May 24, 1985: Quantum Computer Services was founded (AOL)

1993 - Microsoft unveils at COMDEX a new line of Operating System. Dubbed Windows NT (New Technology) this software would be geared toward businesses. With a NT Server and NT Workstation, Windows could deliver a secure environment while also allowing connections using the Windows 3.11 and later Windows 95 Operating systems. NT would become available on July 27, 1993.

1985- Quantum Computer Services was founded. Technically, it was a reorganization of Control Video Corporation, a company that started in 1983. The company was selling online service “Gameline” to Atari 2600 users. You would pay $49.95 for the modem and also a one-time $15 setup fee. With the reorganization, Jim Kimsey became Chief Executive Officer and Marc Seriff took the CTO role. Ninety employees quit, ten remained. The company changed to sell Quantum Link for Commodore 64 and 128 consoles. Eventually, they would get into AppleLink and PC Link. Quantum Computer Services eventually (October 1989) changed their name to America Online (AOL).

Jim Kimsey left AOL in 1995, where he stayed under the limelight. He was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by President George W. Bush.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 24

• MIDAS II
• Sega introduces a rating system for games
• Microsoft launches Windows NT 3.1

Sun

1995- Sun releases the Java Programming language. James Gosling at Sun Microsystems originally developed the language as a core component to Sun’s Java platform. It uses C and C++ syntax. It used the theory of “Write Once, Run Anywhere” (WORA). By doing this, a programmer didn’t need to recompile a program to run it or test for bugs. Most of Java Programming Language is under a GNU General Public License

On the same day, MySQL releases their SQL database program for web pages. This is known as a  Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). MySQL uses C and C++, the SQL parser used yacc and a hybrid of lexer called “sql_lex.cc”. Many different websites to this day use versions of MySQL, including us at Geekazine and the Day in Tech History.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 23

• Windows Vista Beta 2 is released
• Kevin Mitnick is arrested
• NEC gets into the home video game market
• Twitter purchased Tweetdeck

May 22, 1980: Pac Man was installed in a movie theater in Tokyo.

1980 - The first Pac-Man machine was installed. Namco installed the first Pac-Man machine in a movie theater in Tokyo. Created by Toru Iwatani, the game has been one of the most popular in Arcades around the world.  Of course, Pac-Man was one of the most popular games in history and created many spin-offs including Ms. Pac-Man. Pac-Man was released in North America October of that year.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 22

• Robert Metcalfe describes a new device called the Laser Printer
• Adobe ships Illustrator 7.0
• Apple splits Newton into it’s own division
• SpaceX Launched and docks with Space Station

May 21, 2003: Caldera International becomes the SCO Group

2003- Caldera International finished the acquisition of the Server Software and Services divisions of Santa Cruz Operation. They turned around and officially renamed to the SCO group. The focus was more to the UNIX platform. The SCO group was in a major lawsuit with Novell until Masrch 2010 when the courts ruled that Novell had the proper rights to the SCO properties in the Linux OS.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 21

• The IBM 701 is announced
• Atari stock splits 2-for-1
• Apple releases Mac OS X Server

Craigslist

2009 - Craigslist was under fire for their erotic services. Reports of prostitution and other illegal activities were being conducted in the category. Craigslist revamped their site to remove the erotic services and add an “Adult” section – with more moderation. However, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster was given an injunction for threatening executives of Craigslist with criminal prosecution for aiding prostitution in the state.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 20

• AppleLink is created
• Microsoft and Intuit discontinue their merger due to Antitrust issues
• Intel makes the Pentium processor available

May 19, 1980: Apple “Failure” III was released

1980 – The machine was code named “Sara”. It was the Apple III and was planned to be the successor to the Apple II. However, the machine had enough failures that Apple had to re-launch this computer in August. Therefore, it was refered to as “Apple Failure III”. Then IBM came out with the PC and Apple switched gears with their Macintosh line. Apple III saw modest numbers before it was retired on April 24th, 1984.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 19

• Star Wars Episode I
• Apple opens the first Apple Stores
• Intel debuts the pineview Atom chip

May 18, 2001: Shrek is released

2012 – After much speculation, Facebook shares go public under “FB”. The stock started at $38 a share but instantly dropped. Stock dropped to $26 / share by years end. It currently hovers around that price.

2001 - The computer animated movie “Shrek” hits theaters. The 90 minute movie was produced on a $60 million budget and although it’s first weekend only saw $42 million , the overall theatrical run brought in $487 million. Shrek was the first computer animated film to win an Academy Award (Best Animated Feature).

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 18

• Sony establishes: Sony Computer Entertainment of America
• Dell add AMD processors
• Facebook adds OpenID

May 17, 1991: Tim Berners-Lee sets up HTML

1991- Tim Berners-Lee sets up HyperText Markup language (HTML) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) at CERN. He put the protocol on a NeXTStep machine. The server was then launched onto the word wide web, effectively making this the first day you could get a website that could support more than text.

