The Great Geek Manual

1925
A two minute long motion picture of a solar eclipse is recorded by the United States Navy from the dirigible Los Angeles from an elevation of about 4,500 feet, about nineteen miles east of Montauk Point, Long Island, New York. It is the first time a dirigible has been used for astronomical observations in the US.

1948
International Business Machines (IBM) dedicates the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC), also known as the Poppa, at the company’s world headquarters in New York City. The SSEC is the first computer to combine electronic computation with stored instructions, and it will be the first computer to run a stored program and the last large electromechanical computers to be built. It contains 13,500 vacuum tubes and 21,000 relays and occupies three sides of a 1,800 square foot room. Among it’s most notable accomplishments will be the calculation of a table of the Moon’s positions which will be used to plot the course of the 1969 Apollo flight. It will be decommissioned in 1952.

1950
Percy LeBaron Spencer is issued a patent for the original microwave oven, which he describes in his application as a “Method of Treating Foodstuffs.” (US No. 2,495,429) However, the first commercial microwave oven, the 1161 Radarange, won’t be marketed to the public until 1954.

1956
As part of the consent decree resulting from the 1949 antitrust case, AT&T and Western Electric are restricted from expanding their businesses into any field outside the telecommunications industry, with the notable exceptions of conducting research.

1964
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces the IBM 7770 Audio Response Unit, which makes data within a computer available over the telephone.
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We programmers and engineers aren’t so lucky as to find free-standing virtual marble blocks ready for the sculpting. We must first build up the marble block itself until it shows sufficient promise and only then start chipping away to reveal our product’s true form.

- Rael Dornfest, On Programming as both Sculpture and Stonemasonry

1959
Robert Noyce of Texas Instruments conceives the idea of an integrated circuit. In 1968, Noyce will found Intel with Gordon Moore and Andy Grove.

1983
The television show The A-Team begins its first season on the NBC.

1985
Apple Computer introduces the Macintosh Office, which included the first Appletalk network and the LaserWriter laser printer. A US$50 kit will be available for connecting a Macintosh to the 230 kbps Appletalk network. The LaserWriter is priced at US$6995.

Apple Computer officially renames the Lisa 2/10 computer to Macintosh XL. Price: US$3995

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We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.

- Steve Jobs in an interview with Fortune senior editor Betsy Morris.

1889
The Columbia Phonograph Company is formed in Washington, D.C.

1908
Edouard Bélin uses his Bélinographe, a system able to send remote photographs over telephone and telegraphic networks, to transmit a photograph 1,700 km from Paris to Bordeaux to Lyon then back. The historical event takes twenty-two minutes.

1939
The Uranium atom is split for the first time using the cyclotron at Columbia University, in New York City. The break through will lead to the creation of the atom bomb in Manhattan Project.

1946
US President Harry S. Truman creates the Central Intelligence Group, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. Read more at the CIA website.

1968
NASA launches Apollo 5 on the first unmanned lunar module test.
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Source: Not too Sure about This

1888
Charles Babbage’s son, Henry Provost Babbage, uses the mill portion of the Analytical Engine he constructed from his father’s drawings to compute multiples of Pi in order to prove that the design is functional.

1920
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a non-profit organization that defends and the constitutional rights of individuals, is formed. The organization will have a significant impact on a number of fundamental issues surrounding the internet, the media, and the communication industry in general. Visit the official ACLU website.

1942
New York Mayor Fiorello Henry LaGuardia bans pinball games in New York City, comparing them to slot machines and labeling them games of chance. LaGuardia will have thousands of the machines busted up and dumped into the ocean. Over seven thousand pounds of scraps material from the machines, including three thousand pounds of steel balls. The ban will continue through to 1976.

1954
The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, is christened by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and launched on the Thames River in Groton, Connecticut. The propulsion system of the Nautilus makes the ship the first “true” submarine. Vessel previously termed “submarines” were, in fact, only submersibles powered by diesel engines which consumed vast amounts of oxygen. However, the Nautilus can remain submerged for months on end.

1957
NBC records and later broadcasts the second inaugural ceremonies of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is the first national broadcast of a previously recorded event.
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Last Week’s Best-Selling Genre Books

1. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
2. Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
3. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
4. Nation by Terry Pratchett
5. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
6. Foundation by Mercedes Lackey
7. The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks
8. A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
9. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
10. Wolfsbane and Mistletoe by Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner

New Releases

The following books will be released this week:

Agincourt: A Novel by Bernard Cornwell
Harper. (ISBN: 978-0061578915) Length: 464pp
Cornwell returns to the Hundred Years War era in this action-packed if slightly melodramatic epic about King Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Nicholas Hook, an English forester, is on the run after interfering with a rapist priest and ends up a mercenary defender at Soissons, where he saves a young and beautiful novitiate, Melisande. With his French prize in tow, he returns to England and signs on with Henry’s army as an archer. January 20

The Clone Wars Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game) by Rodney Thompson, et all
Wizards of the Coast. (ISBN: 978-0786949991) Length: 224pp
This book includes new information for heroes on both sides of the war, including new talents, feats, prestige classes, and equipment designed to tailor characters to the unique feel of the Clone Wars conflict. Release: January 20
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