The Great Geek Manual

1604
Johannes Kepler becomes the first to observe the supernova which will later be called “Kepler’s nova” in the constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer. He observes it from the time of its appearance as a new star, and, in 1606, it will inspire him to write The New Star.

1926
Julius Edgar Lilienfeld of New York, files for a patent for a “Method and Apparatus for Controlling Electric Currents.” The application describes an NPN junction transistor and its use as an amplifier.

1958
Dr. Ake Senning implants the first internal heart pacemaker.

1959
The general election in the United Kingdom is the first to be covered extensively on television.

1965
The Post Office Tower is operationally opened as a telecommunications tower in London, England, for television and radio broadcasting and to carry all of the microwave traffic into and out of the city. At 620ft (189m), it will be the tallest building in London until it is surpassed by the NatWest Tower in 1981. The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, makes an inaugural telephone call to the Lord Mayor of Birmingham.

1991
Apple Computer settles the second lawsuit brought against it by Apple Corps, the record label of the famous band, The Beatles. The first suit was brought against the computer manufacturer for using the Apple brand name. It was settled in 1981 when Apple Computer agreed to remain out of the music business. This second suit was filed in February 1989, seeking unspecified damages after Apple Computer released Apple IIGS, Mac Plus, Mac SE, and Mac II systems with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) synthesizers, an act which Apple Corps felt violated the 1981 settlement. The Beatles’ legal representation famously suggested during the suit that Apple change its name to Banana or Peach if it wished to continue producing music products. Although Apple Computer didn’t feel that it had broken the 1981 agreement, it decided to settle this second suit with a payment of US$26.5 million to Apple Corp. The same issue will result in a third lawsuit after Apple Computer announces iTunes.

At the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Multimedia Marketing Council launches the Multimedia PC (MPC), featuring a 80286 processor, 2MB RAM, a 40MB hard drive, VGA graphics, two-channel 16-bit audio record/playback, a CD-ROM, and Microsoft Windows with Multimedia extensions. Keynote speakers at the event include James Burke and Bill Gates.

1992
Midway releases the original Mortal Kombat to arcades in the US.

1996
In a news release, the US Postal Service introduces a special “Computer Technology” stamp to mark the fiftieth anniversary of ENIAC, the first large-scale, electronic, digital computer. In a ceremony at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, speakers will pay tribute to computer pioneers with the image of a brain partially covered by small blocs that contain parts of circuit boards and binary code. The stamp itself was designed entirely on a computer.

Version 4.0 of the Red Hat Linux operating system is released. Code-name: Colgate Visit the system’s official website.

1997
Nortel and Norweb Communications of Great Britain announce a new technology which allows data to be transferred over power lines to residential customers at speeds of more than one megabit per second.

Yahoo! acquires Four11. Four11′s Rocketmail service will become Yahoo! Mail, a free webmail service that will grow to become the most widely used mail service on the Internet.

1998
Intel announces that they expect to have a GigaHertz-speed processor (code-named Foster) as a successor to its current Pentium II line by the year 2001. Such a speed will be twice as fast as a 450MHz Pentium II.

The United States Senate approves, by a 96-2 margin, a bill to bar any new state and local taxes on the Internet for three years. The moratorium includes “bit” taxes and multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.

1999
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announces that it plans to trim between 500 and 1,000 jobs from its personal computer operation. Much of the plan addresses problems with retail sales of personal computers and focuses on developing online sales.

Webvan Group, Inc., an online grocery start-up, withdraws its plans for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) until after an unspecified “cooling-off period.” The company’s original plans to offer twenty-five million shares are postponed due to revelations that the company omitted pertinent operating financial information from its published portfolio. These facts include an anticipated loss of US$300 million in 2001 and projected online order averages of US$103 each.

2002
A Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) advisory is released detailing the discovery of a back door (trojan horse) found in the source code files of Sendmail 8.12.6.

2003
Apple Computer releases an updated line of Power Mac G4 computers, featuring a single or dual 1.25GHz G4 processors and 80GB hard drives.

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Impulse” first airs. (No. 305) In it, Enterprise encounters a Vulcan ship in which the crew has become infected by a potent neurotoxin related to Trellium-D that causes permanent neural damage. T’Pol becomes infected and loses control of her emotions, becoming paranoid and nearly homicidal. Memory Alpha entry

2004
During the second presidential debate, George W. Bush states, “I hear there’s rumors on the internets that we’re going to have a draft. We’re not going to have a draft, period.” His use of the term “internets” becomes the subject of ridicule and countless references overnight. Read the full transcript of the debate.

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Storm Front” (Part I) first airs. (No. 401) In it, the Enterprise must correct a timeline in which aliens have allied themselves with the Nazis during World War II. Memory Alpha entry

ThinkFilm releases the science fiction film Primer, directed by Shane Carruth and starring Shane Carruth and David Sullivan, to four US theaters. In the film, two engineers accidentally create a device that allows them to send people and objects back in time. The friends begin using the device to work the stock market, but eventually they cave into the temptation of meddling in their own pasts, creating larger and larger paradoxes, until their stress finally begins to erode their friendship. At its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Primer was awarded the Grand Jury Prize. It will go on to win over cult followings for its refreshingly non-Hollywood story complexity, technical dialog, and ending. Produced on a budget of only seven thousand dollars, it will gross US$28,162 domestically in its opening weekend and US$424,760 over the entire course of its theatrical run. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 19 mins

2005
“Stanley,” an autonomous robotic Volkswagen Touareg R5 created by the Stanford Racing Team, wins the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge by successfully navigating a 212.4km off-road desert driving course southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada in just under seven hours. Of twenty-three vehicles entered into the competition, only four others completed the course under the prescribed ten hour time limit. Visit the Original Stanley Team Page.

2006
Nielsen Entertainment releases its third annual Active Gamer Benchmark Study, surprising the world with results that reveal that 64% of the United States’ estimated 117 million online gamers are female. Far more predictably, the study also reveals that teenagers dominate the market, though approximately fifteen million gamers are forty-five years old or older. The study sampled 2,220 “active gamers” who played online at least once a week. Visit the official Nielson website.

2008
A 4chan user (and member of Anonymous) named David C. Kernell, age 20, is indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee, for hacking into the Yahoo! e-mail account of Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (gov.palin@yahoo.com) and releasing screenshots from the account through the Wikileaks site using the webhandle “Rubico” on September 17, 2008. Kernell, an economics student at the University of Tennessee and the son of Democratic Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell from Memphis, hacked the account with the intention of “derailing” Palin’s campaign after she had been criticized by the media and political opponents for using private email accounts to conduct government business in order to circumvent transparency laws. He is charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(C) and § 2701, gaining unlawful access to stored communications and intentionally accessing a computer without authorization across state lines. Kernell will turn himself into authorities the next day, plead not-guilty to the charge, and be released without bail. A trial date will be set for April 2009 but repeatedly delayed at the request of both parties. Read the WikiLeaks press release.

Data transmission within a commercial telecommunications network is secured using quantum cryptography for the first time in Vienna, Austria by 41 partners from 12 European countries, including researchers from the University of Bristol. The network consists of six nodes and eight intermediary links spaced 6km to 82km apart using a standard optical fibre communication ring. Read more about the technical specifications of the network.