That is when CERN and Berners-Lee release the World Wide Web standard. However, there was a long way to go. It wasn’t until August 6th, that Berners-Lee put up the first webpage.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 17

• Ars Technica sold to Conde Nast
• Lawrence Welk passes away
• Intel Introduced the Pentium III 55o

May 16, 2006: Phantom Console called a “Pump and dump” scheme

2006 - Phantom Entertainment former CEO Timothy Roberts was accused of running a Pump and dump scheme on the Phantom console – a Game system that never came to market. In 2004, he hired a promoter to send faxes stating the Phantom system would ship January 2005. Of course that drove up stock prices in which investors could profit on, including Roberts and the promoter (who got 4 million shares of restricted stock)

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 15

• Spaghetti-O’s are introduced
• Sugar Labs extends Sugar OS to EeePC
• OS X Tiger vs. Tiger Direct ruling.

May 15, 1985: The Last Apple Lisa is completed

1985 - The last Lisa Mac XL computer rolls off the assembly line. It was first introduced on Jan 19th, 1983 for $9,995. Sun remarketing purchased about 5,000 Macintosh XLs and upgraded them. Some leftover Lisa computers and spare parts are still available today.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 15

• The First McDonalds
• The Love Bug strikes
• Carl Icahn officially launches a Proxy fight against Yahoo
• CBS Acquired CNet

George Lucas

George Lucas was born on May 14th, 1944. Of course, George went on to create one of the biggest franchises in geek history. Lots of geek news this last year as George Lucas sold Lucasfilm and Star Wars to Disney.  Happy birthday to George.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 14

• Texas Instruments starts to compete with IBM
• ZDTV (TechTV, G4) Channel begins operation
• Google suffers a 1 hour outtage
• Sony Playstation relaunched after being offline for weeks

May 13, 1987: Turbo-C Programming Language Released

1987 – Version 1.0 of the Turbo C programming language is released. It offers the first integrated edit-compile-run development environment for the C programming language for IBM-compatible personal computers. Turbo C was developed by Bob Jervis as “Wizard C”. It runs on just 384KB of memory and is capable of inline assembly with full access to C symbolic names and structures.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 12

• Digital Equipment, Intel, and Xerox jointly announce the Ethernet network specification.
• HP Acquires EDS
• Iranian police close down more than four hundred Internet Cafes

May 12, 1996: Prodigy is taken over by Prodigy Management

1996 – IBM and Sears and Roebuck lose Prodigy due to takeover. They sell their interests to a group of investors – led by Prodigy Management: founders of Boston Technology and International Wireless.  Ed Bennett, CEO of Prodigy takes the lead in this acquisition. Carlos Slim Helu – Owner of Telmex – then provided Internet access for Mexico and Latin America.Ultimately, Prodigy went public in 1999 and stayed that way until bought out by SBC (AT&T).

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 12

• MITS receives a retraining order for Microsoft on the 8080 BASIC
• XBOX360 is unveiled
• France passes the Three Strikes rule

Google Chromebook

2011 – Eric Schmidt shows off the new Google Chrome OS but with an added feature as he introduced Google Chromebook – a personal computer with the Google Chrome OS built-in. The device loads straight to the browser where you can install applications for functionality on your Chromebook. The first Chromebook would begin selling on June 15, 2011.

1979 – Daniel Bricklin and Robert Frankston demonstrate the spreadsheet program “Visicalc”. Of course, it will become the “killer app” for PC’s. 100 cells could be calculated in 20 seconds. By the first year, sales will hit on hundred thousand and seven hundred thousand in six years. VisiCalc will fall to clones and ultimately to products like Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 11

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• Sega begins shipping the Saturn system
• AOL launches free webmail
• Verizon sells part of Alltel to AT&T

May 10, 2001: TAT-14 Begins Service

2011 – Microsoft goes underneath Google and Facebook and puts in a $8.56 billion dollar deal for Skype. It was Microsoft’s biggest purchase to date and competed with their own Windows Live Messenger – which in 2013 they retired in the US.

2001 – TAT-14, the Transatlantic cable begins commercial service. A dual, bi-directional ring configuration using Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplex (DWDM) – Sixteen wavelengths of STM-64 per fiber pair. It carried 640 Gbps, and connectedGermany, the UK, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands with the US.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 10

• BFS preview is released
• Atari and MCA sign a joint venture

May 9, 1996: Tux the Penguin becomes mascot of Linux

1996 - Linus Torvelds adopts Tux the Penguin as the official mascot of Linux. Tux was first suggested by Alan Cox, then officially created by Larry Ewing. After a little refinement, Tux came to represent not only Linux, but also Open Source. James Hughes named the penguin TUX – for Torveld’s UniX. The image of Tux was submitted in previous Linux Logo contests, but never won. They then adopted Tux as the mascot, where he is loved by all who live and work in this space.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 9

• uMax SuperMac
• Facebook lifts the 5000 friend mark

Kaypro-II

1982 – Non-Linear Systems wasn’t into building computers. However, they decided to get into the PC market with this portable machine. The Kaypro II was all metal with a 9″ screen – So it was a good paperweight. It had predecessors, including, the Kaypro I.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 8

• JavE 6.0 is released
• Citirix XenServer 5.5 released
• Apple introduces the Powerbook 2400c

May 7, 1997: Intel releases the Pentium II – Slot 1 processor

1997 - Intel changes the processor game a bit with the Pentium II processor. Starting at speed of 200 MHz / 66 MHz bus, the proc had a new design. What was called “Slot 1″ processor, Intel got away from the pin architecture to a card slot. You would insert the PII to the slot just like you would memory, an ISA or PCI card.

