1985 – When you hear “Apple Superbowl commercial“, you instantly think a woman running down a hall with a sledgehammer ready to destroy oppression. But there was another commercial. The Yang to the Macintosh Ying.The Lemmings commercial was aired for Super Bowl XIX. It was a commercial for Macintosh Office. Blindfolded businessmen marched off the edge of a cliff to a dark rendition of “Hi Ho”. The last guy in line – realizing his blind mouse wasn’t in front of him anymore, peeked to see what happened – only to find he was one step away from oblivion; Another line of Blind mice coming up behind him. The big difference in this commercial is that it was a horrific failure. ...
1990 – The Chicago Task raids the home of Craig Neidorf – A.K.A. Knight Lightning. The group, along with Bellsouth, are looking for information on an article published in the hacker rag “PHRACK – Control Office Administration of Enhanced 911 Service”. The article was written by “the Eavesdropper” and contained information that was obtained by documents stolen from Bellsouth. The group doesn’t have a warrant, but when they show up the next day with one, Neidorf’s hard drive comes up missing. Craig will then be arrested for tampering. Wikazine – Full show notes for January 18 Stac Electronics sues Microsoft for Patent infringement TRS 80 Model 12 is introduced NewsCorp and MySpace are sued because 4 girls are sexually assulted Podcast: ...
1984 – Two days after the announcement of the 264 and 364 computers, CEO Jack Tramiel resigned from Commodore. There was a lot of battling within the board of directors. 6 months after Tramiel left, he started another company called “Trammel” and hired away a few of the key Commodore employees. The company was one of those that bought – then sold – Atari.Wikazine – Full show notes for January 13 Carol Bartz accepts the CEO position at Yahoo Iomega acquires SyQuest Microsoft SQL Server is announced Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
This is an interesting parallelism:1990 – Time Inc. acquires Warner Communications for $14.1 Billion. 2000 – AOL purchases Time Warner for $165 Billion in stock. The merger would finally complete on Jan 11 2001 when the Federal Trade Commission approves the merger. AOL and Time Warner continue a relationship until 2009 when the two companies finally split. Wikazine – Full show notes for January 10 Apple releases the Macintosh Plus Microsoft settles with Caldera A court rules against Rambus due to their “Spoliation” of documents Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
1982 – the Commodore 64 was introduced by Commodore international. If featured a 6510 processor, 64KB RAM, 20 KB ROM, Microsoft BASIC and was yours for $600. Add the Ulimax, with 2KB for another $149. Wikazine – Full show notes for January 7 Ivan Sutherland introduces the Sketchpad Apple announces Rhapsody Amazon.com goes down for 8 hours Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
1845 – Today, we’re travelling to the Geek side of things. It’s not everyday that I get to talk about my other passion – Music. The Euphonium – often mistaken for a Tuba – was created. It was also coined in later years as “P.T. Barnums’ Euphonium. The word itself comes from the Greek word Euphonos – or Sweet voiced. The Euphonium is pitched in concert B♭. Although a 3 valve instrument, professional Euphoniums have a 4th valve for compensation. This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for December 22 Microsoft releases Excel 5.0 Security- Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is released Electronic Arts (EA) removes the DRM from the game Spore Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
1974 – Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) puts out the first ever “Do it yourself” Altair 8800. You would get it through Popular Mechanics Magazine, then assemble it yourself. This is a turning point in home computer setup. The price for an Altair 8800 kit – $397 – and it included Microsoft Altair BASIC. This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for December 19 DirectX 9 is released RIAA switches from suing users to ISP Samuel Clemens patents suspenders Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Jeffrey Powers would love to come on your show and discuss the events of technology history. Feel free to call him @ 608-205-4378. You can also Contact Jeffrey:
