May 17: HTML, HTTP Set Up on NeXTcube

May 16, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Internet

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

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

Intel Pentium III at 550 MHz

• Ars Technica sold
• Lawrence Welk passes away (1992)

Related articles

• Tim Berners-Lee: Protect the Open Web! #WWW2012 (advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org)
• February 26: Introduction of first Broswer – WorldWideWeb (dayintechhistory.com)
• April 30: World Wide Web Goes to Public Domain (dayintechhistory.com)

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May 14: Happy Birthday George Lucas

May 13, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

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. Star Wars 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

Related articles

• George Lucas is Straight Gangster (thesuperficial.com)
• May 12: Prodigy Takeover from IBM (dayintechhistory.com)
• May 11: VisiCalc Demonstrated (dayintechhistory.com)

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May 13: Turbo C is Released

May 12, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

Turbo C

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 11

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

Related articles

• Social Media and Addiction (madisonsmc.org)
• May 11: VisiCalc Demonstrated (dayintechhistory.com)
• May 10: TAT-14, Transatlantic cable begins service (dayintechhistory.com)

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May 12: Prodigy Takeover from IBM

May 11, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

Prodigy

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

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May 11: VisiCalc Demonstrated

May 10, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Software

Visicalc

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

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May 10: TAT-14, Transatlantic cable begins service

May 9, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Internet

TAT14

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

Related articles

• May 8: Kaypro II Introduced (dayintechhistory.com)
• February 9: Atari – My First Computer Keyboard (dayintechhistory.com)

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May 3: First Bulk E-mail Spam

May 2, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

spam

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

• 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

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May 1: First BASIC Program Written

Apr 30, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

code

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.

Related articles

• April 29: Google Files IPO (dayintechhistory.com)
• Tamagotchi ♥ (withsummerlove.com)
• NASA retires its last IBM Z9 mainframe (slashgear.com)
• Twitter announces Osama Bin Laden’s death hours before the official announcement by President Barack Obama

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April 28: Apple iTunes Music Store Launches

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

Apple

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.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 27

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

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April 26: TRS-80 Model 4 Released

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

TRS80-4

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

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