What was Code-named Klamath, the processor incorporated 7.5 million transistors using 0.35 micron process technology, contained a 512kB Level-2 external cache,  performs at 613 MIPS (300 MHz), and is able to address 64GB of memory. MMX instruction was included on the processor. Prices started at $636  for 233 MHz, $775 for 266 MHz and US$1981 for 300 MHz).

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 7

• The Millionaire Calculating Machine
• Telstar II Satellite is launched
• Microsoft lays off 3,000

iMac G3

1998 – Steve Jobs, just fresh out of his return to Apple, announces one of the many changes in the Mac line. The iMac G3 computer. The iMac was the first computer to offer USB ports as a standard. The “All in one” computer had a front loading CD drive – but no floppy drive, built in speakers and came in 13 different colors. The iMac mouse was a disc shaped device with one button. A standard Mac keyboard was also included.

The G3 came with a Power PC 233 to 333 MHz. The L2 cache could run at 512 or 1MB and came loaded with Mac OS 8.1. The price was given of $1,299 and Jobs expected this computer to be out within 90 days, although it didn’t officially start shipping until August 15th.

The G3 was discontinued on March 18, 2003.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 6

• The Sierra Network is announced
• Paint.NET v.1 is released
• Sprint, Nextel and Clearwire announce WiMAX under the Clearwire name

May 5, 1995: Chris Lamprect was the first banned from the Internet

1995 - Most people didn’t even really know what the internet was at this point, but Chris Lamprecht did – And he got banned for life from using it. Funny thing is, he didn’t do a crime on the internet. He sold stolen circuit boards belonging to Southwest Bell. He would be banned from the Internet until 2003 (which he got out of in 2002). Lamprecht did write a program called ToneLoc. The movie War Games used this program as a basis to the movie.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 5

• Happy Cinco De Mayo!
• THQ acquires GameFX
• T-Mobile launches a 3G network
• Wordperfect 5.0 ships

Image via CrunchBase

Player vs. Player

1998 - My first attempt at a website back then was self publishing comics. I started with a website I called “Toonzed“. Other website were popping up. GPF, College Roomies from Hell, Penny Arcade. One of those website was called Player vs Player (PvP). Still going strong today, they have made some pretty funny comics. There are a lot of great web comics out there, too. I only scratched that surface.

The first PvP Strip

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 4

• “I Love You” virus hits computers
• AOL repairs glitch so Apple Macs can use the service
• Microsoft pulls their offer to Yahoo. Jerry Yang sends a memo to employees on what happened.

May 3, 1978: The first SPAM email

1978 - DEC Marketing manager Gary Thuerk is known as the first e-mail spammer and he didn’t even do it himself. Carl Gartley sent out the first spam mail message on the ARPAnet. Standard practice was to send an email, but Thuerk wanted to do something faster and easier. So he sent the one message and everyone saw it. Of course, the recipients were not happy.  The full message can be found at Templetons.com; but went like this:

DIGITAL WILL BE GIVING A PRODUCT PRESENTATION OF THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY; THE DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T. THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY OF COMPUTERS HAS EVOLVED FROM THE TENEX OPERATING SYSTEM AND THE DECSYSTEM-10
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE. BOTH THE DECSYSTEM-2060T AND 2020T OFFER FULL ARPANET SUPPORT UNDER THE TOPS-20 OPERATING SYSTEM. THE DECSYSTEM-2060 IS AN UPWARD EXTENSION OF THE CURRENT DECSYSTEM 2040 AND 2050 FAMILY. THE DECSYSTEM-2020 IS A NEW LOW END MEMBER OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AND FULLY SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL OF THE OTHER DECSYSTEM-20 MODELS.

