1982
Compaq announces the suitcase-sized, IBM-compatible Compaq Portable, featuring a 4.77MHz Intel 8088, 128 – 640KB RAM, a nine-inch monochrome monitor, a 320KB 5.25-inch disk drive, and either the CP/M-86 or MS-DOS operating system. It is one of the earliest progenitors of the later laptop, and it’s about the size of a portable sewing machine, which earns it the nickname “the sewing machine.” It will be the first successful IBM PC clone, largely due to a black-box clone of the IBM BIOS (Basic Input Output System) that makes the Compaq Portable completely compatible with IBM computers. However, it cost Compaq a million dollars to create a ROM BIOS that doesn’t violate IBM copyrights. In order to replicate IBM’s BIOS without infringing on any IBM copyrights, Compaq set up two teams of programmers. The first group made a list of everything the BIOS did for a specific set of inputs, carefully omitting any mention of the original code. The second group of programmers then took the notes from the first team and wrote a version of BIOS that performs exactly the same functions as the original, written from scratch without any contamination from the IBM source code. The computer, which will be shipped in January 1983, marks the end of IBM’s hardware monopoly and the birth of a multi-billion industry. Price: US$2,995 or US$3,590 (two floppy system) Weight: 28lb
1984
Dell Inc. is founded in Austin, Texas by University of Texas student Michael Dell as PC’s Limited with just a thousand dollars in start-up capital. The business is at first operated out of Dell’s off-campus dorm room at the Dobie Center. The startup’s mission was to sell IBM-compatible computers, with the philosophy that a company that sold directly to customers could better tailor systems to meet their buyer’s needs. Dell will later drop out of school in order to work full-time. Visit the company’s official website.
1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Unification (Part 1)” first airs. (No. 507) Picard and Data travel to Romulus on a cloaked Klingon vessel to investigate allegations that ambassador Spock has defected to the Romulans. The episode is notable for the guest appearance of Leonard Nimoy, who reprises his role as Spock and the brief dedication at the beginning of the episode to Gene Roddenberry, who died on October 24. Memory Alpha entry
1994
TriStar Pictures releases the horror film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm, Tom Hulce, and John Cleese, to 2,177 US theaters. The production is notable for very closely following the storyline of the original novel. Produced on a budget of US$45 million, it will gross US$11,212,889 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 2 hrs 3 mins
1996
Corel releases version 7 of the CorelDraw vector graphics editor for Windows. Visit the application’s official website. Price: US$695 or US$249 (Upgrade)
1997
Apple Computer announces an agreement with the CompUSA retail chain under which Apple will launch a “store within a store” at 148 CompUSA locations to directly market Macintosh systems. Over the course of the holiday season, Mac sales increase from three percent of CompUSA system sales to fourteen percent.
1999
Version 1.2.1 of the Sather programming language is released. Visit the language’s official website.
2003
Microsoft announces a quarter of a million dollar bounty for any information leading to the arrest of the person or persons who released the MSBlast worm and the SoBig virus.
The most powerful solar flare ever observed by satellite instruments is recorded.
Novell announces plans to acquire SuSE Linux for US$210 million. Visit the official SuSE website.
2004
The International Business Machines (IBM) Blue Gene/L officially becomes the world’s fastest supercomputer when it achieves a speed of 70.7 trillion calculations per second (70.7 teraflops).
Yahoo acquires game platform provider Stadeon.
2005
International Business Machines (IBM) and Sun Microsystems convenes the “OpenDocument Summit” in Armonk, New York to discuss how to promote the adoption of the OpenDocument format (ODF). The summit brings together representatives from several industry groups and corporations, including: Adobe, Computer Associates, Corel, Google, Intel, Linux, Nokia, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, and Scalix. The providers commit resources towards technically improving OpenDocument through existing standards bodies and to promote its use in the marketplace.
Version 6.0 of the FreeBSD operating system is released. Visit the official FreeBSD website.
xG Technology demonstrates a wireless technology, called xMax, which the company reports is one thousand times more efficient than WiMax, providing coverage to the same area as ninety WiMax base stations.
2007
Version 4.10 of the PureBasic programming language is released. This version is compatible with Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Visit the official PureBasic website.
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