2001
AMD releases the 1300MHz Athlon 1300B processor, featuring a 256KB Level-2 Cache and a 200MHz Front Side Bus.
AMD releases the 1333MHz Athlon 1333C processor, featuring a 256KB Level-2 Cache and a 266MHz Front Side Bus.
Apple Computer announces that beginning March 24, customers will be able to purchase Mac OS X in retail stores around the world. Apple markets the software as the world’s most advanced operating system, combining the power of Unix with the ease of use of Macintosh systems. Visit the official Mac OS X website.
Intel releases the 900MHz Pentium III Xeon processor, featuring a 2,048KB Level-2 Cache and a 100MHz Front Side Bus.
The Space Shuttle Discovery returns to Earth with first residents of the International Space Station (ISS), Expedition 1. (STS-102)
The TAT-14 transatlantic cable is goes into service. The cable system is a dual, bi-directional ring configuration using dense wavelength-division multiplex (DWDM) multiplexing with sixteen wavelengths of STM-64 per fiber pair for a capacity of 640Gbps, or approximately 7.7 million telephone circuits, of which roughly eighty percent will be used to accommodate internet traffic. The fifteen thousand kilometer long cable connects Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is owned by a consortium of fifty members, including: AT&T, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, Deutsche Telekom, and France Telecom. Visit the official site of the TAT-14 Cable System.
A ten member Brazilian hacker group calling itself “Hfury” hacks into the Associated Press (AP) website and defaced it with the words “Owned by HFURY” and a list of the group’s members handles at approximately 2:19am Eastern Time. The defacement will remains until a Wall Street Journal Online reporter notices the words and contacts the AP. The AP takes down their site at 4:35am to correct the malicious alterations and their site is accessible again at 6:10am. The same group goes on to deface the website of the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation with obscenities and a skull-and-crossbones image. Hfury also later claims to have attacked the website of the French energy company Anroc, but company officials will consistently deny being compromised.
2004
AOL launches AOL Mail, a free webmail service. Visit the official AOL Mail website.
2005
Anthony Greco, age 18, of Cheektowaga, California pleads guilty in Los Angeles federal court to a single count of threatening to damage the computer systems of MySpace.com with the intent to extort. Greco admits that he wrote a program that was used to register thousands of fraudulent instant messaging accounts at MySpace in October and November 2004 in order to send more than 1.5 million automated spam messages containing advertising for mortgage refinancing and pornography to registered MySpace users. In response, MySpace.com was forced to spend over than US$20,000 deleting the unopened spam from its servers and putting protective measures against further attacks in place. Days after the attacks began, Greco contacted MySpace.com, took responsibility for writing the program used to send the unsolicited messages, and proposed that he be granted “exclusive” rights to send commercial email to MySpace users in return for protection against other spam advertisers. When MySpace didn’t respond, Greco sent other messages threatening to release his methods to other spammers if the company didn’t negotiate with him. In his messages, Greco notes that sharing his techniques would “open a Pandora’s box of Spam” on MySpace which could crash the system. On September 26, Greco will be sentenced under seal.
Jeff Weise, age 17, opens fire in a high school on a Red Lake, Minnesota Indian reservation, killing ten people, including himself, and injuring fourteen other students in the worst school shooting since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. The dead include a school security guard, a female teacher, and Weise’s grandfather Daryl “Dash” Lussier, a veteran police officer of the Chippewa tribe. The event is dubbed the Red Lake High School Massacre by the media. Press coverage in the days to follow will include wide examination of Weise’s internet activity, including his instant messaging, LiveJournal page, his Yahoo! Profile, and his posts on the Above TopSecret, Homepage of the Dead, and Rise of the Dead forums. Weise was a self-described neo-Nazi, and his foreboding internet activity raises concerns in the media for socially-withdrawn youth who spend time on the internet. The incident will yet again have experts drawing links between video game violence and real life violence.
Qoobchip releases the Qoob Chip, a modchip for the Nintendo GameCube, which allows users to run unlicensed software such as backup utilities, bios replacements, emulators, and even the Linux operating system on the console. Visit the official Qoob Chip website.
Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) releases the expansion pack EverQuest II: The Bloodline Chronicle for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) EverQuest II for personal computers. The expansion pack introduces five new areas as well as new creatures, experiences, items, and quests. Visit the expansion pack’s website.
2006
In the case of Keith-Smith v Williams, Tracy Williams of Greater Manchester, England, is ordered to pay £5,000 general damages plus £5,000 aggravated damages in addition to £7,200 in legal costs for libelling former parliamentary candidate Michael Keith-Smith after she accused Smith of sexual harassment and racial bigotry in a Yahoo discussion group and on her blog in April 2004. The order is the first of its kind involving the Internet, and it sets a precedent confirming that libel laws apply to internet communications. Williams did not file a defense to the libel writ.
PopCap Games and The Games for Health Project release a study suggesting that playing casual games including puzzle games can help you maintain a healthy mind. According to Ben Sawyer, co-founder and director of the Games for Health Project, “defined cognitive exercise can play a critical role in healthy aging.” Visit the official Games For Health
website.
2007
Apple Computer begins shipping the Apple TV, a digital media receiver. The device features a 40GB internal hard drive and the Mac OS X v10.4.7 operating system. Visit the official Apple TV website.
Version 6.6 of the DarkBASIC Professional (DBPro) programming language is released. DBPro is a dialect of BASIC specifically designed for graphically-intense game development. Visit the official DarkBASIC website.
2008
The Falcon 1, a partially reusable rocket launch system designed and manufactured by SpaceX, is first launched by privateer Elon Musk (founder of PayPal) from the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. Falcon 1 is a two-stage rocket that uses a fuel of liquid oxygen and kerosene. The first stage is designed to be recovered from the ocean for reuse, reducing the cost of a launch to the comparatively low price of seven million dollars. Visit the official Falcon 1 website.
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