WE INVITE YOU TO COME SEE THE 2020 AND HEAR ABOUT THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AT THE TWO PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS WE WILL BE GIVING IN CALIFORNIA THIS MONTH.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 3
[dithsponsorq12]

• Dell Computer is founded
• Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich produce a list of 335,000 Internet users who shared the band’s songs on Napster.
• Happy birthday to GeoCaching

May 2, 1983: Microsoft Releases the first 2-button mouse for PC

1983 - Microsoft releases the 2-button mouse. It was designed for Microsoft Word 1.0. The first mouse would fail, but the second version in 1985 would solidify the mouse on PC’s. Of course, Microsoft launched Microsoft Word v. 1.0for $229.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 2

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• Excel launches for Macintosh
• Intel releases 3600MHz Pentium D processor

May 1, 2011: Twitter reports Bin Laden death hours before President Obama

2011 – The first tweets on the raid came from Sohaib Athar, a.k.a. @ReallyVirtual. At the time he didn’t know what he was tweeting about, just there was a helicopter hovering over Abbottabad at 1AM. Shortly after, Twitter went a buzz because inside that bunker was Osama Bin Laden. However, it was determined the first tweet actually came from  @keithurbahn (aka Keith Urbahn, Chief of Staff for Donald Rumsfeld).

So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.

— Keith Urbahn (@keithurbahn) May 2, 2011

This caused Twitter to explode and soon after, 14.8 million tweets were posted even before President Obama could take the podium to address the nation.

1964- John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz run the first BASIC program at 4 AM in Darthmouth. The duo used a General Electric 225 mainframe computer and ran a simple compiler program.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 1

• AMD is founded
• Tamagotchi is released in the US
• Lenovo takes over IBM desktop and notebook divisions for $655 million in cash and $600 million in stock.

April 30, 1993: World Wide Web enters in Public Domain

1993 - You may see www, but it’s true meaning is World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee wrote WorldWideWeb during the 1990, while working for CERN. He did it on a NeXT Computer and developed it for the NeXTSTep platform (which Apple bought and turned into Mac OS X). But it was today that was most momentous, as the World Wide Web entered in the public domain. That meant anyone could access without license fees. Now a person could apply style sheets or post media on the web. The initial web browser was also the web editor.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 30

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• Ubuntu 4.10 “Warty Warthog” is released
• Microsoft announces ten million copies of Windows 3.0
• ABC joins Hulu

April 29, 2004: Google file IPO

2004 – Google files the S-1 form with SEC for their IPO. They said they wanted to raise US$2,718,281,828; a Mathematical algorithm based on the day they filed. The form can be found at SEC.gov

The stock finally started trading on August 19, 2004 at $85 a share in a unique online auction.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 29

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• Apple discontinues Macintosh XL
• Commodore declares bankruptcy
• Oracle finalizes their merger of BEA

April 28, 2003: iTunes Music Store Launches

2003-Apple launches the iTunes Store. iTunes has been around since 2001, but without option to get new music. Before the iTunes store, users would have to burn from CD or copy previously made MP3 files. The store sold 1 million songs within a week. Apple became the biggest music vendor in the US in 2008.

With 28 million songs, over 1 million podcasts, 40,000 music videos, 3,000 shows and even the Beatles library, iTunes music store continues to dominate the market.  Of course things exploded in 2007 when Steve Jobs put apps into the iTunes store. Apple just celebrated the 40 billion app mark and 25 billion song mark.

Today, Apple iTunes commands 63% of digital downloads.

iTunes

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 28

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• 3DO sells to Samsung for $20 Million
• Sanford Wallace – the SPAM king – was sued by MySpace
• Intel removes processor ID tracking technology

April 27, 1998: Koko the gorilla does AOL chat

1998 - Using AOL chat, a sign language interpreter and an active audience, a female gorilla named Koko answered questions to the public. Koko resides at the Gorilla Foundation and with a vocabulary of 2,000 words, was able to respond to the chat room.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 27

• Xerox introduces the 8010 Star Information System.
• Captain Midnight hijacks an HBO satellite
• Giants Pitcher Brian Wilson’s Twitter is shut down due to posts that could give advantage

April 26, 1983: TRS 80 Model 4 Released

1983- The Trash-80, as it was so admirably called in the day, a.k.a. the TRS-80 Model 4 is introduced. It contains a 4 MHz processor, 16 KB of RAM, a cassette interface, Keyboard and Monochrome monitor. $1000 for the base model, or $2000 if you upgraded the RAM to 64 KB and 5.25 disk drives. The first TRS-80 was released in 1977.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 26

• IBM 7030 – the Stretch Supercomputer
• Last release of the Nemesis
• AOL purchases Flea-Flicker

April 25, 1980: Activision Fantastic Four comes together

1980 - Activision was technically founded in 1979, but it wasn’t until April 25 that the “Fantastic Four” joined up as the first third-party software company for video games. David Crane and Alan Miller left Atari August 1979 to start programming under the Activision name. Larry Kaplan and Bob Whitehead stayed behind until April 25th when Activision came out. Richard Muchmore was the venture capitalist and Jim Levy rounded the group as Activision’s CEO.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 25

• Sun Microsystems announces project JXTA
• XP x64 OS
• Yahoo begins the national TV ad campaign

Apple IIc

1984 - Apple introduces the Apple IIc, their answer to a portable machine. It weighed 7 1/2 lbs and featured a 1.023MHz CPU and 128 KB RAM. $1,295. The device device had a built-in floppy and peripheral expansion ports. This was a closed system – no expansion slots to plug in cards. It was deemed an appliance computer, which meant was ready to go when you pulled it out of the box.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 24

