The Great Geek Manual

1887
The first book written in Esperanto, the international language invented by Ludwig Zamenhof, is published.

1958
The United States Army launches Explorer IV, the fourth successful US satellite.

1961
The Japanese film Alakazam the Great, based on the manga by Osamu Tezuka, becomes one of the first anime films ever to be released in the United States. IMDB listing

1963
Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster rocket.

1969
Scientists first examine the forty-six pounds of rocks retrieved by Apollo 11 astronauts from the Moon in sample return containers (SRCs). The first “rock box” is opened in the Vacuum Laboratory of the Manned Spacecraft Center’s Lunar Receiving Laboratory, Building 37, at 3:55pm.

1971
NASA launches the Apollo 15. It is the ninth manned space mission of the Apollo program and the fourth to land on the Moon. The crew of the Apollo 15 remain on the lunar surface for a longer period than previous missions in order to focus more intensely on scientific research. It is the first mission to be equipped with a Lunar Rover.

1982
Federal District Judge George Leighton rules that Mattel Electronics has infringed on patents held by Magnavox on the Odyssey video game system.

1984
Release 88 of the Infocom interactive fiction game Zork I: The Great Underground Empire for IBM-compatible computers becomes available. It is the final release of the game, which was the first produced by Infocom.

1993
Cyrix terminates Texas Instruments’ license to manufacture and produce Cyrix-designed x86 compatible processors.

1996
Apple Computer releases QuickTime 2.5 for Macintosh computers (System 6.0.7 or higher). This version adds support for the interchangeable Motion JPEG video compression format.

AT&T and Microsoft announce a cooperative agreement under which both companies will jointly promote and distribute Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and AT&T’s internet service in an attempt to tap the internet market.

1997
Apple Computer releases the Mac OS 8.0 operating system. It represents the largest overhaul of the Mac OS since the release of System 7, six years prior. Code-name: Copland Price: US$99

In a landmark decision, the US Supreme Court rules in the case of Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech. The Court’s opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, rejects censorship of the internet and establishes the precedent that will guide courts in the matter of internet speech for the 21st Century. Read the court’s opinion online.

2000
United States District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel grants the preliminary injunction against Napster, Inc. requested by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The RIAA alleges that Napster facilitates wholesale copyright infringement by enabling online users to search for copyrighted material on the Internet for download. The Judge orders the site to cease operations by midnight Friday, July 28th. The injunction will be stayed two days later by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will rule that “substantial questions” have been raised concerning the merits and form of judge Patel’s injunction.

2001
Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) states that its current fiscal quarter revenues will fall significantly short, citing overall industry economic trends. Consequently, the company will be forced to cut approximately six thousand jobs to generate a savings of almost US$500 million annually.

Hitachi, Ltd. announces that it will exit the desktop monitor business, citing a sluggish market and the emerging focus on alternative displays such as Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) as the reason.

2002
Australia’s High Court rules that that “mod chips” which allow PlayStation video game consoles to play user-create game discs and video games for foreign distribution don’t violate copyright laws that outlaw devices designed to bypass copyright-protection technology because Sony failed to prove that such copyright protection measures were included in the console to begin with.

Sony announces that it has shipped ten million PlayStation 2 systems to date in Japan alone.

2004
Motorola announces that its next-generation cell phones will be compatible with Apple Computer’s popular iTunes music service.

2005
Apple Computer releases an updated iBook portable computer. Common features include a scrolling TrackPad, sudden-motion sensor, 512MB RAM, AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi networking, and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless connectivity. The iBook with a twelve inch screen and 1.33GHz PowerPC G4 processor costs US$999. The model with fourteen inch screen and 1.42GHz processor is US$1,299.

Apple Computer releases an updated Mac Mini computer. A version with 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 processor is priced at US$499. A version with 1.42GHz PowerPC G4 processor and AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi networking, and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless connectivity is priced at US$599. A similar model with SuperDrive (CD/DVD burner) is priced at US$699.

Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy system becomes mandatory. All future Windows updates will require that users verify the authenticity of their Windows operating system. If an operating system is discovered to be counterfeit, the system offers users several options, including purchasing a legitimate copy or even receiving a free or reduced-rate copy in exchange for information regarding the source of the pirated software. Security updates will remain available to everyone. www.microsoft.com/genuine/“>Visit the official Windows Genuine Advantage website.

NASA launches the Space Shuttle Discovery, the first scheduled flight mission to follow the 2003 Columbia Disaster. (STS-114)

Thomas Dickey releases version 9.5 of Vile, a text editor that attempts to combine the best aspects of the popular Emacs and vi editors. Visit the application’s official website.

2006
Dell Inc. opens an outlet store in the Northpark Center in Dallas, Texas. The three thousand square-foot outlet will be open seven days a week, displaying about thirty-six models, including televisions. The outlet won’t sell merchandise, acting instead as a product showcase and on-site service location. However, customers can place orders online or over the telephone from the store.

2007
The Comic Con is held July 26–29 at the San Diego Convention Center in California. The event will be dubbed “the year Hollywood took over the Con” by media outlets for the unprecedented number of film properties, such as Iron Man, which are marketed at the event. Over 125,000 people attend the event.

Microsoft reduces the initial release price of the Xbox 360 video game console from US$199.99 to US$179.99. Visit the official Xbox 360 website.

The Mozilla Foundation publicly announces that development of the Thunderbird e-mail and news client will be passed on to a separate, independent organization in order for Mozilla to focus on the development of the Firefox web browser.