The Great Geek Manual

1851
British astronomer William Lassell discovers Ariel and Umbriel, satellites of Uranus. Both satellites names are featured in Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock. Ariel has a diameter of approximately 1,160 km, an orbital period of 2.52 days, and an orbital radius of 191,240 km from Uranus. Umbriel has a diameter of 1,170 km, an orbital period of about four days, and an orbit radius of 266,000 km.

1861
Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States, bringing an abrupt end for the legendary Pony Express, established just eighteen months earlier, which will close just two days later. The connection is inaugurated with the first transcontinental telegraph message, sent by Justice Stephen J. Field of California to President Abraham Lincoln. The final connection between the east coast and the west coast is made at Salt Lake City, Utah.

1911
During one of twenty test flights, Orville Wright remains in the air nine minutes and forty-five seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina setting a new world record that will stand for another ten years.

1926
Harry Houdini gives his last performance at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. He will die on October 31st.

1957
The United States Air Force (USAF) starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program to develop a spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites. The program will be discontinued on December 10, 1963, before construction of the first craft had been completed.

1978
The first Czechoslovak satellite, Magion 1, is launched.

1984
In New York City, the Electronic Games Design Awards (Arkies) are presented to top twenty-seven arcade, computer, educational, standalone, and video games of 1984, as selected by readers of Electronic Games magazine.

On page five in the Wednesday, October 24 issue of the Wall Street Journal, writer Laura Landro, reports that Warner Communications has announced higher profits for the third quarter than analysts predicted. “Warner’s profit in the third quarter was $24.4 million, or 36 cents a share, compared with earnings from continuing operations of $4.9 million, or eight cents per share, a year earlier.” Warner cites the success of the blockbuster films, such as Gremlins, Purple Rain, and Tightrope, along with the profits made in the recording and publishing divisions as key contributors since “discontinuing” Atari, which had been turned over to Jack Tramiel just months prior. The article concludes by noting that Warner carries warrants from Tramel Technology, Ltd but also noting that there are doubts as to whether Atari’s future cash flow will ever allow Warner to collect on them.

1995
Atari hosts a Fun ‘N’ Games event for the press to show off progress on upcoming software for the 64-bit Jaguar game system.

The Federal Networking Council (FNC), a group made up of representatives from the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), among others, which coordinates networking among US Federal agencies, unanimously passes a resolution defining the term “Internet”. The resolution reads, “Resolution: The Federal Networking Council (FNC) agrees that the following language reflects our definition of the term “Internet”. “Internet” refers to the global information system that – (i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons; (ii) is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and (iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein.”

Sega releases the platform game Vectorman for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in the US. ESRB: Kids to Adults (K-A)

1997
Columbia Pictures releases the science fiction film Gattaca, directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Jude Law, to 1,279 US theaters. In it, a genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel. Produced on a budget of US$36 million, it will gross US$4,320,202 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hr 46 mins

NEC Home Electronics releases Minimum Nanonic for the NEC PC-FX video game console in Japan.

1998
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) reports that Jeanette Park of Barrow, Cumbria, England, age 37, received an advertisement from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) that mocking a doctor’s test results in a creative attempt to sell PlayStation accessories as she anxiously awaited cancer test results from her own doctor. The ill-timed advertisement was a part of a mass marketing campaign target current PlayStation owners. Park’s husband had purchased a PlayStation game console to help her to pass the time while she was in the hospital. Sony was surprised to receive fifty-three total complaints, and the incidents triggered an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The spaceprobe Deep Space 1 is launched aboard a Delta II rocket as a part of NASA’s New Millennium program at 12:08 GMT from Cape Canaveral. The primary goal of the mission is to test a number of new technologies that have the potential to lower the cost of future missions, most notably an electrostatic ion thruster using xenon propellant.

2000
Microsoft Game Studios releases the golfing game Links 2001 for Windows.

2001
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Terra Nova” first airs. (No. 106) In it, an early human colony on Terra Nova mysteriously disappeared 70 years ago and Enterprise is sent to find out what happened to them. Memory Alpha entry

2003
Apple Computer releases MacOS 10.3, an improvement on MacOS X, with major updates to “Aqua,” the user interface, and processor performance. Visit the official Panther OS website. Code-name: Panther Price: US$99.95

The Sober worm is first detected. It is written in Visual Basic and effects only Windows platform. Sober uses its own SMTP engine to spread itself to its victims as an e-mail attachment. When the receiver unpacks the file, which has a .bat, .com, .exe, .pif, or .scr file extension, and runs it, it adds keys to the Windows registry, deactivate previous Sober variants, and any of several popular antivirus applications, including HijackThis and Microsoft AntiSpyware.

2004
Polydeuces, a moon of Saturn, is discovered by the Cassini Imaging Team in images taken on October 21, 2004 and temporarily designated S/2004 S 5. Visit the official website of the Cassini Imaging Team.

2005
A Bittorrent user named Chan Nai-ming, age 38, of Hong Kong is convicted of breaching a copyright ordinance, Chapter 528 of Hong Kong law, for allegedly uploading torrent files for the films Daredevil, Miss Congeniality, and Red Planet to a newsgroup. The magistrate remarks that Chan’s act caused significant damage to the interest of copyright holders. He is released on bail for HK$5,000, awaiting a sentencing hearing, though the magistrate himself admits the difficulty of determining how he should be sentenced due to the lack of precedent for such a case. On November 7, 2005, he will be sentenced to a three month jail sentence, but will immediately be granted bail pending an appeal to the High Court. The appeal will be dismissed by the Court of First Instance on December 12, 2006.

Jon “NEVERDIE” Jacobs purchases a virtual “Asteroid Space Resort” in Project Entropia for a sum of one million Project Entropia Dollars (PED), the equivalent of US$100,000 in real-world currency. On December 14, 2004, Zachurm “Deathifier” Emegen had paid 265,000 PED (US$26,500) for Treasure Island, a virtual island. At the time, it had been the single largest real-world purchase of a virtual item in history. With this purchase, Jon Jacobs far surpasses that landmark purchase and puts Entropia on the map in North America, generating a great deal of notice in the (real-world) media. Jacobs dubs Club NEVERDIE after his own in-game Avatar and announces ambitious plans to turn the resort into a venue for “Live Entertainment in Virtual Reality.” When it is finally completed, it will boast several profitable assets such as a 1,000 apartment complex, 20 hunting biodomes, commercial space ship dock, themed shopping mall, and a mega stadium for championship sporting events.

2006
Blitwise Productions releases the arcade shooter Neon Wars for personal computers.

Capcom releases the game compilation Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded video game compilation for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in the US. The compilation includes fifteen games, including: 1942, 1943, Commando, Ghosts ‘N Goblins, Knights of The Round, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Championship Edition, and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fightiung. Price: US$29.99

LucasArts releases the expansion pack Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption for the real-time strategy game (RTS) Star Wars: Empire at War for Windows. The expansion includes: a new faction, the Zann Consortium, thirteen new planets, higher resolution textures for better graphics, and a slew of new abilities within the game, such as the ability to transport units in vehicles during ground battles. Visit expansion’s official website. ESRB: Teen (13+)

Microsoft announced the general release of its anti-spyware application Windows Defender for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, but not Windows 2000, which had reached the end of its mainstream support period. Visit the application’s official website.