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• IBM PC first announced (but wouldn’t be released until Aug 12th)
• Amiga 3000 announced
• Cnet / Yahoo deal
• Google Drive is released

April 23, 1964: SEAC is retired

1964- The Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC) is retired after fifteen years. SEAC was the first to use all-diode logic. SEAC was bason on EDVAC. It had 747 vacuum tubes, and the clock rate was under 1 mHz.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 23

• Internet Explorer 2.0 is released for Mac 7.0.1
• Carnegie Mellon warns users of the CIH virus
• Ubuntu 9.04 is released

April 22, 1993: Mosaic Web Browser was released

1993 – The National Center for Supercomputing Applications releases version 1.0 (RTM) of the Mosaic Web Browser. It was the first browser with a Graphical user interface for content. Marc Andreesen and Jim Clark were the lead developers. The browser would take the internet by storm and continue to lead until 1998 when IE and Netscape came on the scene.

Mosaic was originally released in Beta (0.1) on January 23, 1993 – as a post in the newsgroup indicate**

Here is the official RTM thread

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 22

• Juno launches Juno free e-mail
• Connectix stops shipping the Virtual Game Station for Mac
• eBay sues Craigslist over “Diluting of Share”Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.infosystems

**Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 07:21:17 -0800

From: ma…@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Marc Andreessen)

By the power vested in me by nobody in particular, alpha/beta version
0.5 of NCSA’s Motif-based networked information systems and World
WidWeb browser, X Mosaic, is hereby released:

location removed

This release of X Mosaic is known to compile on the following
platforms:

SGI (IRIX 4.0.2)
IBM (AIX 3.2)
Sun 4 (SunOS 4.1.2 with stock X11R4 and Motif 1.1).

Binaries for these platforms are available on ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in
/Web/xmosaic/binaries-0.5. More binaries will be supplied as I am
able to find other Motif-configured platforms to use (DEC MIPS
probably within the next half hour).

Although this is alpha/beta software, I’m looking more for feedback on design and functionality than bug reports right now — down the road
the bulk of the program will be rewritten in C++ anyway, so don’t
take the current code too seriously. But bug reports are welcome too.
New releases will probably come out about every 7-14 days until 1.0
arrives.

A list of current and future capabilities of X Mosaic follows this
message.

Cheers,
Marc

–
Marc Andreessen
Software Development Group
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
ma…@ncsa.uiuc.edu

April 21, 1977: Microsoft sends notice to MITS

1977 - Two days prior, Microsoft send MITS a letter with the allegation that they were not up on royalty payments and if they didn’t catch up, MITS would be in breach and the 8080 BASIC would be pulled. MITS sends a letter stating that they are not correct. Ultimately, this would begin a debate that would end in November when Microsoft pulled the 8080 BASIC out.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 21

Geek Smack Sponsor board!

• The Tanday 5000MC
• Intel 3 GHz Pentium 4
• Firefox 3.0.9 is released

April 20, 2009: Oracle purchases Sun Microsystems

2009 - Oracle announces they have purchased Sun Microsystems in a $7.4 billion dollar deal. This includes stock at $9.50 / share. That would also be the acquisition of SPARC processors, Solaris OS, Java and MySQL, among other items. The deal would be finalized on January 27th 2010.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 20

Geek Smack Sponsor board!

• Compaq and Sears-Roebuck offer Presario line of personal computers
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen write the letter to MITS on breach of contract
• IBM opens it’s first PC store in New York City

PDA

2000- Before smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants were the device to have. You could store contacts, write memos, set up, read and send email and even play a nice game of Solitaire, or the game where you eliminated color marbles. I – in my IT career – not only had a Palm III, but also ran with an iPAQ 3650, Handspring Visor and Jornada. Well, while this was not the first handheld, we would see a day where many vendors would release the new versions of their devices. It all hovered around Microsoft and their release – the Pocket PC specification: Windows CE 3.0 with mobile IE, Windows Music Player and Mobile Word. Compaq then releases the iPAQ, HP releases the Jornada 545 and Casio introduced the Cassiopeia E-115.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 19

Geek Smack Sponsor board!

• Simpsons debut on Tracey Ullman show
• Assassin’s Guild BBS is seized
• Mandrakesoft releases MandrakeLinux v. 8.0

HD DVD format

2006 - Toshiba launches the HD DVD format in the US. The first HD DVD players were the HD-A1 and HD-XA1. RCA would rebrand the A1 to the HDV-5000. The first HD DVD with TrueHD soundtrack was the Phantom of the Opera.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 18

Geek Smack Sponsor board!

• Osborne Computer introduces the Osborne Executive and Executive II portable computers
• The final version of WordPerfect is released
• Aneesh Chopra is appointed the U.S. Chief Technology Officer

Terraserver

2000 – Five arial images of Area 51 are leaked onto Terraserver from a Russian satellite called “Sovinformsputnik. The amount of traffic that went to the site brought the server down, so they had to take the photos off until they could handle the traffic.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 17

Geek Smack Sponsor board!

