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

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• 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

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 12, 1986: First Cebitconference is held

1986- It’s full name is Centrum der Büro- und Informationstechnik (Centre of Office and Information technology). CeBit actually was started in the 70′s with the Hanover fair. However, the two separated in 1986 when it was decided that together, the two were not doing too well. Since then, CeBit has grown to be a very important conference for all IT.CeBit expanded in 1999, and the sponsor brought the show to Asia, Australia, Turkey, and the US.  CeBit runs 5 days in Hanover, Germany.

Wikazine – Full show notes for March 12

• V-Chip technology becomes mandatory in televisions
• AOL buys Bebo
• 2007 - Hulu launches in the US

February 23, 1896 – Tootsie Roll is introduced in US

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

GPS

1980 – The first Global Positioning System (GPS) week zero starts. In the GPS system, dates are express as a number for the week of the year and one for the day of the week – For instance, we are in Cycle 1, Week 0541 and Day 02. GPS will recycle every 1,024 weeks (19.6 years).

Wikazine – Full show notes for January 6

• Jack Tramiel steps down as president of Commodore
• Apple introduces the Lisa and Apple IIe
• Liskula Cohen sues Google over Blogger remarks

Y2K

1998 – during the last couple years of the 20th century, the race was on to fix an oversight in multiple computer systems. The problem was dubbed “Y2K” or the Millennium bug. Bottom line was that all computers worked on a 2 digit year system instead of 4. Because of this, once the clock rolled, computers would think it’s 1900 instead of 2000 and bigger issues would happen.For instance, if you were born in 1968, then you would be -68 years old in a computer calculating your birth date. If you had a bill due of $1,000 since 1998, then you might find yourself with a reverse interest, in turn causing financial institutions to go into turmoil.

In 1998, President Bill Clintion made a statement that the Social Security payment system was officially Y2K compliant.

By the way: Most people resolved the problem by not programming in a 4 digit year, but by shifting the thinking of the 2 digit year. Therefore, in 2012 (which some shifted to), they will have these issues all over again.

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• Merry Christmas
• Nintendo Wii with Linux installed
• Compuserve blocks 200 sexually explicit sites
• Netscape announces the AOL browser will be discontinued

Apple

Happy 12/12/12!

1980 - Apple Computer goes up for their Initial Public Offering and makes a statement in the market. Using the symbol “AAPL“, Apple shares started at $22 – but sell out within minutes. By the end of the day, shares rose to $29. The market value became 1.8 Billion, which, in turn, made employees and investors pretty rich – Steve Jobs reports $217 Million, being the largest shareholder. It beat out Ford Motor when it went IPOV (IPO Viral).

This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for December 12

• OSCAR I goes into orbit
• Christopher Cockerell patents the Hovercraft
• FidoNet #1 Hard drive failure
• Gawker.com is hacked and full email, password information was up on the Pirate Bay

Concorde Jet

1967 - The Concorde was a British and French venture. It wa the first supersonic airliner. The prototype (Concorde 001) was rolled out to 1100 present. British technology minister Anthony Wedgwood Benn coined it Concorde on that day. The last “e” would stand for excellence. The first flight would not happen until March 1969.

This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for December 11

• creditcards.com hacked
• Google Chrome (Windows) exits Beta
• Martin Luther King Jr. lectures on science and technology

Richard Wexelblat – History of Programming Languages

1965 - Richard Wexelblat was the first candidate to complete his doctoral dissertation, hence giving him a degree in “Computer Science“. It was presented at the University of Pennsylvania - Moore School of Electrical Engineering. Richard went on to write the “History of Programming Languages” (ISBN:0-12-745040-8)

This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for December 5

• Today is the official birth of the Transistor
• Amazon Crashes
• HD Support for YouTube

Live Aid

2011 – CEO Reed Hastings announced a bombshell that, in turn, brought on Netflix’s single worst year ever. He announced that they were splitting Netflix streaming from DVD rentals. With that, the price would be doubled – $8 for 2 DVD rental plan and $8 for streaming. If you were an existing customer, you would be grandfathered in until September. This news caused their stock to fall, which continued when Hastings announced the DVD division was to be rebranded as Qwikster, and sold (which, of course, didn’t happen).

Meanwhile, in 1985, Live Aid was first held. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for Ethiopian famine releif. Over 175,000 people attended what was called the global jukebox. The concert was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was one of the first and largest shows broadcast on satellite in 1985.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for July 13

• Hollywoodland sign is dedicated, later shortend to Hollywood
• Microsoft is found to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act
• Staten Island girl falls into a manhole after IMing on her phone