article thumbnail

When They Electrified Christmas

Cars That Think

Whether for religious or secular celebrations, the variety and functionality of lights have exploded in recent years, abetted by cheap and colorful LEDs and compact electronics. advertised "Winking Fairy Lights for Christmas Trees" in Hardware Dealers' Magazine. In much of the world, December is a month of twinkling lights. of Chicago.

Light 144
article thumbnail

Inventing Postscript, the Tech That Took the Pain out of Printing

Cars That Think

Cheap pays off Although the Adobe group made some key technical breakthroughs, three other components were necessary to make PostScript a runaway success not just in low-volume professional publishing but in the high-volume office environment. As noted earlier, one was a cheap laser printer. Today, even Hewlett-Packard Co. 2, 1988, pp.

Design 105
article thumbnail

Creating the Commodore 64: The Engineers’ Story

Cars That Think

You waste a little bit of silicon, but silicon’s pretty cheap. Jack [Tramiel] made the bet that by the time we were ready to produce a product, 64K Rams would be cheap enough for us to use,” Charpentier said. Computer magazines such as Creative Computing and Compute! We were using people who were there anyway,” said Ziembicki.

Engine 116