The Great Geek Manual

1883
Thomas Alva Edison receives a series of patents for his “Dynamo-Electric Machine”, two for a “Regulator for Dynamo-Electric Machines”, (US No. 278,413, -4, -9) three for the “Manufacture of Incandescing Electric Lamps”, one for an “Apparatus for Translating Electric Currents From High to Low Tension”, (US No. 278,415, -6, -7, -8), and one for a “Design for Incandescing Electric Lamp.”

1886
Chemist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola in the newspaper Atlanta Journal. In later decades, the Coca-Cola brand will be well known as the most advertised brand in the world.

1898
The heirs of Alfred Nobel sign a “reconciliation agreement” so that lawyers and accountants can execute his will. The will’s major bequest will create the Nobel Prizes, once disputes to the will are settled.

1919
A solar eclipse makes it possible to test Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity by observing the stars during the eclipse. Expeditions of the Royal Astronomical Society travel to Sobral, Ceará, Brazil and Principe on the west coast of Africa to measure the position of stars made visible by the eclipse. The observations will later prove that the light of stars near the sun is bent as it passes through the gravitational field of the sun, thus proving that Einstein’s prediction that gravity energy such as light just the same as it effects matter. The verification is key to proving Einstein’s theory.

1935
The German television transmitter station at Witzleben, Berlin is renamed Fernsender Paul-Nipkow in honor of the pioneer of mechanical television, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow. In a speech to the Television Congress in Berlin, Eugen Hadamowsky, head of the television department (Fernsehgemeinschaft) of the Reich Broadcasting Office (Reichsrundfunkkammer, RRK), declares television to be a German invention because of Nipkow’s work.

1942
Bing Crosby records White Christmas, written by Irving Berlin at the studios of Decca Records in Los Angeles, California. Recorded for the film Holiday Inn, it will sell a million copies by 1946 and twenty-five million copies by 1965, making it the highest selling disc of all time, a distinction that it will hold until 1997.

1953
Edmund Percival Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa from Nepal, become the first humans to step upon the highest point on Earth’s surface, the summit of Mount Everest.

1956
Embassy Pictures Corporation releases the black-and-white science fiction film Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is released to theaters in Japan. The film is an American adaptation of the 1954 Japanese film Godzilla, which had previously been shown with subtitles in Japanese community theaters in the United States and is unknown in Europe. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 20 mins

1963
The Italian B-movie Atom Age Vampire is released to Italian theaters. In the movie, a singer is horribly disfigured in a car accident, and a scientist develops a treatment which can restore her beauty by injecting her with the glands of a murdered woman. While performing the procedure, however, he falls in love with her, but before long, the treatments take a terrible turn. IMDB listing

1989
Nintendo releases Tennis for the Game Boy in Japan.

1996
The first JavaOne developers’ conference is held by Sun Microsystems to discuss Java technologies, primarily among Java developers. Over six thousand people attend. Visit the official JavaOne website.

Vim 4.0 is released, featuring a new graphical user interface. Vim is an open source, multi-platform text editor popular among programmers and users of Unix operating systems.

1997
Reporters around the country receive an email claiming that the website of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was hacked late the previous night (or, more accurately very early in the morning) by “P.A.R.A.” By the time most reporters have a chance to visit the site, it shows only a blank, gray screen with the words “lapd.org Initial Home Page.” However, archived copies of the site show a highly sophisticated graphical defacement, complete with a political message accusing the LAPD of racism, calling it the “Death Squad Home Page.” The rumor spread to news outlets across the nation, where it is widely reported as fact. However, it will later be revealed that, in fact, no hack took place. A year prior, an LAPD police officer went to Internet Presence Providers for Internet access. That got Peter Hertan, president of IPP, thinking. When he discovered that the domain “www.lapd.org” had never been registered with the InterNIC, he went ahead and filed for it. A year later, some LAPD officers determined to build an LAPD website asked to buy back the URL, and Hertan sold it to them at cost. The officers asked EarthLink to host the site, and EarthLink agreed, pending an official go-ahead. But official approval never came. The officers went up and down the chain of command, and at every level, the answer came back the same: No. So, in mid-May of 1996, when it was registered, through May 1997, the LAPD site consisted of a gray screen with the words “lapd.org Initial Home Page.” According to Hertan, from the day he put it up to the day it was taken down, “nothing was added to the web site. Nothing was taken away. We show no evidence of it being hacked.” In 2002, the domain will finally officially be adopted by the department. View an archived version of the allegedly defaced website.

1998
Acclaim Entertainment releases Extreme-G for the Nintendo 64 in Japan.

Byte magazine is acquired by CMP Media Inc.. CMP Media publishes more than thirteen computer magazines, including Windows Magazine. Visit the official Byte magazine website.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) invites children of Atlanta, Georgia to take participate in PlayStation City, a themed video game competition and exhibition planned to help kick off the E3 trade show. Sony Computer Entertainment America also hosts a private party in a complex adjacent to the E3 trade show. Admission is by invitation only and the event includes free alcohol, caps, cigars, and sports bags. Entertainment for the event is provided by the band Foo Fighters. Visit the official E3 website.

Steve Case, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of America Online (AOL) delivers the keynote address at the second annual conference on Internet and Society at Harvard University. Harvard rejected Case as an MBA candidate years before, telling him to go and get some work experience. In his speech, he focuses on the issues of Internet privacy and the increasing need for Net regulation. He calls for a new “Internet Alliance” to be formed to instigate such regulation. He also calls for a more active role for the internet in US politics and suggests holding “town meetings” during the course of the 2000 presidential elections. Case is of the opinion that, if such meetings could do for the internet what the 1960 presidential elections between Nixon and Kennedy did for television.

