The Great Geek Manual

1898
Scientific American runs the first magazine advertisement for an automobile, placed by the world’s largest automobile factor The Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The ad invites readers to “dispense with a horse.”

1930
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) installs a large-screen television system at an RKO cinema in Schenectady, NY. The screen is five feet high.

1932
Walt Disney releases the film Flowers and Trees, the first short film to use the full-color three-strip Technicolor process. It will go on to become the first animation to win an Academy Award.

1935
The first ten Penguin Books, paperback reprints of titles previously published as hardbacks, are issued by publisher Allen Lane. Each title was priced at just sixpence each, the price of a pack of cigarettes, and features the Penguin brand image and a standardized cover design. The titles include works by Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, and Andre Maurois. The covers are color-coded: blue for biography, green for crime, and orange for fiction. Despite industry skepticism, Penguin sales will reach three million copies in the first year. Penguin paperback books represent an early step in the popularization of affordable paperback books that will become the norm off after World War II.

1946
A V-2 rocket (No. 9) fueled by alcohol and liquid oxygen becomes the first test rocket to reach an altitude of 100 miles (167km). It is launched at White Sands, New Mexico.

1954
The Television Act 1954, authorizing the introduction of commercial television in the UK, receives the Royal Assent.

1959
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore file a patent application for a semiconductor integrated circuit based on the planar process on behalf of the Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. The patent application will be challenged by a Texas Instruments (TI) application on behalf of Jack Kilby, but in 1969, the courts will rule in favor of Noyce.

1971
Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin on Lunar module, Falcon, land with first Lunar Rover on Mare Imbrium on the Moon during the course of the Apollo 15 mission.

1979
The Lisa Project is launched with the objective of developing a two thousand dollar personal computer with all the functionality of the Apple III by a target release of March 1981. The project is led by Ken Rothmuller.

1982
The software applications bundled with the Apple Lisa finally operate together under the machine’s operating system for the first time.

1986
Tandy announces the Color Computer 3, featuring 128K of RAM (upgradeable to 512K), output to a composite video monitor or analog RGB monitor, and a paged memory management unit which breaks up the 6809′s 64k address space into 8x8K chunks. This model is meant to compete with the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST systems.

1991
Apple Computer, IBM, and Motorola announce an alliance to produce PowerPC processors.

1996
Atari Corporation hosts a special meeting of stockholders in the offices of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C. in Palo Alto, California. The meeting only takes about four to six minutes to vote on the merger between Atari Corporation and JTS Corporation. The outcome of the vote is approximately forty-two million votes in favor of the merger and about eleven thousand votes against, ratifying the decision. The new parent company will take on the JTS name while Atari will be designated a JTS subsidiary. Upon the conclusion of the meeting, Sam Tramiel arranges to pick up the severance checks for himself and his siblings. Jack Tramiel, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Atari Corporation, agrees to remain in order to assist the companies with smoothly transition.

1998
Motorola releases 333MHz, 366MHz, and 400MHz PowerPC processors. The processors will be used in the upcoming PowerMac G3 Pro line, as well as a revamped PowerBook G3. The chips are vastly more power efficient than their predecessor, the slower G3s.

The website of the University of Derby’s School of Art & Design is hacked by “fObic”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

1999
Artisan Entertainment releases The Blair Witch Project, directed by Daniel Myrick and starring Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams, to 1,101 US theaters nationwide. The film was the first to use a grassroots Internet campaign, which insinuated that the film is actually a documentary, to amazing effect. The film will be an unprecedented success for an indie film, and it will become widely regarded as one of the most critically-acclaimed horror films ever. It’s success will eventually lead to a sequel, a comic book series, four video games, a novelization, and countless spoofs. In the film, which is shot in a documentary style, tells the story of three young student filmmakers who get lost in the woods while filming a documentary about a legend. After being terrorized by an unseen person or force for several days, they begin to mysteriously disappear, one by one. The film premiered in twenty-seven select theaters July 16th. Produced on a budget of US$60,000, the film will gross US$29,207,381 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 1 hr 26 mins

2002
In Greece, bill 3037/2002 is signed into law. The controversial law is an attempt to ban illegal gambling throughout the country following an incident in which a member of the ruling political party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), was caught on video in an illegal gambling establishment. One of the first effects of the bill is to shut down all videogame arcades and internet cafes overnight. Later, the enforcement of the ban on internet cafes will be relaxed, but the ban on all arcades will continue indefinitely, despite widespread outrage.

2004
Touchstone Pictures releases the suspense film The Village, directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Adrien Brody, to 3,730 US theaters. An isolated town confronts the astonishing truth that lies just outside its borders. At first glance, this village seems picture perfect, but this close-knit community lives with the frightening knowledge that creatures reside in the surrounding woods. The evil and foreboding force is so unnerving that none dare venture beyond the borders of the village and into the woods. But when curious, headstrong Lucius Hunt plans to step beyond the boundaries of the town and into the unknown, his bold move threatens to forever change the future of the village. Produced on a budget of US$60 million, the film will gross US$50,746,142 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 48 mins

2005
At the DefCon hacker conference, Team iFiber Redwire sets a Guinness world record for Wi-Fi connectivity when it connects two computer 124.9 miles apart via an unamplified 802.11b link over for three hours. One computer is positioned on top of a mountain in Nevada with a 12 foot satellite dish, while the second is positioned on a mound in Utah with a 10 foot dish. The accomplishment breaks the 55.1 mile record set by the prior year’s competition. Read more at Unwired Adventures.

2008
Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) releases the result of a national poll the reveals that a fifth of US television viewers are using the internet to watch primetime programming online, particularly professional women, ages 25 to 44. According to the poll, fifty percent of those users are using the internet as a television substitute, while the other half are using it to catch programming they missed at its regularly scheduled time. It is the first study to show that significant numbers of people are being drawn away from their televisions by the internet.