The Great Geek Manual

1999
Packard Bell NEC introduces a line of inexpensive personal computers, ranging from a US$499 Celeron system to a US$999 Pentium III system.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) announces that its racing game Gran Turismo has surpassed the two million unit sales mark in the United States, making it Sony’s best-selling game title ever. The game has sold over 6.86 million units globally, including 2.38 million in Japan and 2.48 million in Europe. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E (Everyone)

2000
The Brazilian website of Universidade de Sorocaba is hacked by the hacking group “cyb3r fuck3rs”. The website is hosted on a server running Windows NT. View an archived version of the defaced website.

EBay announces that the company has asked for a United States federal judge to bar Braxton Anderson, age 33, of Chicago, Illinois from using its auction service. Anderson allegedly disrupted the “normal course of conduct” with repeated use of foul language.

Microsoft acquires NetGames. The company’s technology will later become MSN Games.

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows, featuring improved support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Dynamic HTML (DHTML), and Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language.

Raymond Torricelli, age 20, of New Rochelle, New York is arrested for allegedly hacking into two NASA computers and using one of them to host a chat room on the topic of computer hacking.

2001
The Code Red computer worm is released onto the internet. It will be first observed the next day by eEye Digital Security. Unlike other viruses, Code Red specifically targets servers, rather than personal computers.

The hacker group “World of Hell” (WoH) defaces 679 websites in just one minute. The sites targeted include the official websites of Kate Moss Site and Ricky Martin, Applemactech.com, ComputerCrime.edu, Consolewar.com, Devspot.com, and i-surf.net.

2002
DreamWorks released the drama Road to Perdition, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin, and Daniel Craig, to 1,797 US theaters. The film is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Max Allan Collins. Produced on a budget of US$80 million, it will gross US$22,079,481 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 1 hr 59 mins

Ranchero Software releases the desktop news aggregator NetNewsWire as shareware for the Mac OS X. It is one of the first desktop RSS readers to be released for any platform.

Touchstone Pictures releases the science fiction horror film Reign of Fire, directed by Rob Bowman and starring Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco, Gerard Butler, Alice Krige, and Ben Thornton, to 2,629 US theaters. In it, a race of prehistoric dragons are reawakened deep in an English mine. As they reproduce, their feeding depletes the world’s resources, driving the human races towards extinction. Produced on a budget of US$60 million, it will gross US$15,632,281 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit this film’s official website. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 49 mins

2004
The Twelfth World Computer Chess Championship comes to an end, leaving Deep Junior the victor. Deep Junior was programmed by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky.

2005
Apple Computer releases the Mac OS X 10.4.2 operating system. Visit the official Apple OS X website.

Investigators with the European Commission raid the offices of Intel and computer manufacturers in several countries as part of an antitrust investigation.

2006
The European Commission fines Microsoft US$357 million and threatens additional penalties of US$3.82 million a day beginning July 31 for failing to obey a 2004 antitrust order to share code with its rivals.

The inflatable spacecraft Genesis I is launched into a Low Earth orbit aboard an ISC Kosmotras Dnepr rocket from the Dombarovskiy missile base near Yasniy, Russia. The craft’s mission is to determine the long-term viability of inflatable space structures. In particular, the mission will test whether inflatable structures can maintain a constant internal pressure and temperature suitable for life. Read more at the BBC.

Microsoft launches the “Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays” program, under which a new Xbox Live Arcade game will be released every Wednesday for the remainder of the summer. At the conclusion of the program, Microsoft will continue to release new games on Wednesdays. Visit the official Xbox Live Arcade website.

Version 1.2. of the PC-BSD operating system (OS) is released. PC-BSD is a Unix-like operating system designed to be easy-to-install and read-to-use. Visit the official PC-BSD website.

2007
Hewlett-Packard (HP) announces the release of the HP 35s scientific calculator, featuring a “retro” design to commemorate the original HP-35, the world’s first scientific calculator, which was released in 1972. Visit the official HP 35s website.

MySpace launches status updates for Twitter.

Netscape Communications releases version 9.0b2 (Beta 2) of the Netscape Navigator web browser. Visit the official Netscape Navigator website.

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