October 02, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: Who Ya Gonna Call—and Who's Calling You?Creating what would become CallerID meant overcoming three challenges: the basic technical challenge of establishing a process to signal the origin of a call; the logistical challenge in deploying that technical solution across networks; and persuading a skeptical public that this technology was not a grievous privacy violation.
By David Kalat, BRG
5 minute read
September 10, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: Honeypots in SpaceHoneypots are designed to trick hackers into exposing themselves. The first known use of such a trap occurred in the mid-1980s, when a $0.75 discrepency exposed an international cadre of spies attempting to steal military secrets about the fabled "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative.
By David Kalat, BRG
5 minute read
August 19, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good PrivacyThe first attempt at offering commercially available email encryption software found its distributor charged with trafficking in illegal arms.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
July 08, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: Dick Pick, GIRLS, and the History of RealityAny discussion of arguably the most impressive database system of the 20th Century inevitably involves giggle-inducing names and veers towards Not Safe for Work connotations. Richard "Dick" Pick, creator of GIRLS and the father of Reality, would not have had it any other way.
By David Kalat, BRG
5 minute read
June 03, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: The ELIZA EffectThe first chatbot, ELIZA, was created by Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT in the 1960s as a Rogerian-style "psychotherapist" using natural language communication.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
May 07, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: Cybersecurity 1800s StyleHacking may seem like a current phenomenon, but in the 1830s, a pair of brothers managed to carry on a scheme of hijacking the French national telecommunications network for two years before being caught.
By David Kalat, BRG
5 minute read
April 04, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: A Night to RememberThe seeds of what would become the FCC had been planted in the waning hours of April 14, 1912, when the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg. Senators were disquieted to learn just how closely modern telecommunications technology had come to averting the disaster—if only it had actually been used properly.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
March 05, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: The Osborne EffectRelated to a pioneering line of portable computers in the early 1980s, the phrase "Osborne Effect" took root to describe the phenomenon of current technology being prematurely abandoned in anticipation of a future upgrade.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
February 07, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: 32-Bit Computers Dancing Backwards in High HeelsFantastic technological leaps forward may be possible, but they leave behind a frustrated base of users invested in abandoned tech. One such example in the 1970s was the rise of 32-bit memory structures, which threatened to render the existing suites of 16-bit-based software code obsolete.
By David Kalat, BRG
6 minute read
January 03, 2024 | Legaltech News
Nervous System: Paying With Your FingerIn the early 2000s, the now-defunct Pay-By-Touch was the first service to offer payment via a fingerprint registered with a biometric recognition system. Privacy concerns related to the massive database of fingerprints the company left behind would eventually inspire legislation like BIPA.
By David Kalat, BRG
5 minute read