The Great Geek Manual

1746
Princeton University is chartered.

1878
Thomas Alva Edison receives a patent for “Quadruplex-Telegraph Repeaters.” (US No. 209,241) The patent describes circuits that operate each other, so that messages are repeated automatically into one circuit by the receiving instrument of the other circuit, rather than instead of the finger key being operated by hand.

1926
J. Gordon Whitehead, a McGill University student, sucker punches the famous magician Harry Houdini in the stomach. Houdini will die eight days later on October 31. Popular myth will later hold that the punch is what killed Houdini, but, in fact, the magician will die of appendicitis. Many experts will later agree, however, that Houdini failed to seek treatment for the appendicitis until its late stages because he believed that the pain was the lingering after effect of the punch. Though there are many witnesses to the incident, Whitehead will never be arrested. Don Bell will document the event in the 2004 book “The Man Who Killed Houdini.”

1938
Former Bell Telephone physicist Chester F. Carlson makes the first xerox copy using a sulphur coating on a zinc plate, vigorously rubbed with a handkerchief to apply an electrostatic charge. A glass slide is prepared using India ink to write “10-22-38 ASTORIA,” then laid on the sulphur surface in a darkened room. After illuminating them with a bright incandescent lamp for a few seconds, the slide is removed and lycopodium powder is sprinkled on the sulphur surface and blown off, leaving a near-perfect image of the message. Permanent copies are then made by transferring the powder images to wax paper and heating the sheets to melt the wax. Carlson call this new science “xerography” which means “dry writing.” Xerography in the form of the Xerox machine won’t be commercially available for another twenty-one years.

1955
The black-and-white British science fiction serial Quatermass II premieres on the BBC. In it, Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group being asked to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British Government. As even Quatermass’s closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own dangerously unstable rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind. The series will run for only six episodes TV.com summary

1959
International Business Machines (IBM) releases the IBM 1620 data processing system, a small, transistorized inexpensive scientific computer that can perform more than 100,000 calculations a minute. Approximately two thousand units will be sold before the system will be withdrawn from the market on November 19, 1970.

1968
Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.

1975
The Soviet spacecraft Venera 9 soft-lands on Venus.

1981
Texas Instruments (TI) announces that it will sell a new line of four small business desktop computers, with 64KB RAM. Price: US$6,200 – US$9,900.

1982
The official grand opening ceremony is held for EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World, over three days.

Universal releases the horror film Halloween III: Season of the Witch, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and starring Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, and
Dan O’Herlihy, to 1,297 US theaters. The plot of the film is the first and will remain the only film in the Halloween franchise not to center around the Michael Myers character. In it, a large halloween mask making company has plans to kill millions of American children with deadly masks. An apparent murder-suicide in a hospital emergency room leads to an investigation by the on-call doctor, which reveals a plot by an insane toymaker to kill as many people as possible during Halloween through an ancient Celtic ritual involving a stolen boulder from Stonehenge. Halloween masks. Produced on a budget of US$2.5 million, it will gross US$6,333,259 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit the film franchise’s official website. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 1 hr 39 mins

1987
Two top BankAmerica Corp. executives quit after being asked to resign in an action related to data processing problems that cost the company an estimated US$25 Million. The two men were held responsible for problems in converting to a new computerized accounting system for the bank’s trust department last March. A bank spokesman said the conversion to a new system, called MasterNet, disrupted data processing records to the extent that BankAmerica is frequently unable to produce or deliver customer statements on a timely basis. However, no customer information was irreperably lost.

1988
Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens on Friday ordered an investigation into reports that a computer hacker rummaged through his electronic files and those of other Cabinet members. An unknown man, using a personal computer has allegedly been browsing Martens’ electronic mail and other items for three months, including classified information about the killing of a British soldier by the Irish Republican Army in Ostend in August.

1990
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Remember Me” first airs. (No. 405) In it, after an apparent failure of a warp-field experiment, people begin to disappear from the Enterprise and only Dr. Crusher remembering they ever existed. Memory Alpha entry

1996
Borland International announces that it is transferring future development of the Paradox database program to Corel.

The Internet International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC), a coalition of participants including the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), International Trademark Association (INTA), Internet Society (ISOC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), forms to decide upon and recommend policy and procedure changes for administering generic top-level domain (gTLDs), including .aero, .biz, .com, .edu, .gov, .info, .net, .org, and .travel. The group will ultimately issue the “Memorandum of Understanding,” which details the administration of top-level domains (TLDs), and recommend the creation of seven new domains: .arts, .firm, .info, .nom, .rec, .store, and .web. The organization will be dissolved on May 1, 1997.

