March 1: Steve Wozniak Builds His First Computer

Feb 29, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Apple, Day in Tech History, Geek

Steve Wozniak Builds his first Motherboard

1976 - Steve Wozniak, an employee at Hewlett Packard (at the time), builds his first computer motherboard. He showed it off at the Homebrew club, where he was inspired. Steve Jobs meets up with Woz, where he convinces him to keep the design (not to sell it). They will then join up to create the Apple 1 computer. Of course, that computer only sold 200, but it was the segway to the Apple II, one of the best selling computers of all time.

Read more from the book: Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World’s Most Colorful Company

Wikazine – Full show notes for March 1

• LISP Programmers Manual is released
• Palm Inc gets it’s first IPO
• MSNBC.com launches Newsvine

Related articles

• 7 Crazy Facts About Steve Wozniak (tech.li)
• February 27: Apple Discontinues Newton (dayintechhistory.com)
• January 22: Apple Macintosh 1984 Superbowl Advertisement (dayintechhistory.com)

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February 29: Atari Moved

Feb 28, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History

Atari

Happy Leap Day! We get to do this special episode once every four years, so here is your Leap Day in Tech History!

1996 – Atari moves it’s  offices from 1196 Borregas Avenue in Sunnyvale, CA to 455 South Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale,CA. The new location gives Atari 7,208 square feet. It was a Bank of America building, and still had the vault door. Jack Tramiel, Sam Tramiel, Leonard Tramiel, Garry Tramiel, Dave Schwartz, John Skruch, Donald A. Thomas, Jr., Scott Sanders, Max Fagan, and Gayle McKim occupied the offices.

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 29

Related articles

• January 13: Jack Tramiel resigns from Commodore (dayintechhistory.com)
• Leap Day (homepaddock.wordpress.com)
• February 9: Atari – My First Computer Keyboard (dayintechhistory.com)

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February 28: Right to Privacy

Feb 27, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

1966 (Feb 28) – With all these ways to listen in on a conversation, the FCC has to make a ruling to protect the rights of US citizens. They create the Right to Privacy act which bands evesdropping or direct and indirect use of radio – controlled devices.

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 27

• M*A*S*H*  broadcasts the final episode
• PeopleSoft reorganizes

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February 27: Apple Discontinues Newton

Feb 26, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Apple, Day in Tech History

Newton

1998 – After Steve Jobs takes the role of Acting CEO (After the firing of Gil Amelio) he decides to trim some of the product fat. In result, the Apple Newton – it’s attempt at a PDA – was officially discontinued after 5 years.  But not all was lost off this, for the mobile applications got shifted into their other Mac OS technologies. Cyberdog and OpenDOC were two other Apple programs that were discontinued after Jobs took the helm again.

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 27

• Netscape makes their source Code available
• Google relaunches Jotspot

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February 26: Introduction of first Broswer – WorldWideWeb

Feb 25, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History

Internet

1991 – Sir Tim Berners-Lee showed everyone the first web browser and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor. The Browsers’ name was called “WorldWideWeb“, but was later changed to “Nexus”. Berners-Lee ran it on the NeXTSTEP platform and worked with not only the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), but the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Nexus is not in production anymore.

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 26

• 3Com announces they will acquire US Robotics
• Intel introduces the Pentium III
• Yahoo launches Buzz

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February 25: Gigabyte, Female Hacker of Sharpei

Feb 24, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History

gigabyte

1999 – Microsoft’s newest programming language at the time – C# (pronounced “C-Sharp“) was hacked on this day. The perpetrator was a seventeen year old female hacker from Belgium, calling herself “Gigabyte”.

2002 – Gigabyte posts the source code to the virus on her website. Kim Vanvaeck would be arrested in 2004 for writing the malicious code. The reason why she did it?

I want to let people (and especially guys) know there ARE girls out there who like computers and for more than games. I think that’s quite important … for all girls out there who know something about computers but are surrounded by guys who think they’re all stupid..

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 25

• IBM releases Object REXX
• Macbook Pro with Multitouch trackpad

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February 24: Pixar, Disney 5 Year Movie Agreement

Feb 23, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

Pixar

1997 – Walt Disney and Pixar enter into a 5 movie agreement in 10 months. They would share costs, profit and logo credits. The two would come into issues after Toy Story 2, which ultimately were resolved in 2006 when Disney purchased Pixar.

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 22

• Borland unveils the Delphi Development Tool
• EA acquires Dreamworks

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February 23: Tootsie Roll is Introduced

Feb 22, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History

Tootsie Roll

1896 - A little Geeky knowledge for ya – The Tootsie roll is introduced. Austrian immigrant Leo Hishfield took the idea to a New York store and sold the idea. The name comes from her 5 year old daughter, whom everyone called “Tootsie”. It became the first “Penny candy” and was even a War time ration since it could withstand severe weather conditions.

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 22

• Texas Instruments recalls the TI-99/4a for a short in the system
• JTS Corp sells Atari to HIACXI, who is owned by Hasbro
• Comcast OnDemand is launched

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February 22: AMD K6-III Sharptooth Processor

Feb 21, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

AMD

1999 - AMD releases the AMD K6-III Processor in speeds of 400 and 450 MHz. It would feature a 64KB Level 1 cache and a 256KB Level 2 cache. The 3DNow! graphics instructions would be supported, along with Direct X 6.0. There were 21.3 million transistors on the 0.25 micron process wafer.

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 22

• Palm introduces the Palm IIIc and Palm IIIxe
• Popcorn is introduced to the Pilgrims by Quadequina
• Gawker puts Defamer up for sale

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February 21: Space Shuttle Columbia

Feb 20, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Science, Space

Space Shuttle Columbia Crew

2003 – As the Space Shuttle Columbia was re-entering into Earth’s atmosphere, the shuttle disintegrated. It killed all 7 astronauts. After review, NASA discovered that a puncture on the wing had created a structural flaw – like when you have a ding on your windshield, if not repaired, it could completely comprimise the glass – and the ship fell apart.

Wikazine – Full show notes for February 21

• Empire Strikes Back – Special Edition
• IBM Sues Eagle Computer
• Legend of Zelda is released

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