The Great Geek Manual

1595
Johannes Kepler publishes Mysterium cosmographicum (Mystery of the Cosmos) in which he describes an invisible underlying structure determining the six known planets’ orbits. His model is based on five convex regular solids. The path of each planet lays on a sphere separated from its neighbors by touching an inscribed polyhedron. An inscribed cube separates the spheres of the outermost planets, Saturn and Jupiter. Inside the path of Jupiter, an inscribed tetrahedron contains the sphere for Mars. Spheres for the Earth, Venus, and Mercury are respectively nested within a regular dodecahedron, icosohedron, and regular octahedron. Later, more scientifically complete orbital data will fit Kepler’s model surprisingly well.

1877
Inventor Alexander Graham Bell, lawyer and financier Greene Hubbard, and wealthy leather merchant Thomas Sanders, whose deaf son studied with Bell, sign a deed of trust forming the Bell Telephone Company in Antwerp, Belgium.

1955
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto is released by philosopher Bertrand Russell in London, England. The documents decries the dangers of a nuclear arsenals and urges world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflicts, especially the Cold War. The Manifesto is endorsed by eleven globally-recognized intellectual authorities, most notably renowned physicist Albert Einstein. Read the full text of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto.

1957
The discovery of element 102 and its proposed name, Nobelium, is announced. It is an artificially created, radioactive, “rare earth metal” named for Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.

1979
The NASA spacecraft Voyager 2 passes within 350,000 miles (570,000 km) of Jupiter’s cloud deck. It is one of a pair of probes launched in 1977. Although Voyage 2 was launched first, on August 20th, it was designed to travel slower than its counterpart, Voyager 1, in order to make a pass of all the giant planets. It discovers a few rings around Jupiter, as well as volcanic activity on the moon Io, marking the first time an active volcano is ever observed on another celestial body. Visit the official NASA Voyager website.

1982
Bally debuts the arcade game Tron.

Buena Vista Pictures releases the sci-fi film Tron, directed by Steven Lisberger and starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, and Barnard Hughes, to 1,091 US theaters. The film is notable for being the earliest film with a plot centering around computers and for being one of the first film to make extensive use of computer graphics. Pixar, which, a division of Industrial Light and Magic, contributed to the film’s special effects. Produced on a budget of US$17 million, the film will gross US$4,761,795 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 1 hr 36 mins

1984
The National Computer Conference is held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1985
Atari begins shipping the Atari 520ST computer, featuring a monochrome monitor, 512kB RAM, 3.5-inch floppy drive, BASIC, and Logo. Price: US$800

1997
Apple Computer announces the resignation of Gilbert Amelio as CEO. Amelio was ousted as CEO of Apple by the board of directors following twelve years of record-low stock prices and crippling financial losses. His severance package is valued at about US$7.5 million. Steve Jobs steps in as the interim CEO and begins restructuring the company’s product line. Visit the official website of Apple.

1998
Electronic Arts Victor releases Diablo for the PlayStation in Japan.

Hudson Soft releases B.L.U.E. Legend of Water for the PlayStation in Japan.

1999
The Stargate SG-1 episode “Fair Game” first airs. In it, the Asgard warn the SGC that the Goa’uld are planning to attack on Earth. With the help of the Asgard, SG-1 negotiates with three Goa’uld System Lords to bring Earth into the Protected Planets Treaty. Captain Carter is promoted to the rank of Major. Gateworld entry

Tor Books publishes the alternate-history fantasy novel The Shadow of Ararat by Thomas Harlan as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0312865436) It is the first book in the Oath of Empire series. Visit this author’s official website. Length: 480 pages

2000
The Brazilian website of Industria De Produtos Alimenticios Cory Ltda. is hacked by “suPosix”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of Mario Gilberto Eichler Jznior is hacked by the hacking group “Crime Boys”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The website of Cyber Golf is hacked by “DHC”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

2001
Adobe releases version 7.0 of PageMaker for both Mac OS 9 and Windows. Historically, it is the first desktop publishing program. Read more about the history of PageMaker. Visit the software’s official website.

