mysterious wireless pulse strong enough to take over the carbon-arc projector and make it sputter messages in Morse Code. First, it repeated the word 'Rats' over and over again (abusive at that time). Then it tapped out, 'There was a young fellow of Italy, who diddled the public quite prettily.' Further rude epithets followed. It was Nevil Maskelyne, a stage musician and inventor who was annoyed because Marconi's patents prevented him from using wireless. It was the first hacking, to demonstrate an insecure system."
That's not a joke, BTW. So every time you really have to defecate and some greedy business or city has installed a pay toilet, you can thank John Nevil Maskelyne--the noble inventor who pioneered the idea of charging people a penny to take a shit.
And, as an American, god bless you Committee to End Pay Toilets in America--for keeping this scourge mostly out of the land of the free crapper.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I live in SF. There are NO free toilets. The only public toilets AT ALL are the pay ones, which are very, very few.
Before they put those in, there were simply no public toilets at all...
That's probably why the homeless crap on the streets there.
I live in San Fransisco.
I said in America.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
That wasn't the guy who hacked Marconi, it was his father.
You must be thinking of police boxes.
in NYC the public toilets are called Starbucks
It flows downhill.
May the Maths Be with you!
ORLY?
Pecunia non olet (supposedly 70CE).
You can't handle the truth.
A-freakin'-MEN!
Not saying that resorting to mischief is ALWAYS the right solution. But in these days of rampant complacency, you sometimes need to resort to something spectacular to draw attention to very real problems. Otherwise, people are just too busy keeping their heads down and their asses covered to give a damn.
And before some shit-for-brains tries to draw a parallel with Anonymous or "Occupy". This was a person pointing out a flaw in a technology and doing it in such a way that it didn't break anything, do any damage (other than to someone's overblown arrogance) or violate any laws.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Try visiting China. Went through 20 different cities and rural areas.
Toilets are free, or at least everyone I saw was, but there were no toilet paper rolls, paper towels, etc. You brought your own paper napkins and toilet paper with you everywhere.
Visited a factory and the public bathroom was a nightmare. You had running water, but were expected to have your own soap and paper. The executives handed me them.
It was just normal there. We took around handiwipes with us everywhere.
The only exception were the 4-5 star hotels that catered to westerners. Only time I had a "regular" toilet that I could sit on with a toilet paper roll right next to me. Rest were the squat type.
I hear India and other places are not much different.
When you got to go, you got to go.
Expecting a homeless person to hold for an hour or so till they find somebody willing to let them use the toilet is expecting too much. Are they going to walk around with signs, "Will work for a place to shit?".
Reminds of the story with Gerard Depardieu peeing on the plane. He is an older guy, and when you got to go, you really have to go. Waiting 20-30 minutes is not optional. He whipped it out and just started peeing in the aisle. Better than peeing in his own pants sitting down for certain.
Bottom line is that if you don't give a human being an option on where to to put "it", "it" is just going to be put anywhere.
I suspect you'd have seen much of the same cult leader tactics employed by Edison and Tesla in their fights with each other, ending in the pointless and stupid destruction of one protagonist and the adoption of a highly inefficient technology for the sole purpose of denouncing a rival's. When feuds are settled amicably, you tend to get best-of-breed hybrids and an incentive to move forwards. When feuds are settled at gunpoint (real or metaphorical), politics and Not Invented Here take over, leading to regression and an irrational desire to not move forwards lest the "other side" win.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
There is no way that Marconi invented anything. He was just an early Steve Jobs, so no wonder someone rained on his parade.
There are too many references, but check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor_of_radio.
My favourite quote about this was Tesla when he said: "Marconi [... was] using seventeen of my patents"
The first transmissions were around 1872, with most of the work done by Mahlon Loomis with his 'wireless telegraph'.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
You used to.
That was because patents were supposed to be awarded for things that people couldn't figure out how to do without looking at the patent. That's why we (ostensibly) require patents to be novel, and non-obvious. It's supposed to be a trade-off: in return for showing people how to do stuff they couldn't figure out on their own, you get a limited monopoly on that concept. Over all, such a system should broaden human knowledge and capability.
Of course, nobody pays attention to obviousness or novelty any more - now we are awarding patents for things that are immediately obvious to people familiar with the art. And, surprise, surprise, we're finding that patents are impeding advancement.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Maskelyne (of the famed duo Maskelyne and Devant) was a stage magician, not musician.
From TFS:
From TFA:
Having said that, he may also have been a musician, but the magician part was how he used his interest in wireless technology:
Also, I've highlighted the most-relevant part to today's world: he was frustrated by overly-broad patents.
Plus ca change...
He whipped it out and just started peeing in the aisle.
Actually he discreetly attempted to pee into a bottle while still seated. Nobody could see his wang except his seat-neighbor who was a good friend of his (... and who incidentally lent him the bottle...). However, being an "elephant" as he is, the bottle overflowed, and the rest is history.
No standing up in the middle of the aisle, and demonstratively peeing at the stewardess' feet. That was just pure journalistic fantasy.
Bottom line is that if you don't give a human being an option on where to to put "it", "it" is just going to be put anywhere.
Indeed. I happened to be at a "Quick Hamburger Restaurant" to have a small snack after a drinking spree, and suddenly I had to go. Unfortunately all loos at that place were paying (... even for customers!). But fortunately there was a trashcan suspended at exactly the correct height...
Actually, it's more of a grinding noise.
Once again, the inability of Americans to let go of the imperial system has lead to a disaster, if only the bottle had been marked metric then Gerard Depardieu would have known how much it held!
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