The Great Geek Manual

1837
The electric “Five Needle Telegraph” is patented in London by Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke. (UK No. 7,390) The instrument requires six wires between each of its stations. In the Wheatstone system, letters on a board are indicated by the deflection of five needles, and a calling device is incorporated to draw the attention of the operator. Cooke and Wheatstone will be granted a patent in the US just ten days before Samuel F. B. Morse will receive his, but, historically, Morse is given priority as the first inventor. The Morse patent describes a prototype of his famous dot-dash code. Wheatstone and Cooke will have the priority in the UK. Their telegraph had no means of recording messages, which Morse regarded as a great disadvantage.

1854
G.F. Bernhard Riemann proposes that space is curved in a lecture entitled “Über die Hypothesen welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen.” He describes the old-fashioned Euclidean plane geometry and solid geometry, respectively, as two-, and three-dimensional examples of what we now call Riemann spaces with zero curvature. Saying that the space is curved, rather than flat or Euclidean, is another way saying that the familiar properties of Euclidean geometry, such as the Pythagorean theorem, do not hold. He went on to suggest that all physical laws become simpler when expressed in higher dimensions. Einstein will use Rieman’s work in his theory of General Relativity, which incorporated time as the fourth dimension, in 1915.

1858
The second attempt to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable is successful, after three cable breakages.

1924
The first portable electrical stethoscope is demonstrated in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by the Western Electric Co. with Bell System engineers and physiologist Dr. Horatio B. Williams. It will be sold commercially in October 1925.

1932
Artificial lightning using ten million volts of electricity is demonstrated in the US by the General Electric Company (GE) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. This is twice the previous maximum voltage produced in a laboratory.

1943
The ball point pen is patented by Laslo Biro, which he had invented in 1938 while a journalist in Budapest, Hungary. Biro escaped the Nazi invasion by traveling via Paris to Argentina in 1940. There, Englishman Henry Martin, in Buenos Aires on a mission for the British government, saw the invention and recognized its value to air crews making high altitude navigational calculations. This new type of pen could write blot-free, unaffected by changes in atmospheric pressure. Martin acquired the rights and began small scale production of ballpoint pens for the Royal AirForce. Commercial production under Biro’s patents will began in 1945 in Buenos Aires.

1952
The IAS bit-parallel machine constructed by John von Neumann becomes operational at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton, New Jersey.

Mylar is registered as a DuPont trademark as the name for an extraordinarily strong polyester film (Biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (boPET)) that originated with the development of Dacron in the early fifties. During the sixties, Mylar’s superior strength will make it a ready replacement for cellophane because of its its superior strength, heat resistance, and excellent insulating properties. It’s unique qualities will make products such as magnetic audio and video tapes, capacitor dielectrics, floppy disks, and some types of batteries possible. By the seventies, it will be used in food wraps, balloons, and by instrument manufacturers to produce high-quality drumheads.

1953
The 3-D science fiction B-movie Robot Monster is released to US theaters. Like the more famous “Plan 9 from Outer Space” it is known in bad-film fandom for being “so bad, it’s good” and has the dubious honor of being considered one of the “Worst films ever.” Its laughable plot line and cheesy special effects will help it attain cult status. The film was produced on a budget of US$16,000. IMDB listing Length: 1 hr 6 mins

1955
The first report of the separation of a virus into its component parts is made in the US. The was performed on the tobacco virus, which furthermore could be reconstructed from those parts to produce a material as effective as the virus in its original form in producing disease in tobacco and other plants. The report is the work of Dr. Heinz L. Fraenkel-Conrat and Dr. Robley Williams at the Virus Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley. They demonstrate in their report that the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) spontaneously forms when mixtures of purified coat protein and its genomic RNA are incubated together.

1977
Apple Computer ships the first Apple II computers. The system features 4KB of RAM, two game paddles, an RF cable for television monitors, and a 5 1/4-inch floppy disk drive. It can be upgraded to 48 – 128KB of RAM in order to run video games or office applications.

Euroapple begins distributing Apple II computers throughout Europe.

1983
Following a vicious price war with Commodore that began in January, Texas Instruments (TI) announces that poor sales of TI 99/4A computers, software, and peripherals will result in a second quarter loss of US$100 million, the largest loss in their corporate history. Three months later, TI will withdraw from the home computer market. Commodore, which will still be seeking for a more significant share of the computer market, will slash the price of the C64 to US$200 and dominated the 1983 holiday buying season for the second year in a row.

The James Bond film Octopussy, directed by John Glen and starring Roger Moore as James Bond, is released to 1,311 US theaters. The film was released in the UK on June 6, 1983. It is the thirteenth film in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore. The film’s title comes from Ian Fleming’s short story of the same title, which was published in two parts in the March and April editions of Playboy in 1966. Produced on a budget of US$187,500,000, the film will gross US$8,902,564 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG) Running Time: 2 hrs 11 mins

1985
Lotus Development completes its acquisition of Software Arts, the software company founded by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston in 1979 to develop VisiCalc. Following the completion of the acquisition, Lotus announces that it will discontinue production of Visicalc.

1986
International Business Machines (IBM) and Microsoft sign a Joint Development Agreement under which they will collaborate on operating system development.

