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."

Re:Maskelyne, also great inventor of the pay toile

[Fned]

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...

Re:Maskelyne, also great inventor of the pay toile

[EdIII]

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.

Re:Never hear...

[LordLucless]

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.

Re:Maskelyne, also great inventor of the pay toile

[ArsenneLupin]

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.

... and he even offered to clean up the mess after the bottle (a "mini Evian" bottle) overflowed.

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...

Re:Apple bashed Marconi was a thief

[SuricouRaven]

If you want a good historical Jobs, try Edison. He was a decent-but-not-great inventor, like Jobs. He was also a business genius, like Jobs. And, like Jobs, he realised the power of personality in marketing - building his empire largely by taking the ideas of his anonymous underlings and branding them as his own, creating the image of himself as an uber-inventor of superhuman intellect in order to better sell the inventions.