May 18: Shrek is Released

May 17, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

Shrek

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

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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 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 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 8: Kaypro II Introduced

May 7, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

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

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May 5 (Cinco De Mayo): First Banned from Internet

May 4, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

chris lamprecht

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

Related articles

• May 4: Player vs Player (PvP) Comic Launches (dayintechhistory.com)
• Music Apps of iPad: Spotify, Shazam, Stitcher, iHeartRadio [Video] (geekazine.com)
• May 1: First BASIC Program Written (dayintechhistory.com)
• 10 of the Worst Events in Tech History (dayintechhistory.com)

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May 2: First Microsoft Mouse

May 1, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Microsoft

microsoft mouse

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

Related articles

• April 29: Google Files IPO (dayintechhistory.com)
• April 30: World Wide Web Goes to Public Domain (dayintechhistory.com)
• April 3: Microsoft a Monopoly (dayintechhistory.com)

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April 29: Google Files IPO

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

Google

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.

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

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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 27: Koko Gorilla Takes over AOL Chat

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

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

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