The Great Geek Manual

1997
In the science fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, this date marks the activation of the HAL 9000 computer. “I am a HAL 9000 computer, Production Number 3. I became operational at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, on January 12, 1997.” In the 1968 film based on the novel, the year of the computer’s activation is changed to 1992.

NASA launches the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the fifth US shuttle mission to the Russian space station Mir. (STS-81)

1998
The website of the ASINet Corporation of Uruguay is hacked by “Magica de Bin”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The website of BASS Consulting is hacked by “Magica de Bin”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

2000
The United States Postal Service issues a 33-cent postage stamp depicting popular video games.

2001
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) releases Antitrust, directed by Peter Howitt and starring Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook, Claire Forlani, Tim Robbins, and Richard Roundtree, to 2,433 US theaters. In it, a young computer programmer named Milo discovers that the CEO of the tech startup where he has just landed his dream job is bent on ruthlessly dispatching those who interfere with his company’s market domination. The company that the film’s main character works for and the CEO he attempts to thwart are thinly-veiled allusions to Microsoft and Microsoft’s CEO, Bill Gates. Audiences will give the film a reception similar to that of the 1995 film Hackers – a great deal of ridicule. It will gross US$5,486,209 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hrs 48 mins

2003
After 18 years, Steve Case announces his resignation as chairman of America Online (AOL), which he co-founded in 1983, although he’ll remain on the company’s board of directors for almost three more years.

2004
Version 5.2 of the FreeBSD operating system is released. Visit the official FreeBSD website.

2005
The Lowell Observatory announces the discovery of the three largest (but not heaviest) stars discovered to date. Each of them is roughly 1,500 times the size of the Sun. As red giants near the end of their life cycle, they aren’t very dense, though. They are roughly twenty-five times heavier than the Sun. Read the original Lowell Observatory press release.

NASA launches the Deep Impact space probe from Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta 2 rocket on a mission to study the composition of the comet 9P/Tempel. The probe will impact the comet on July 4th.

2007
Comet McNaught reaches perihelion becoming the brightest comet visible to the naked eye from Earth in over forty years. View an image of the comet at NASA.

The sequenced genome of Trichomonas vaginalis, the most common pathogenic protozoan infection of humans in industrialized countries (the cause of trichomoniasis), is first published in the journal Science. Read more at the BBC.

2010
China’s most popular search engine, Baidu, is hijacked by a hacking group calling themselves the Iranian Cyber Army just weeks after the December 17th hijacking of Twitter.com. Read more at The Guardian. Visit the official Baidu website.