December 11, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: Y2K RevisitedThe original Y2K was resolved thanks to an estimated $100 billion worth of diligent effort by dedicated computer engineers dutifully rewriting affected code behind the scenes. A similar issue will arise in 2038—the Y2K38 problem, as it were—and will yield to the same solution.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
November 06, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: The Context of KeywordsIn November 1958, Hans Peter Luhn created a machine with the seemingly magical ability to process human language, efficiently sifting and sorting words—also known as keywords, which would be come a cornerstone of e-discovery and other legal process.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
October 02, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: The First Video CallNearly a century before video-calling technologies became ubiquitous, then–Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover made the very first video call on April 8, 1927.
By David Kalat, BRG
5 minute read
August 03, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: The Tale of the TapeWhile the modern computer user might be tempted to giggle at the seemingly anachronistic sight of tape reels used for computer data, the technology never went away.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
July 05, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: How to Stuff Cellular Phone Calls in Digital Bubble WrapAs the use of cellular technology started to spread, CDMA technology enabled genuinely simultaneous users to broadcast on the same frequency at the same time, without risk of interference—like digital bubble wrap.
By David Kalat, BRG
5 minute read
June 05, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: When Mobile Telephones Had Steering WheelsThe era of mobile telephony started much longer ago than one might imagine. On June 17, 1946, a man driving through the streets of St. Louis made a telephone call from his car—and thereby made history.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
May 03, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: How Computers Saved Wall StreetA Paperwork Crisis forced Wall Street to change the way it did business, ushering in automation and hastening the business world's transition to the Computer Age.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
April 03, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: The April Fools' Prank That Changed the WorldGoogle's reputation for April Fools' Day jokes inclined many to assume the 2004 announcement of Gmail was yet another gag. In later interviews, Sergey Brin said the best form of an April Fools' prank would be to debut something that sounded so crazy it had to be a joke, and then let it sink in that the service was real and here to stay.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
March 02, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: The Laws of ThoughtHow nineteenth-century Boolean math was encoded as machine logic and became a building block of digital electronics, ushering in the Information Age.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
February 02, 2023 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: Formulae for SuccessThe unexpected story of a mathematician and computer scientist who had to convert a treatise on computer programming from traditional typeset to digital text, revolutionizng software in the process.
By David Kalat, BRG
5 minute read