1997
Seven websites are hacked by “Newport” and “L|\Z”. View an archived version of the message left on all seven sites.
Three websites, including Diversified Data Systems and Sarah Lawrence College are hacked and defaced by “Claire Danes”. View an archived version of the message left on all three sites.
1998
Mattel, Inc. announces an agreement to acquire The Learning Company, Inc. for US$33 per share, for a total of US$3.8 billion.
Oracle and Sun Microsystems jointly announce their intention to collaborate on a new type of computer that doesn’t require an operating system (specifically any Microsoft products) to function.
1999
Charles M. Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, announces his retirement after suffering a stroke in November and being diagnosed with colon cancer. The decision was a difficult one for Schulz, who told Al Roker of The Today Show, “I never dreamed that this would happen to me. I always had the feeling that I would stay with the strip until I was in my early eighties, or something like that. But all of sudden it’s gone. I did not take it away. This has been taken away from me.” Schulz will die on February 12, 2000. His final strip will run the day following his death. Peanuts will have run for nearly fifty years without interruption, appearing in 2,600 newspapers in seventy-five countries.
Monica Gilmore of Free-PC sends an email to Free-PC registrants announcing that Free-PC has merged with eMachines. The merger means that the free computer program has been discontinued in favor of eMachines’ successful pattern of selling economical computers through established retail channels.
Sega of America and Excite@Home announces a partnership to build Sega’s Dreamcast Network, an Internet gaming portal.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Pets.
2000
PC Data releases a report detailing the results of a study conducted by the firm that indicates that while males comprise approximately fifty-five percent of all gamers, the majority of online gamers are female. The study reveals that women prefer online gambling, card games, and trivia games while men prefer war, sports, and first-person shooting games. The study, entitled Spotlight on Games: Categories and Hardware, utilizes a variety of data sourced from PC Data’s complete offering of retail sales tracking, Internet audience measurement, software usage tracking, hardware configuration, and a custom survey. Read more at Games First.
2001
In Australia, the government bans the sale of Grand Theft Auto III after the Office of Film and Literature Classification refuses to rate the game due to its graphic violence and the organization’s lack of an adult classification (the highest rating being MA15+).
Nintendo releases versions of the Game Boy Advance system with Black or Orange cases and improved, brighter screens in Japan.
Panasonic releases the SLGC-10 video game console in Japan. The system, also known as “Q,” is a special GameCube which can play CD and DVD discs. Price: ¥39,800 (about US$305).
2002
Version 1.0 of the CRUX Linux operating system is released. CRUX is a i686-optimized Linux distribution intended for experienced Linux users. Visit the system’s official website.
2004
Google announces plans to digitize and index the book collections of five major libraries, including the Harvard, New York Public Library, Oxford, Stanford, and University of Michigan, with an emphasis on books published before 1900.
2005
An article published in the journal Nature reveals the results of a study that compared the accuracy of the highly regarded Encyclopedia Britannica with that of the collaborative internet encyclopedia Wikipedia through a process of peer review. The review, based on forty-two scientific articles reviewed by experts, found that the average scientific entry in Wikipedia contains four errors or omissions, while the entries in the Britannica contain three. Reviewers also found four egregious errors among the articles from both of the two sources. The surprising article comes in response to several Britannica officials’ public criticism of Wikipedia’s quality. Read more at MSNBC.
Belarusian lawmakers pass legislation cracking down on Internet dating and online spouse searches in a series of stringent government controls backed by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Universal Pictures releases the action film King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, and Andy Serkis, to 3,568 U.S. theaters. It is a remake of the 1933 film King Kong. In it, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with leading lady Ann Darrow. Produced on a budget of US$207 million, it will gross US$50,130,145 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 3 hrs 7 mins
The Walt Disney Co. announces its first film production in China in an efforts to break into the booming Chinese entertainment market.
2006
The American military spy satellite USA-193 is launched. It is the first launch conducted by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The satellite will lead to an international controversy when it is destroyed by a modified, US$9.5 million SM-3 missile fired from the warship USS Lake Erie on February 21, 2008. The Russian government will claim that the destruction is a test of the U.S. missile defense program in response to the 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test. Many will see the incident as a re-kindling of the international space race.
The Free Software Foundation pledges a donation of sixty thousand dollars to the Free Ryzom Campaign, which was established to raise the funds necessary to purchase the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Ryzom from its developer, Nevrax, which entered receivership in November, in order to release it as free software. Visit the game’s official website. Visit the official website of the Free Software Foundation.
GfK Australia announces that the Wii video game console has become the fastest selling console in Australian history with 32,901 units sold in just four days, breaking the record Microsoft set when the Xbox 360 sold 30,241 units over its opening weekend.
2007
Asus Technology of Taiwan unveils a US$299 version of its Eee PC, a 2-pound laptop for kids that stores data on flash memory.
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