AT&T Wireless becomes an independent company. It was founded in 1994 as a division of AT&T.

Sega releases the economic simulation game TV Tycoon for the personal computer. The game simulates managing a television station, making money by selling advertising space to avoid bankruptcy. ESRB: E (Everyone)

2002
HarperEntertainment publishes the fantasy novel T2: Rising Storm by S.M. Stirling as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0380977925) It is the second book in the Terminator 2 trilogy. Visit this author’s official website. Length: 384 pages

2003
Buena Vista Pictures releases the adventure film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, and Jonathan Pryce, to 3,269 US theaters. The film, inspired by the ride at Disney theme parks, includes several references to Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean attraction: prisoners in jail try to get a dog with a key to come to them, a pirate sits on a barrel drinking from a bottle, a parrot says “Dead men tell no tales”, and the ride’s theme song is featured. “Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.” Produced on a budget of US$140 million, the film will gross US$46,630,690 domestically in it opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2 hrs 15 mins

Capcom releases Resident Evil: Dead Aim for the PlayStation 2 in Europe. It is the fourth release in the Gun Survivor series and the first to feature third-person movement, similar to its predecessor titles in the Resident Evil series. ELSPA: 15+

Simon & Schuster Interactive releases the sports game Outlaw Volleyball for the Xbox in the US. ESRB: M (Mature)

Version 0.3 of Desktop Light Linux (DeLi Linux) is released. DeLi is particularly optimized to run on older personal computers. DeLi Linux requires only a 386 processor with 8MB RAM. However, it works best with a 486 and 16MB RAM. A full installation with the full package installed requires nearly 400MB of hard disk space. Visit the official DeLi website.

2004
Activision releases Spider-Man 2 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in the UK. Visit the game’s official website. PEGI: 12+

Nintendo releases the platform game Super Mario Bros. for the Game Boy Advance in Europe. Visit the game’s official website.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) releases the third-person shooter Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain for the PlayStation 2 in Europe.

The Stargate SG-1 episodes “New Order” parts one and two first air. In the episodes, Sam and Teal’c go to find Thor, who is guarding the Replicators, which escape. Three System Lords meet with the SGC after their defeat of Anubis. Sam is abducted by Fifth. O’Neill is awakened and creates a device of Ancient design. Orilla is saved from Replicators when Jack uses his device, but some Replicators escape after Sam is released by Fifth. Gateworld entry for Part I Gateworld entry for Part II

Yahoo! acquires Oddpost, a webmail service that simulates a desktop email client similar to Microsoft Outlook. Oddpost has new innovative features such as drag-and-drop support, right-click menus, RSS feeds, and a preview pane, but it is also fast, using e-mail caching to shorten its response time. Later, many of these features will later be incorporated into an updated version of Yahoo! Mail. Read the Yahoo! press release.

2005
LucasArts releases Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. Visit the game’s official website.

Version 0.1.3 of SuperTux, a free platform game modeled after Nintendo’s Super Mario series, is released. The game stars Tux, the Linux kernel mascot. This version includes twenty-six levels. Visit the game’s official website.

2007
At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Sony announces that an 80GB PlayStation 3 video game console bundled with MotorStorm will be released August 6, 2007 and that production of the 60GB model has been discontinued. The company also announces that it is reducing the price of the 60GB PlayStation 3 video game console by US$100 to US$499 and discontinuing the 20GB model. Visit the official PlayStation 3 website.

In Florida federal court, Jorge Brouwer files a lawsuit against Microsoft alleging that Xbox 360 video game systems are “negligently designed and manufactured” and that, as a result, they scratch video game discs. Furthermore Brouwer claims that Microsoft has received thousands of complaints regarding the scratched discs but that the company has failed to replace them all. The lawsuit seeks class-action certification.