The Great Geek Manual

1850
The first US patent for magic lantern slides made of glass plate is issued to their inventor Frederick Langenheim of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as an “improvement in photographic pictures on glass.” (US No. 7,784)

1872
The first U.S. patent for an adding machine capable of printing totals and subtotals, called a “calculating machine,” is issued to E.D. Barbour of Boston, Massachusetts. (US No. 133,188)

1969
Apollo 12 astronauts Alan Bean and Charles Conrad land at the Oceanus Procellarum (”Ocean of Storms”) and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.

1970
The IBM 1620 scientific computer is withdrawn from the market. It was released on October 21, 1959.

1971
UNIVAC announces an agreement to acquire RCA’s computer customer base of five hundred companies and government bureaus (more than 1,000 computers) for US$70.5 million plus fifteen percent of revenues generated by existing business. One third of RCA’s 7,500 computer work force are retained by UNIVAC after the acquisition.

1981
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) launches the Satcom IIIR satellite, the first satellite dedicated entirely to relaying cable television programming.

President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines bans video games in the country, because of the concerns of parents and teachers regarding their impact of the morality of children.

1990
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Final Mission” first airs. (No. 409) In it, Wesley sets off on his final mission with the Enterprise accompanied by Picard, but they become stranded on a desert planet. Memory Alpha entry

1993
Michael Elansky, known by the web handle “The Ionizer”, is sentenced to twenty-eight months in prison for posting bomb-making instructions on his BBS. Elansky has been held for nearly four months in prison, unable to make a US$500,000 bail.

Sega releases the platform game Sonic CD for the Sega CD game system in the US.

Toshiba releases Battle Master for the Super Famicom in Japan.

1996
International Business Machines (IBM) demonstrates a new way to transmit data through the human body at the COMDEX show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

NASA launches the Space Shuttle Columbia on the longest shuttle mission to date, lasting 17 days, 15 hours, 53 minutes, and 18 seconds.

1997
Bell Laboratories in New Jersey announces that it has developed a 60-nanometre MOS transistor that is one quarter the size of current transistors, five times faster, and uses sixty to one hundred sixty times less power.

Micropolis, a hard drive manufacturer, files for bankruptcy protection and indicates its intent to liquidate its assets.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that Stanford University has “acquired thousands of pieces of memorabilia and artifacts that chronicle the unique 21-year history of Apple Computer, Inc.” The gift to Stanford, presented by Apple, filled nearly thousand boxes and includes rare items such an Apple I computer, prototypes, documents, and software produced during the history of the company. The items were originally intended for an Apple museum that was never built.

1998
Next Generation Online reports that Blood 2: The Chosen bashes a number of people and companies in the credits of the software. Namely, Geoff Keighley, a Canadian freelance reporter and analyst, is criticized. Ron Chaimowitz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GT Interactive Software responds with a public apology.

The Wildcat BBS Software product line is sold to Santronics Software., including: the Off-Line Xpress BBS Mail Reader, Wildcat! Interactive Net Server, and Wildcat! BBS. Read the original announcement

1999
Eric Burns, age 19, of Shoreline, Washington, who used the computer screen name “Zyklon,” is sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a restitution payment of $36,240 for hacking. Burns pled guilty on September 7, 1999 to intentionally hacking a protected computer and causing damage. He admitted that he had hacked and damaged computers in Virginia, Washington state, Washington, D.C., and London, England, including computers hosting the United States Information Agency (USIA) and NATO pages, as well as the web page of the Vice-President of the United States, “21st Century.gov”. Burns also admitted that he had advised others on how to hack computers at the White House in May 1999. Burns identified system vulnerabilities using a program he had written called, “Web Bandit.” In most cases Burns replaced legitimate web pages with pages of his own, which referred to himself, “Zyklon”, and a woman he loved named “Crystal”.

Nintendo releases the versus fighting game Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 in Europe. Visit the game’s official website.

2001
Microsoft releases the Office v. X office suite for Mac OS X. The suite includes Word X, Excel 5, and PowerPoint 4.

One hundred fifty-six websites hosted hosted by Vietnam’s largest ISP and only Internet gateway are hacked by a group calling themselves “revengetheplanet”. Most of the sites hacked are either owned by the ISP or government organizations, such as the Communist Party.

2002
At the COMDEX trade show in Las Vegas, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announces the release name for the processor code-named Clawhammer: AMD Athlon 64.

THQ releases the platform game The Revenge of Shinobi for the Game Boy Advance in the US. ESRB: E (Everyone)

Ubisoft releases the fighting game Rocky for the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in North America. ESRB: T (Teen)

2003
The four-match chess contest between Garry Kasparov and X3D Fritz ends in a draw.

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Similitude” first airs. (No. 310) Tucker becomes comatose after a plasma manifold explodes. A clone of Trip is created for the purpose of harvesting brain tissue. Archer’s order to kill the clone is met with resistance when the clone, named Sim, becomes a member of the Enterprise family. Memory Alpha entry

2004
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “The Forge” first airs. (No. 407) Earth’s embassy on Vulcan is partially destroyed by a bomb, killing Admiral Forrest. Archer & T’Pol travel to Vulcan in search of an alleged terrorist group blamed for the explosion, of which T’Pol’s mother is a member. Memory Alpha entry

Wizards of the Coast release the Unhinged (UNH) expansion set for the card game Magic: The Gathering. It is the second humorous set, full of puns and jokes. The set includes 141 cards, including: 55 common, 40 uncommon, 40 rare, 5 basic lands, and 1 ultra-rare card. Visit the set’s official website.

2006
The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Second Life closes briefly as the result of an attack on its system servers by a self-replicating worm dubbed “Grey Goo,” which created increasing numbers of rings within the game to consume system resources. The worm’s name is a reference to the hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario often used as a plot device in science fiction, grey goo. Read more at the BBC.

Nintendo releases the Wii video game system in North and South America. It includes a wireless Wii remote controller, a Nunchuk controller attachment, and video game Wii Sports. Unlike the other game systems of this generation, the Wii doesn’t have an internal hard drive, but it uses 512MB of internal Flash memory instead and features support for removable SD card storage. It also comes bundled with Wii Sports. Visit the game’s official website. Price: US$249.99, CDN$279.95

Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii in North America. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)