• Qualified schools got copies of the new LOGO programming language
• Toshiba releases the Libretto sub-notebook
• Sweden finds the four defendants in the Pirate Bay case guilty of hosting illegal downloads

April 16, 1977: Apple II Debuts

1977 - Apple Computer shows off the Apple II home computer at the West Coast Computer Faire. The $1,298 Home machine featured a 6502 processor, 4kb RAM 16kb ROM and for the first time – A home computer with color graphics.  Apple II was the most recognizable home and school computers in the 80s and 90s. I personally would play Ultima III and Ultima IV on an Apple II after school. The final Apple II rolled off the line on October 15, 1993.

Commodore also unveiled the PET 2001, which is a full-featured computer. It also had the 6502 processor, 4kb RAM, 14kb ROM and a cassette drive for $595. The Pet was replaced by the PET 2001-N in 1979.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 16

Geek Smack Sponsor board!

• Nintendo sues for copyright infringement
• Adobe Photoshop 7.0 releases
• Ashton Kutcher Joins Twitter.

April 15, 2005: Damn Small Linux was Released

1912 – The RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg at 11:40 pm (7:40 pm EST). Of course from that, over 1,500 lost their lives to the cold, dark water, when the ship took the immortal dive. The ship had a passenger manifest of 2,223. The wreck was finally discovered on September 1st, 1985.

2005 – It was the release of the Damn Small Linux program, a Linux distribution that was designed to take up as little drive space as possible. John Andrews – DSL’s developer – Never allowed the ISO to go past 50 MB in size. You would be able to put DSL onto a CD or USB drive if needed. You can get the DSL ISO to install here

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 15

Geek Smack Sponsor board!

• Pentium II processors introduced
• The paper disc format is announced
• The first McDonalds Hamburger is sold
• Search Engine “Cuil” launches in alpha.

April 14, 1996: Jennicam began livestreaming

1996-  Nineteen year old Jennifer Kaye Ringley takes several webcams and places them within her house. For the next seven years, she would livestream her life to all on the Internet. Since Ringley was raised a nudist, she would appear on the video without clothes on. The site was not pornographic – although any sexual escapades would be caught live. Jennifer leads a Social media free life nowadays.

1998 – Netflix was founded in 1997, but on April 14, 1998 they launched the website that would help the rental process along. 925 discs were available and only 30 employees to process the titles. Discs were $4 to rent with $2 postage fee. Yes – you did have late fees back then.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 14

• US District Court Rules in favor of Microsoft and HP
• Quicktime for Mac OS and Mac OS X
• Lindows becomes Linspire

Moores Law

1965- You may have heard about Moore’s Law. This states that every 18 months, a processor will double in speed. The law’s name is coined after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore. He said:

It can’t continue forever. The nature of the exponential is that you push them out and eventually disaster happens.

The law started with the Integrated circuit. It has continued to this day – especially since we switched ideas and, instead of speeding up, we double the amount of processors.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 13
[dithsponsorq12]

• Apple discontinues the Power Mac G4
• Atari signs agreement with Williams Electronics
• Metallica sues Napster

April 12, 1976: Ronald Wayne gives up his 10% of Apple Stock

1976- What a position Ronald Wayne was in. He was the 3rd co-founder of Apple Computer on April 1 with 10% share. However, after two weeks Wayne sells his share for $800 back to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The reason why was because if the company was to go under, he would be liable for any debts incurred. While a solid reason why (Wayne had assets that couldn’t be risked in that nature), it turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes as Apple is grossed in the billions. Wayne designed the original Apple logo and wrote the partnership agreement.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 12

• emoticons are first suggested
• Sega is guilty of intentional patent infringment
• First commercial SPAM is reported.
• Cisco discontinues the popular Flip brand camera

April 11, 2009: Susan Boyle hits the Internet

2009- Susan Boyle takes the Stage at “Britian’s Got Talent”. A person that most would write-off at first glance, sings “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables. Once she was done, the 48 year-old Scot got a standing ovation. The next day, her audition was posted and became one of the most viral on YouTube. It had been downloaded over 347 million times.

Of course, Boyle’s performance has been overshadowed by Gangnam Style…

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 11

• Clippy is retired from Microsoft Office
• John Sculley asks Steve Jobs to step down from Apple
• Atari Portfolio portable computer

April 10, 2003: The first Sony Blu Ray Player hit store shelves

2003 – Sony Blu-Ray players hit store shelves for the first time. The BDZ-S77 was the first model, but didn’t sell too well because of the $3800 price tag attached to it. Add to it no movies available in the Blu-Ray format just yet. In fact, the first Blu-Ray movies didn’t hit shelves until June 20, 2006. 50 First Dates, the Fifth Element, Hitch, Terminator and Charlies Angels: Full Throttle were the first titles to be released.

