2000
An unprecedented number of advertisements for Internet companies air during Super Bowl XXXIV. Some of the advertisements cost as much as US$3 million for a thirty-second spot. Among the advertisers are Angeltips.com, AutoTrader.com, Britannica.com, Computer.com, DowJones.com, E-Trade, HotJobs.com, Kforce.com, LastMinuteTravel.com, LifeMinders.com, Monster.com, Netpliance.com, OnMoney.com, OurBeginning.com, Pets.com, Screamingmedia.com, and WebMD.
The website of CCPM in Mexico is hacked by “alt3kx_h3z”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
2001
Amazon.com announces its intentions to cut up to 1,300 jobs or about fifteen percent of its work in the hope of turning a profit by the end of the year. Visit the official Amazon.com website.
Intel introduces the ultra low voltage 500MHz mobile Pentium III processor, featuring a 128KB Level-2 cache, a 100MHz front-side bus, and SpeedStep technology, which allows the processor to operate at 300MHz when the computer is running on battery power. Price: US$208 in 1,000-unit quantities
Per Lidén and the CRUX Linux community release version 0.5.1 of the CRUX operating system. CRUX is a lightweight, i686-optimized Linux distribution for advanced Linux users. Visit the official CRUX website.
Yahoo! releases Yahoo! Groups. The service will eventually grow into the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards. By August 2008, the Groups will have 113 million users worldwide and 9 million individual groups. Visit the official website of Yahoo! Groups.
2002
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the 1.1GHz and 1.2GHz Duron processors, featuring a 64KB Level-2 Cache, a 200MHz front-side bus, and PowerNow technology. Prices: US$130 and US$160, respectively
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Sleeping Dogs” first airs. (No. 114) In it, Hoshi, Malcolm, and T’Pol board a doomed Klingon scout ship in a decaying orbit around a gas giant. Memory Alpha entry
The top-level domain (TLD) .coop opens for registration. Visit the official website of the .coop registrar.
Version 2.5.3 of the Linux operating system is released. Visit the official Linux website.
2003
MindArk launches the massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) Entropia Universe for Windows. The game is notable for being free with no subscription fees while incorporating a real cash economy. Player can convert money earned in game, called Project Entropia Dollars (PED), into real U.S. currency or deposit real-world money to buy in-game items. The game will make news in both 2004 and 2008 for setting the world record for the most expensive virtual objects ever sold. Visit the official website of the Entropia Universe.
2004
David Bradley, one of the “dirty dozen” engineers who created the original IBM PC and the creator of the famous “Ctrl-Alt-Del” keystroke combination, retires from IBM.
Gateway Computers acquires eMachines, a manufacturer of low-cost personal computers. Visit the official website of eMachines.
2006
Microsoft releases a mandatory update for Xbox Live on the Xbox 360. The company claims the update contains bugfixes and improvements, however, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, Xbox Live director of programming, admits that “the true purpose of this update was to halt the progress of the modding community”.
The SeaMonkey Council releases version 1.0 of the SeaMonkey cross-platform internet suite. The suite includes a browser based on Netscape, an HTML editor, a mail client, and a newsgroup client. Visit the official website of the SeaMonkey Project.
2007
Apple releases four new colors in the iPod shuffle line: blue, green, orange, and pink.
Microsoft announced that the 113 titles available for the Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox 360 have been downloaded over twenty million times. Visit the official Xbox Live Arcade website.
Microsoft releases Office 2007 to the general public. Visit the official Microsoft Office website.
Microsoft releases Microsoft Windows Vista globally to the general public. The system is available is several editions, including Home Basic (US$385), Home Premium (US$455), Ultimate (US$751), and Business (US$565). The release comes more than five years after the release of its predecessor, Windows XP operating system. Some significant new features of Vista include live previews, including video, of running applications, integrated search and security, and 3D navigation of desktop applications – the most drastic changes in the system’s graphical user interface (GUI) since the transition from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. The new GUI is dubbed “Windows Aero.” Several security flaws are detected within the first few hours of its release. Visit the official Windows Vista website. Code-name: “Longhorn”
2008
An underwater in the Mediterranean Sea is severed, dramatically slowing Internet access across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and a number of Middle Eastern nations. In the weeks to follow, four more underwater cables were cut, causing Iran to loose all access to the Internet. The incident, which will receive a great deal of media coverage, highlights the fragile nature of the world’s internet infrastructure.
2010
Amazon.com removes both electronic and print editions of all titles from MacMillan publishing from its website in a dispute over the pricing of books sold for Amazon’s Kindle reader. At issue is the question of whether or not publishers have the right to control the price of e-books sold through the site, which has established a standard price of US$9.99 for Kindle e-books.
|
|
|
Pingback: Nuclear Power Stations