The Great Geek Manual

1671
Giovanni Cassini discovers Iapetus, a moon of Saturn.

1858
The signals carried between Europe and the US over the new transatlantic telegraph cable die altogether as the cable fails. This, the first intercontinental connection, won’t be replaced until 1866.

1945
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) equips its its studios in Radio City, New York with orthicon television cameras, the first cameras to use camera tubes more sensitive to light than film. It marks the beginning of electronic photography.

1955
The first domestic microwave oven is introduced by the Tappan Company in Mansfield, Ohio. Price: US$1,200

1960
The Bulova’s Accutron 214, the world’s first electronic wrist watch, is placed on sale in New York City. The Accutron has the potential to keep time accurately within two seconds per day, using a germanium PNP transistor circuit with a 360Hz tuning fork. It’s marketed as “the watch the astronauts wear” and sold in jewelry stores. Over four million will be sold before Bulova discontinues their production in 1977.

1968
The Star Trek episode “Spectre of the Gun” first airs. (No. 56/61) In it, Captain Kirk and his companions are forced to re-enact the shoot out at the O.K. Corral for having trespassed on an alien world. Memory Alpha entry

1977
Digital Equipment Corporation releases version 1.0 of the OpenVMS operating system.

1978
The independently produced horror film Halloween, directed by John Carpenter and starring Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle, Nancy Loomis, P.J. Soles, and Brian Andrews, to US theaters. In it, a psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets. Produced on a budget of US$325,000, the film will be a surprise blockbuster success. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 1 hr 31 mins

1982
The Monday, October 25th issue of Time magazine features the image of Pac-Man on the cover and the headline, “THE PAC MEN Turning Cash into Votes.”

1984
Osborne Computer announces the Vixen computer, featuring a Zilog Z80A, 64KB RAM, a twenty-five line display, and two 390KB disk drives. The system comes bundled with the CP/M 2.2 operating system, the WordStar 3.3 word processor, Supercalc 2, MBASIC, a game called Desolation, the Osboard Software (a graphics package), and Media Master, an application for transferring data to MS-DOS disks. An optional 10MB hard disk can be added with an interface card for an additional US$1,498, which is more than the price of the system. The Vixen is a technologically superior follow-up to the Osborne 1, the world’s first commercially successful portable microcomputer; however, unlike its predecessor, it will be a complete failure due to the recent release of the IBM PC (specifically the IBM Personal Computer/AT), which will dry up demand for systems running the CP/M operating system almost overnight. As a result, the Vixen will be the last machine produced by Osborne, and later in the year, the company will close. Price: US$1,298

Osborne Computer announces the Encore computer, featuring an Intel 8086 processor, 128KB RAM (expandable to 512KB), a built-in modem, one 390KB disk drive, the MS-DOS operating system, and a monochrome sixteen-line line screen. Price: US$2,195 Weight: Under 10lb

1989
New York Newsday and American CITINET announce an online newspaper on a phone company videotex gateway called Info-Look.

1993
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Phantasms” first airs. (No. 706) In it, Data experiences bizarre dreams, caused by invisible parasites infesting the Enterprise. Memory Alpha entry

1995
George Roberts IV releases the Nexus bulletin board system (BBS), a DOS based Telegard/Renegade clone loosely based on an older Telegard (TG) BBS clone that he had been developing for several years prior, to the public. Roberts will continue developing the application through 2001, and then, on August 31, 2002, he’ll release the application into open source.

1998
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit corporation established to manage the assignment of domain names and IP addresses on September 18, 1998, elects its Initial Board of Directors, choosing Michael M. Roberts as its Interim President and Chief Executive Officer. Visit the organization’s official website.

Microsoft releases Service Pack 4 for Windows NT 4.0.

1999
Intel introduces the Mobile Pentium III processor, running at 400, 450, or 500MHz, with 28 million transistors, a 100 or 133MHz bus, and a 64-bit bus. New and faster non-mobile Pentium processors are also introduced, running at 500, 533, 550, 600, 650, 667, 700, and 733MHz. This new family of processors uses a new 0.18 micron process technology, creating transistors with finer line widths. Code-name: Coppermine Price: US$348 (400MHz), US$530 (500MHz) for portable versions US$239 (500MHz), US$776 (733MHz) for desktop versions in 1,000-unit quantities

WMS Gaming, manufacturer of arcade games, casino slot machines, and pinball machines, announces that it will shut down its pinball game and cabinet design and manufacturing operations. The announcement marks the end of the arcade era. The Star Wars Episode I pinball machine is the last game produced by the company.

2000
BattleBots appears on the Tonight Show!. Christian Carlberg and Lisa Winter bring their bots on the show to Jay Leno.

Version 4.76 of the Netscape Communicator web browser is released.

2001
Microsoft releases its new operating system, Windows XP, in two editions: home and professional. The system is based on the Windows 2000 interface and the Windows NT kernel, but the system’s Compatibility Mode allows most software written for older versions of Windows to operate correctly. The system consists of 50 million lines of source code. The release is marketed with a US$250 million publicity campaign. Code-name: Whistler Price: US$199 (Home Edition), US$299 (Professional Edition), US$99 (Home Edition Upgrade), or US$199 (Professional Edition Upgrade)

Microsoft posts the first Windows XP

Microsoft releases Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP. Price: US$39.95

2002
IBM announces that its Blue Gene petaflop supercomputer architecture will employ the Linux operating system.

2003
Three Michigan men gain access to Lowe’s computer system while wardriving. They use their access to steal credit card information, and the incident will eventually become the most publicized wardriving incident ever.

2004
Version 9.2 of the SUSE Linux distribution is released under a GNU General Public License. Visit the system’s official website.

2005
Apple Computer launches its iTunes Store in Australia. It sells albums for AU$16.99, individual songs for AU$1.69, and videos for AU$3.39. Initially, New Zealander are able to use the service, however that loophole will quickly be closed.

iMesh reveals the first P2P service approved by the RIAA, iMesh 6, which allows users to listen to music of their choice from a set library for a monthly fee. iMesh users can purchase tracks for US$0.99 each. In addition to the paid library, iMesh 6 also allows users to access large amounts of “non-copyrighted” music and video files, at no additional charge. Attempt to download copyrighted material not provided by the music industry and record labels are blocked by iMesh, before the download is complete. Visit the application’s official website.

2006
Jon Lech Johansen and his company, doubleTwist Corporation, announce that he has reverse engineered the FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) protection used by Apple Computer in music sold through its iTunes Store. Rather than using the exploit to enable users to freely strip the DRM, DoubleTwist will license the ability to apply FairPlay to media companies who want their music and videos to play on the iPod, without entering into a distribution contract with Apple. Visit the iTunes Store.

Red Hat announces that, in the first five hours of the release of Fedora Core 6 the day prior, over ten thousand copies of the distribution were downloaded, averaging out to one 3.4GB download every 1.8 seconds. Visit the official Fedora Project website.

Upper Deck Entertainment releases World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Visit the game’s official website.