1989- At Spring Comdex, Intel introduced the 25 MHz 80486 microprocessor. The processor would integrate the math co-processor into one chip (the 386′s compendium included the 387 math co-processor). Price $900

Wikazine – Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 10

• National DNA Database is launched in the UK
• Fox Trot debuts
• Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis anounce they would like to buy Skype back from eBay.

April 9, 2012: Facebook buys Instagram

2012 – Facebook – trying to get a hold on photosharing – decides to not wait for their iPhone app to come out but instead purchase Instagram for 1 billion dollars ($300 million and 23 million shares of Facebook stock). The reason Facebook made the purchase was for the close to 50 million Instagram users. Facebook had plans to keep both companies separate, but found later that joining the two via databases would help both companies grow.  The companies finalized the deal on September 6, 2012.

1998 - Seiko Instruments introduces the world’s first wrist wearable Personal Computer called the Ruputer. This wristwatch was planned to be released June 10, 1998 and cost $285. The Ruputer featured a 16-bit, 3.6 MHz processor and 2 MB of non-volatile storage memory, 128 KB of main memory, a full graphic display, and a small joystick.The Ruputer connects to Windows 95 via infrared, and can download pictures and other simple data. The Ruputer came with three applications. The watch also had an SDK, so you could program in the C programming language.

Seiko discontinued the Ruputer for the OnHand PC.

Wikazine – Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 9

• AMD “Barcelona” Chip
• smallbusiness.yahoo.com launches
• Earthlink aquires PeoplePC
• Jack Trammiel passes away

April 8, 1983: Steve Jobs entices John Sculley to Apple as CEO

1983 – John Sculley, who was president of PepsiCo at the time, decides to leave to become president and CEO of Apple Computer at request of Steve Jobs. Sculley’s campaign of “the Pepsi Challenge” was new thinking and helped Pepsi gain market share over Coca Cola. Steve Jobs wanted that passion so he could beat IBM. Sculley was responsible for incorporating the PowerPC chip in Mac computers.John Sculley took the 800 million dollar in sales to 8 billion. Tension ultimately took it’s toll, as Sculley was forced out in 1993 and was replaced by Gil Amelio.

Wikazine – Full show notes for April 8

• IBM opens MCA to competetors
• Internet Explorer 4.0 is released
• Facebook at 200 million members

April 7, 2008: Intel ATOM Processor Launches

2008- Intel launches their newest processor: the ATOM processor. It’s codename was Silverthorne. It is a ATOM Z single processor using the 45 nm die processes (the processor was smaller than a penny). The ATOM processor would run at 800 MHZ with a 512 L2 cache and 533 Front side bus. The most current ATOM processor is the S1220, S1240 and S1260 for servers (released December 2012). ATOM processors can run 32 bit and 64 bit hardware and software.

Wikazine – Full show notes for April 7

[dithsponsorq12]

• Sun lays off Scalable System Group Workforce
• AOL VoIP launches
• Publication of the RFC 1

April 6, 1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey releases to theaters

1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey actually premiered in Washington DC on April 2nd, New York and Los Angles on April 4th. It was April 6th that was the major theatrical release date for the US. This Stanley Kubrick classic won an Oscar for best visual effects and was nominated for best director, best art direction and best writing , story and screenplay. For any Sci-Fi geek, this is an important movie in the genre. It was also known as “How the Solar System Was Won” and “Journey Beyond the Stars” (working titles).

1992 - At the Spring Comdex in Chicago, IL, Microsoft released “Janus” – otherwise known as Windows 3.1. The new 16 bit Operating System had some inventive features, including support for TrueType fonts, support for media formats like CD ROMs and MIDI and  Super VGA monitors. Price: $149.00Wikazine – Full show notes for April 6

• IBM RS/6000 Model H70 64 bit 4-way Web server
• 2001: A Space Odyssey was released to theatres
• Intel revamps, renames i3, i5, i7 processors

April 5, 1995: Security Administrator tool for Analyzing Networks (SATAN) released

1995- The program is called the Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks. But you may call it SATAN. The Perl written program – Written by Dan Famer and Wietse Venema –  was released to help network admins find vulnerabilities in their remote systems. There was a lot of controversy over the tool and it’s release, since it was the first user friendly tool.SATAN was never updated since, and has been replaced with: Nessus and SAINT.

Wikazine – Full show notes for April 5

• AOL unveils Netscape Navagator v. 6
• Honeywell MicroSystem 6/10
• Apple releases Boot Camp for dual booting Mac

Book: Protecting Networks with SATAN

April 4, 1975: Microsoft was founded

1975- Paul Allen and Bill Gates found Microsoft in Albuquerque, NM. The company was founded there simply because that is where Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) is located. The duo was building BASIC for the Altair 8800.

Wikazine – Full show notes for April 4

• The Yorkshire Posse attacks 13 corporate sites
• Gmail is integrated into Google calendar
• Mosaic is founded. It would later become Netscape Communications Corp.

