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This Day in Geek History: June 13

13 Jun 2008  Geek History

1611
Narratio de maculis in sole observatis et apparente earum cum sole conversione (Narration on Spots Observed on the Sun and their Apparent Rotation with the Sun), a publication concerning the newly discovered phenomenon of sunspots is dedicated. This first publication on such observations, is the work of Johannes Fabricius, a Dutch astronomer who was perhaps the first ever to observe sunspots. On March 9, 1611, at dawn, Johannes had used his telescope to view the rising sun and had seen several dark spots on it. He called his father to investigate this new phenomenon with him. The brightness of the Sun’s center was very painful, and the two quickly switched to a projection method of observation, by means of a camera obscura.

1925
Charles Francis Jenkins gives the first public demonstration of the first mechanical television system that transmits “readily recognizable moving objects” from the Naval radio station NOF at Anacostia to his laboratory, both in Washington D.C. He calls his system “visions by radio.” It transmits images at a resolution of forty-eight scanning lines to depict a model of a Dutch windmill with turning blades.

1944
Marvin Camras is granted several patents for the wire recorder, an early precursor of the later magnetic tape recorder. (US No. 2,351,004; -11)

1983
The US space probe Pioneer 10 crosses the orbit of Neptune, becoming the first man-made object to leave the Solar System. It was launched on March 2, 1972 in a straight line away from the Sun at a constant velocity of about 12 km/sec toward the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of the constellation Taurus (The Bull).

The Manhattan Project1986
Twentieth Century Fox releases the film The Manhattan Project, directed by Marshall Brickman and starring John Lithgow, Christopher Collet, and Cynthia Nixon, to 827 US theaters. The title is an allusion to the World War II era US nuclear program. In the film, a teenager constructs an atomic bomb out of plutonium stolen from a scientist dating his mother. He and his girlfriend then enter the bomb in a science fair in an attempt to make a political statement about nuclear proliferation, but when he is pursued by military agents he flees and activates the bomb. Produced on a budget of US$500,000, the film will gross US$1,503,545 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hr 57 mins

Activision finalizes the acquisition of Infocom.

1993
Microsoft, Tele-Communications Inc., and Time Warner Inc. announce a joint venture to develop interactive television software, which may one day allow consumers to bank, shop, and access the internet via televisions on a system designed to “combine the worlds of computing and television and perhaps shape how much of popular culture is delivered.”

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Duet” first airs. (No. 119) In it, Kira suspects that a Cardassian visit the station may be a notorious war criminal. Memory Alpha Entry

2000
The Brazilian website of Allsports.br is hacked by “ANALISTA”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of Di Santoro Marketing e Propaganda Ltda is hacked by “ANALISTA”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of Directum Org. de Cobrancas Com is hacked by “ANALISTA”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of Instituto Brasileiro de Desenvolvimento do Coop is hacked by “ANALISTA”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of Igreja Presbiteriana de Vila Maria is hacked by “ANALISTA”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of V&F Comercial Ltda is hacked by “ANALISTA”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of WebAtiva Brazil is hacked by “ANALISTA”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of Yes Paper Papelaria e Servicos Ltda is hacked by “ANALISTA”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

Electronic Arts releases the strategy game Shogun: Total War for Windows.

The Japanese video game producer SNK withdraws from the American market.

Nintendo releases the real-time strategy (RTS) game StarCraft for the Nintendo 64 in North America. It is a surrealistic adventure game in which the player must solve various puzzles and follow certain procedures in order for the linear storyline to proceed. It is impossible to die or to get stuck at any moment in the game, allowing users to fully immerse himself in Syberia’s universe without the fear of making a mistake or constantly saving the game. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)

2002
Microïds releases Syberia for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Window.

2003
Atari and JoWood release the role-playing game (RPG) Gothic II, the sequel to Gothic, for Windows in the UK. The game was first released in Germany on November 29, 2002. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: M (Mature)

Linus Torvalds announces the release of version 2.4.21 of the Linux kernel. New features include support for the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Opteron processor. Visit the official Linux kernel website..

Microsoft announces that it is ceasing all further development of Internet Explorer for Mac. Read more at MacWorld.

2005
Astronomers announce the discovery of the smallest exoplanet, yet, with about 7.5 times Earth’s mass. It orbits the star Gliese 876, fifteen light-years outside our solar system in the direction of the constellation Aquarius where two Jupiter-like planets were previously detected. All of the one hundred fifty other exoplanets found orbiting normal stars were larger than Uranus, which has about fifteen times Earth’s mass. This new planet is thought to be the first rocky world found around a star similar to the Sun. The planet was discovered using the “wobble technique.” The planet’s gravitational tug on its parent star produces changes in the star’s velocity which can be detected in the light spectrum emitted by the star.

Electronic Arts releases the first-person shooter (FPS) GoldenEye: Rogue Agent for the Nintendo DS. ESRB: T (Teen)

The Fedora Project releases the operating system (os) Fedora Core 4, code-named Stentz. According to the software’s release notes, the OS, based on version 2.6.11 of the Linux kernel, is optimized for Pentium 4 processors, but it will run on a machine with as slow a processor as a 400MHz Pentium II or, if a user is willing to work with a text-only interface, a Pentium I. A minimum of 256MB of memory is recommended for the 32-bit x86 version or 512MB for the 64-bit x86 version. In this version, Red Hat introduces Clearlooks as the default theme. Xen, a high performance and secure open source virtualization framework, is also introduced. Visit the official Fedora Project website. Visit the official Xen website.

Kirby: Canvas CurseNintendo releases the platform game Kirby: Canvas Curse for the Nintendo DS in North America. ESRB: E (Everyone)

THQ releases the racing game Juiced for the personal computer, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in the US. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)

2006
Activision and Aspyr release Call of Duty 2 for the Mac OS X. Visit the game’s official website.

Agetec releases the third-person shooter Armored Core: Last Raven for the PlayStation 2 in North America. ESRB: T (Teen)

Capcom releases Mega Man Battle Network 6 for the Game Boy Advance in North America. ESRB: E (Everyone)

A man named Vincent Ferrari documents his attempt to cancel an AOL account in his blog, http://insignificantthoughts.com. He recorded the phone conversation in which an AOL representative refused to cancel the account unless Ferrari, age 30, explained why his AOL hours were still active. Ferrari insists that there is no AOL software still installed on the computer. The AOL representative then asks to speak with Ferrari’s father, who had originally set up the account. The conversation will later be aired on CNBC. When CNBC reporters later try to have a different account canceled, they will be hung up on immediately. Still later, AOL will eventually fire the representative to whom Ferrari had spoke.

Namco releases Point Blank for the PlayStation in North America.

Nintendo announces that 136,500 units of the the DS Lite have been sold in the two days since its release in North America and that the system seems to be on schedule to match the 500,000 sold by the original Nintendo DS in its first ten days. Visit the official Nintedo DS website.

2007
Jeffrey Brett Goodin, age 45, of Azusa, California, who became the first person to be convicted by a jury under the CAN-SPAM Act in January is sentenced to seventy month of jail. Goodin was found guilty of posing as a representative of AOL’s Billing Department as part of a phishing scheme.

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