1999
The five millionth domain name, believeinkids.com is registered.

In the Saturday, May 29 issue of Games Business magazine, Doug Lowenstein, President of the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), reveals the results of a survey compiled from the responses of more than 1,600 United States (US) homes. According to the statistics, thirty-four percent rated video games as their preferred choice of entertainment choices. Only eighteen percent rated television as the most preferred form of entertainment. The statistics also reveal that thirty-five percent of console gamers and forty-three percent of PC gamers are female.

The Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

2000
Microsoft releases version 3 (3.0.0080) of the freeware instant messaging client MSN Messenger, featuring file transfers, PC to IPOD and PC to phone audio capabilities with Net2Phone, one of the first VOIP providers. Visit the official MSN Messenger website.

2001
Intel releases the Itanium 64-bit processor in 733 and 800MHZ speeds.

Majesco releases Iridion 3D for the Game Boy Advance in North America. While the game will be praised for its beautiful graphics and rich sound, the game will be derided by critics and gamers for repetitive gameplay. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E (Everyone)

Red Hat announces the Red Hat Linux 7.1 operating system for the Intel Itanium processor. Visit the official Red Hat website.

SuSE announces SuSE Linux 7.2 operating system for the Intel IA-64 processor. Visit the official SuSE website.

2002
Adobe Systems releases the Dreamweaver MX web development application for personal computers. Visit the official Dreamweaver website.

The IEEE 1394 standard is officially renamed FireWire.

Netflix initiates an initial public offering (IPO), selling 5,500,000 shares of common stock at the price of US$15.00 per share. Visit the official Netflix website.

Origin Systems releases Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss for Windows Mobile in Japan.

2003
Activision releases Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory as a download for computers running Linux, Mac, or Windows. The game is a freeware first-person shooter based on the Quake III engine. The multiplayer game is released as freeware due to problems with the single-player aspect. It is a standalone sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. ESRB: M (Mature)

America Online (AOL) and Microsoft settle their private antitrust lawsuit, with Microsoft paying US$750 million and granting a royalty-free seven-year license to use Internet Explorer with AOL client software.

Electronic Arts releases The Sims for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in Japan. The console version of The Sims is a somewhat different game from the blockbuster Windows games, featuring some gameplay modifications, a 3D camera perspective and some resources from a few of the Windows expansions: parties, dates, jobs, and a story-based mode entitled Get a life. In addition, an object limiter is active on all houses to prevent players from constructing and furnishing a house too big for the console to load. Visit the game’s official website.

The journal Nature publishes an article entitled, “Action video game modifies visual selective attention” by D. Bavelier and C. Green of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Vis. In the article researchers conclude that video games improve visual skills. Read an archive of the study in its entirety as a .pdf file.

NASA officials release experimental findings proving that the insulation known to have hit the leading edge of Columbia’s left wing could have created a gap in between protective heat panels.

Version 4.3.2 of the PHP programming language is released. Visit the official PHP website.

Sega releases Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.

2004
The director’s cut of the cult film Donnie Darko is released in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle International Film Festival. This cut includes twenty minutes of extra footage, an altered soundtrack, the director’s interpretation and visual excerpts from the book The Philosophy of Time Travel. The film’s second release represents its growth from a cult classic into the mainstream since its original theatrical release in October 2001. Visit this film’s official website.

EA Games releases Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the Game Boy Advance in Europe. PEGI: 3+

The first Sega Dreamcast emulator to successfully run commercial games, Chankast, is first released as freeware for Microsoft Windows. Visit the official Chankast website.

2006
CDV and Deep Silver release the real-time strategy game City Life for Windows in North America. City Life allows players to zoom in and see every little bit of detail. The placement method allows buildings to be placed at an angle, which is not something that has been seen before in such games. ESRB: E (Everyone) Price: US$39.99

Journalist Michelle Keller publishes an article in The LA Times entitled, “Menace to Comic Heroes?”, in which she discusses the impact of Internet piracy on small press publishers in the comic book market. Read an archived version of the article at MIT.

Sony Computer Entertainment releases Tourist Trophy for the PlayStation 2 in Europe. Tourist Trophy is a motorcycle racing game developed by the team behind the popular Gran Turismo series, Polyphony Digital. Visit the game’s official website.

Version 1.1 PC-BSD is released. It is the second release of PC-BSD, a Unix-like, desktop-oriented operating system; the first was released on April 29, 2006. Visit the official PC-BSD website.

2007
The CDW Coporation announces that it has agreed to be acquired by Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (”MDP”) in a merger valued at roughly US$7.3 billion. Read the original press release. Visit the official CDW website.

The Game Factory releases Legend of the Dragon for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in the US. ESRB: T (Teen)

Microsoft Game Studios releases the racing game Forza Motorsport 2 for the Xbox 360 in North America. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E (Everyone)

Midway releases the versus fighting game Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Wii in the US. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: M (Mature)

Nintendo releases the Mario Party 8 for the Wii in North America. It is the tenth game in the Mario Party franchise. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E (Everyone)

Sega releases the puzzle game Crush for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in North America. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E10+ (Everyone)

Ubisoft releases Surf’s Up for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Wii, and Xbox 360. Visit the game’s official website.

A United States federal judge orders the TorrentSpy bittorrent indexing site to begin logging its users’ activities for the Motion Picture Association of America. In response, the TorrentSpy’s attorney, Ira Rothken, announces the site administration’s intent block US access rather than violation its on privacy policy. Read more at Torrent Freak.