April 3, 1973: The first mobile cell phone call was made

1973 – Martin Cooper made the first handheld cellular phone call in public. Walking down the streets of New York, Cooper – the General Manager of Motorola’s communication system division – talked on the phone. It’s not the first cellular call since car phones have been around before then. The phone is also known as the “Brick” cell phone.

2000 - US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issues a forty-three page conclusions of law, ruling that Microsofttried to monopolize the web browser market. The next day, Microsoft stock drops 15% as an aftershock.

Wikazine – Full show notes for April 2

• Atari declares today Pac Man Day
• The first Telnet specification
• IBM introduces the PC Convertable

April 2, 1987: IBM PS/2 released

1987 – IBM releases a flurry of new items on this day. The most notable was the IBM PS/2 – Their first 80386 system using a 3.5 floppy (720kb or 1.44 MB discs), MFM hard drive, PC-DOS and OS/2. Multiple models were released, including the Model 60 (10 MHz 286 processor) and Model 80 ( 20 MHz 386 processor). Hard drives went up to 115 MB and would cost you $6,995 for the basic model, to $10,995.

IBM also introduced the VGA in Model 50, the Multicolor Graphics Array (MCGA), high resolution graphics card for up to 1024×768 in 256 colors – Called the 8514/A and it’s Micro Channel Archetecture (MCA). IBM released PC-DOS 3.3 and their Operating System of OS/2.

Wikazine – Full show notes for April 2

• Microsoft releases Windows 2.0
• Intel introduces the Pentium II processor
• Gary Kopp becomes the first iwin.com Million Dollar winner

April 1, 2004: Google releases Gmail invitation only

2004 - Google releases their Webmail service in “Gmail” . They release it as an invitation only beta. That would stay in effect until February 7, 2007.Wikazine – Full show notes of Technology History for April 1

• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak incorporate Apple Computer Company
• Windows Mobile 6.1 released
• Cyrix vs. Intel Lawsuit settled.

March 31, 1993: SPAM is coined

1993 - There is a bug in the Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation (ARMM) program on a Usenet. It ends out sending 200 copies of a message to news.admin.policy. Joel Furr, a user of the newsgroup, says this is “Spam”. Hence, the term “Spam” is coined.

Wikazine – Full show notes of Technology History for March 31

• Construction of Harvard Mark I
• Atari gets a Cease and Desist letter in manufacturing Tetris.
• Microsoft Bob for Windows is released

March 30, 1951: Univac is Unveiled

1951 – John William Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert unveil the first commercial computer, the UNIVersal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC I). The computer was manufactured under the company name of Sperry Rand Corporation for the United States Census Bureau. The UNIVAC will remain in operation through 1963.Univac I was not only the first American commercial computer, but also the first computer designed to computer large numbers. The first contracts for these computers were government agencies, like the Census Bureau and US Air Force. It took almost a year to finally ship the first Univac computer.

Wikazine – Full show notes of Technology History for March 30

• Quantum sells to Maxtor
• Intel launches Nehalem
• Microsoft ends Encarta

March 29, 1983: TRS-80 Model 100 introduced

1983- Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model 100. It is the first portable computer featuring a 2.4 MHz processor for $799. The portable machine weighed 3.9 lbs.The model-100 was first made and sold as the Kyotronic 85. Tandy Corporation took this small computer over, and sold through Radio Shack.Over 6,000,000 units were sold worldwide.

Wikazine – Full show notes for March 29

• Melissa macro virus was first reported
• Netfinity A-100 appliance server
• Skype for iPhone

March 28, 2000: Be OS v.5 Maui

2000 – BeOS version 5 was launched. Code named “Maui”, this OS is often cloned for the GUI desktop for GNOME. BeOS went to ver. 5.1 before it was acquired by Palm. There is an Open Source version called “Haiku”.

Wikazine – Full show notes for March 28

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• Kodak releases the DC40 camera
• Yahoo launches Yahoo! Photos
• Windows XP 64 is released

March 27, 1996: Link Exchange is created

1996- Tony Hsieh and Sanjay Madin found themselves in a very exciting spot. As the web was starting to grow, they put together a business plan for a powerful advertising cooperative. The result – LinkExchange was born. Of course, LinkExchange was then bought out by Microsoft for $265 million and the rest is history.

Wikazine – Full show notes for March 27

• TorrentSpy Shuts down
• 120 MHz Pentium Processor is released
• Microsoft Excel 4.0 is released

Microsoft

2001 – The reason why I decided to highlight this event is to make you aware that Tablets are not a new thing. Computer companies have been trying to perfect the tablet for many years. in 2001, for example, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates introduces the Tablet PC initiative. Using a Crusoe processor and the XP OS, he shows off a touch screen with Microsoft Notebook handwriting recognition software. This 3 pound revolution weighed only 3 lbs and would cost the average consumer $2,000 – 3,500.Wikazine – Full show notes for March 26

• First World Altair Computer Convention is held in New Mexico.
• Kevin Mitnick pleads guilty
• Dr. Who comes back out of mothballs.