1988
MGM releases the horror film Poltergeist III, directed by Gary Sherman and starring Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen, and Heather O’Rourke, to 1,471 US theaters. Actress Heather O’ Rourke died before the film was completed. Out of respect for his co-star, Kip Wentz, who played Scott, refused to return to film his last scenes, which were to include his character returning from the other side, so it is unclear as to what happens to his character. The final scene of the film had to be shot with a body double in place of O’Rourke. So, in the final scenes of the film, the audience never sees Carol Anne’s face. Produced on a budget of US$10,500,000, the film will gross US$4,344,308 domestically in its opening weekend. Poltergeist III will be considered a box office disappointment, grossing the least of the three Poltergeist films. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 37 mins

Silicon Graphics releases its IRIS operating system under the IRIX name for the first time with version 3.0. IRIX 3 is based on UNIX System V Release 3 with 4.3BSD enhancements. Visit the official SGI IRIX website.

1992
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raids the home of Richard Kenadek in Millbury, Massachusetts, shutting down his Bulletinboard System (BBS), the Davy Jones Locker, for software piracy and seizing all if Kenadek’s hardware. Two years later, Kenadek will be arrested, charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and sentenced to six months home detention and two years probation.

1995
Version 2.0.5 of the FreeBSD operating system is released. Visit the official FreeBSD website.

1996
Intel releases the Pentium processor in a 200MHz speed.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Body Parts” first airs. (No. 425) In it, Quark is diagnosed with a terminal disease and sells his body parts on the Ferengi Futures Exchange. Memory Alpha entry

1998
Seiko Instruments introduces the world’s first wrist wearable Personal Computer (PC). The watch is named the Ruputer and marketed under the name OnHand PC. It can download pictures and data via infrared signals from other personal computers and comes with three applications that run on Windows ’95. The device is equipped with a 16-bit, 3.6 MHz processor, and 2 MB of non-volatile storage memory, in addition to 128 KB of memory. It has a 102×64 pixel monochrome LCD display, and its main forms of input are a tiny eight direction joystick and six function buttons. The main body of the device (separate from the strap) is roughly two inches wide, and one and an eighth inches across, and five eighths of an inch deep. Price: US$285

Titus Software releases Virtual Chess 64 for the Nintendo 64 in North America and Europe. The game will be notable for being almost unanimously named the least popular N64 game ever released.

1999
eBay suspends all auction across its site due to a difficulties encountered during a system-wide upgrade. The system will remain down for twenty-two hours as a team of fifty engineers toil to repair corrupted data files. The company promises that pertinent auctions will be extended and refunds considered, however, the incident raises concerns in the industry that eBay’s “growing pains” may become terminal.

Microsoft releases Microsoft Office 2000 to retail outlets. Visit the official Microsoft Office website.

2000
The Gateshead Millenium Bridge across the River Thames is opened by Queen Elizabeth. The radical new design is the work of architect Sir Norman Foster and sculptor Sir Anthony Caro. The footbridge is the first new crossing of the River Thames in over one hundred years. As the first few thousand people cross the bridge, it develops an unexpected (and potentially dangerous) side-to-side “wobble,” that forces pedestrians to unwittingly walk “in step,” thereby increasing the oscillation. The design had been adapted from a computer model typical for a car bridge, which did not take into account the lateral forces associated with human walking. After structural damping is added to stop the oscillation, the bridge will later be re-opened in 2002.

2002
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the 1.8 GHz Athlon XP 2200+ processor, based on a 0.13-micron process. Code-name: Thoroughbred Price: US$241 in 1000-unit quantities

EarthLink, one of the nation’s largest Internet service providers (ISP), agrees to acquire PeoplePC, Inc., a value-priced dial-up service that has more dial-up access numbers than any other ISP in the US, including AOL. Under the terms of the offer and merger agreement, EarthLink will offer US$.0171per outstanding common share of PeoplePC, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately US$10.0 million. EarthLink will also assume approximately US$35.0 million in deferred service liabilities to PeoplePC subscribers who purchased prepaid Internet access services along with a personal computer as part of a bundled package. PeoplePC’s direct competitors are NetZero and Netscape. Read the original press release.

Kevin Louis Yaeger, age 29, is sentenced by United States District Judge Stephen in Los Angeles to a prison term and US$209,899.50 in restitution. Yaeger pleaded guilty on April 1 to two counts of wire fraud. The scheme to defraud stemmed from Yaeger’s ownership of Priority Web, later known as Priority Web USA, a Beverly Hills-based Internet service provider (ISP). When Priority Web subscribers made payment, Yaeger took their credit card numbers and made unauthorized charges that totaled nearly US$210,000.

Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, successfully transmits the first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two human bodies.

Palm announces that it has shipped Palm OS 5 to developers.

2003
NASA launches the Spirit Rover aboard a Delta II rocket, beginning NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.

2005
20th Century Fox releases the action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, directed Doug Liman by and starring Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Kerry Washington, and Adam Brody to 3,424 US theaters. In the film, a bored married couple is surprised when they learn that they are both assassins working for competing agencies. The German DVD release of the film stirred worldwide controversy when code exhibiting the characteristics of a rootkit was discovered on the disk. Produced on a budget of US$110 million, the film will gross US$50,342,878 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Length: 1 hr 55 mins

2006
Microsoft announces the it will add out-of-copyright content from libraries at University of California and University of Toronto to the digital collection searchable through its Windows Live Book Search. The program, similar to Google Book Search Library Project, will allow users to answer questions and find information within digitized book content.