Did You Know Hedy Lamarr Helped Invent Frequency Hopping?

"still in use today in spread-spectrum communications like..." crappy phones from VTECH, Uniden, and Panasonic - still trying to pawn off old technology in 2.4GHz & 5.8GHz frequencies when DECT is best. Oh well, they're all EXACTLY THE SAME THING anyway - one Israeli company produces over 85% of the chipset and SDK you use in your home phone.

vf34wrx

I found out about Hedy Lamarr when I was link-hopping on Wikipedia. An article about Half-Life 2 mentioned that a pet headcrab, Lamarr, was named after her. I wish she were alive now, in a time when her mind would be better appreciated regardless of her body. (Why does this silly new comment system merge all my paragraphs into one?)

Bassem B.

Hmmm, kinda reminds me of when I invented and patented a system to help prevent being torpedoed too frequently by using bar hopping.

I recently saw something about exactly this on TV, but for the life of me, can't remember what show. Grr.

reynwrap582

Did you know that the Headcrab in HL2 that Kliner keeps as a pet is named after her?

the_sidewinder

@OMG! Ponies!: So far I am floundering around in it. I hope time will give me greater insight into its good points.

Looks like she got the idea and applied it to her marriages...

SigmundTheSeaMonster

@OMG! Ponies!: THAT'S Hedley??

I actually did know that. /self importance

AT203

@Mondoz: Exactly. Censorship. We complain silently, star commentors don't because their stars mean even more now. Sweeeeet.

Jestermeister

"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives" H. Lamar :)

SakhiKabobular

@Hiphopopotamus: OMG! Ponies! Boobies!

DPeezy

This comment is best read in an RSS reader

bigbill25

@Hiphopopotamus: OMG! Ponies! Boobies!

DPeezy

@Hiphopopotamus:

DPeezy

Hedy is my heroine! I think she is probably more famous for this than her films! I found out about her as she was the inspiration behind Rachel Tyrell from Blade Runner. The sexiest woman in the world in my opinion!

djalice

@Hiphopopotamus: NSFW, but here is the clip...

Clever girl. Pretty too; apparently she got her looks from her father. He was a plastic surgeon.

player_of_games

Hedy Lamarr doesn't have the patent for this. "Hedy Kiesler Markey" does. (Her married name at the time).

Mondoz

@Jestermeister: Same here. Too bad neither of us have stars - no one will ever know how we feel.

Mondoz

@Hiphopopotamus: great stuff. Thanks for the head up

Cordfucious of Tech Clan

This is a well known fact in the Telco/Electronics industry

antitrust311

@92BuickLeSabre: I know. I've probably promoted about two dozen comments this afternoon. But I wanted to make a point with a problem with the new system.

Yes. Slow news day I guess. I heard some guy named Nicola Tesla invented something called a radio a while ago too. He wasn't as hot though.

RoboChop

@OMG! Ponies!: You know you can just promote without replying right? Just hit the little Thumbs Up! Which this definitely did deserve.

I did touch on this a few weeks ago on my website (www.CharlesMobile.com) and her basic idea is what is making Qualcomm BILLIONS of $'s. Life just ain't fair, is it?

@ludwigk: I agree with Ponies. Honor where honor is due.

my secret identity

This is 1874. You'll be able to sue her.

UilliamPhrixus

@ludwigk: Your comment shouldn't need a reply to be the featured comment. It was far better than my Blazing Saddles quip and more insightful. And it's buried under a Show All Comments button. Thank you for a good comment.

I remember Bob Wuhl talking about this on his Assume the Position comedy special... highly recommend that you check it out, funny and informative stuff.

Just when Gizmodo commenting had achieved near-perfection, they change it to this mess. It's slowed down the site by 10x and the attempt at making commenting more convenient has made it quite the opposite. I officially HATE the new design.

Jestermeister

@OMG! Ponies!: Thats "heady". She's still no Rory Calhoun

Why yes, yes I did know. I used to work for a wireless networking engineering company (really shitty company), and I learned that there.

Some get a kick from tech news, A mere gadget blog doesn't thrill me at all, So tell me why.... is it trueeee, That I get a kick out of youuuu....

Cordfucious of Tech Clan

""Any girl can be glamorous, all she has to do is stand still and look stupid." Yes I did! I have an old issue of "American Heritage: Invention & Technology" magazine with Hedy on the cover, and its about how she came up with the idea of frequency hopping by combining the machinery of a player piano into a torpedo. But the fact that her patent mentioned a player piano, and because she had a vagina, she couldn't get the military and engineers to pay any attention to her. But there's no doubt that Hedy Lamarr was the complete package: Beautiful, smart, willing to take her clothes off on camera, and not above inventing anti-jamming technologies for torpedo guidance systems. Here's a link to their archives where you can see the issue and read the article: http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1996/ Edit: Sorry for the horrid formatting, It's not me, I swear!

ludwigk

@OMG! Ponies!:Im struggling with it partially because my only net access this week is my iPhone. Would be great if Gawker would create an app for reading and commenting onctheir sites.

@Curves: How you adjusting to the new look?

Wow, you just don't see that sort of thing anymore. I can't imagine Cameron Diaz designing dual-core processors. Gotta love brainy women.

@OMG! Ponies!: GMTA. You speedy bastard.

@OMG! Ponies!: Froggie.... Where's my Froggie

Cordfucious of Tech Clan

@OMG! Ponies!: Where's my froggie!?

Yup, interesting stuff. Someone pops up with this one every few years. We did a cover story on it in our tech magazine back around 2000.

Ryan Douthit

Hedy Lamarr was a Wikipedia featured article a while back... so yes, I did know that.

That's *Hedley*!

Crenshaw13

It's HedLey!

potsked

That's Hedley.

Re: Subject Question. Yes, yes I did. ;-)

@blargh:

blargh

Of course her greatest achievement was suing Corel for stupidly using her likeness on CorelDRAW 8 packaging without permission. Adobe FTW!

blargh

That's HEDLEY...HEDLEY