Mercury Communications merges with Bell Cablemedia, Nynex, and Videotron to create Cable & Wireless Communications, which will become the UK’s largest cable operator.

1997
Intel releases a 120MHz mobile Pentium with MMX technology, designed for very small notebook computers. Price: US$177

Microsoft releases BackOffice Small Business Server 4.0. The software includes Windows NT Server 4.0 SP3, Exchange Server 5.0 SP1, IIS 3.0, SQL Server 6.5 SP3, Proxy Server 1.0, Internet Explorer 3.02 or 4.01, and Outlook 97. Visit the software’s official website.

1998
Asmik Ace Entertainment releases LSD for the PlayStation in Japan. It is based on a diary of dreams that a staff member at Asmik Ace Entertainment had been keeping for a decade. While it will never enjoy any great commercial success, it will garner a small cult following amused by the genuinely disturbing imagery presented by the game at times. In it, players navigates a dream world. There are no opponents, experience points, or objectives. The purpose of the game is to simply walk through the setting enjoying each dream environment. Each time the player bumps into a wall or other objects in the game, the setting is shifted. Bumping into animals, objects, or people usually leads to a stranger dream.

1999
Amazon.com announces that they have filed a suit against BarnesandNoble.com alleging that they have infringed on a patent for “1-Click” express checkout technology. One-click buying, refers to the technique of allowing customers to make online purchases with a single click, with the payment information needed to complete the purchase already entered by the user previously.

2001
Sony Electronics introduces the Sony Clié PEG-T415 handheld computer in the US, featuring the Palm OS 4.1, 8MB RAM, a Memory Stick slot, a 2.8-inch diagonal 320×320 pixel backlit monochrome display, an infrared port, and a USB HotSync cradle. Price: US$300

Version 7.2 of the Red Hat Linux operating system, Enigma, is released.

Version 8.3 of the Tcl/Tk programming language is released.

Yahoo! launches Imvironments for Yahoo! Messenger. IMVironments customizes the look of Instant Message windows.

2002
The first version of the BLAG Linux distribution is released. BLAG is a single-CD distribution with the applications desktop users “expect” from an operating system, including graphics, internet, and multimedia applications. Visit the system’s official website.

Version 8.4.1 of the Tcl/Tk programming language is released.

2003
Apple Computer discontinues the iBook G3, which had featured the PowerPC G3 processor.

The UseBB project is founded by Dietrich Moerman. UseBB is an open source forum system written in the PHP 4 scripting language using MySQL. Visit the application’s official website.

Version 2 (v1.4.2_02) of the Java programming language is released.

2004
Madcatz releases the three-dimensional input device Gametrak for PlayStation 2 in Europe. The device is a mechanical system for tracking position of physical elements in three-dimensional space in real time.

Sony releases the horror film The Grudge, directed by Takashi Shimizu and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar,
Jason Behr, KaDee Strickland, Clea DuVall, and Bill Pullman, to 3,245 theaters. It is a remake of the 2003 Japanese film Ju-on: The Grudge. In it, the normal facade of a modest house in Tokyo belies the hidden terror within. It is possessed by a violent plague that destroys the lives of everyone who enters. Known as The Grudge, this curse causes its victims to die in the grip of a powerful rage. Those who are fatally afflicted by the curse die and a new curse is born, passed like a virus to all those who enter the house in an endless, growing chain of horror. Produced on a budget of US$10 Million, it will gross US$39,128,715 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit the film’s official website. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hr 36 min

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Home” first airs. (No. 403) In it, Enterprise is welcomed home after saving Earth and the crew takes a much needed vacation. Tucker & T’Pol visit Vulcan where T’Pol must consider marriage. Erika Hernandez becomes captain of the Columbia and renews her acquaintance with Archer. Phlox encounters prejudice on Earth. Memory Alpha entry

2005
Tiger Telematics releases the Gizmondo handheld video game system in the US, featuring a ARM 9 400 MHz processor, a GeForce 3D 4500 Nvidia graphics accelerator, the Microsoft Windows CE operating system, a USB port, Global Positioning Sensor, a digital camera, Bluetooth wireless, a SecureDigital card slot, a 2.8-inch TFT color screen. The device supports MP3 audio and MPEG-4 video, email, and instant messaging. Price: US$399 or US$229 with daily downloaded advertisements

2006
RndLabs releases version 2.02 of the free top-down shooter BaboViolent 2 for Windows. Visit the game’s official website.