Day in Tech History

Day in Tech History Podcast, Blog 365 Days a Year!

June 24, 2019

June 25, 1981: Microsoft Incorporates, Plans to Buy 86-DOS

1981 – Microsoft goes through a restructure to incorporate in Washington. Bill Gates would become president, Paul Allen was Executive Vice President. Steve Ballmer would come on full-time with a $50,000 year salary. The reason why they incorporated? On this same day, Paul Allen sends a proposal to Rod Black of Seattle Computer Products for Microsoft to purchase all rights to 86-DOS for $30,000. At that point, they had only a non-exclusive license (since September 22, 1980). This was a strategic move because Microsoft had a relationship with IBM, and wanted to re-license for the IBM PC. After a month of negotiations, Seattle...

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Day in Tech History / Phones

June 23, 2019

June 24, 2008: Nokia Acquires Symbian, Makes it Open Source

2008 – Nokia announced they have purchased Symbian outright. They originally owned 46% of the company, and bought out the remaining 54% for $410 million. But then the company turned around and created the Symbian Foundation – a group that would house and give away the software code. The group and software would remain functioning until 2010. Symbian Foundation then closed, citing that it would change to a legal entity, responsible for licencing software and intellectual property. The transition completed in 2011. Symantec acquires Ghost software Florida Judge grants Apple permission to continue lawsuit against Psystar Who Framed Roger Rabbit releases...

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Day in Tech History / Internet

June 22, 2019

June 23, 1983: First successful test of the Domain Name System (DNS)

1983 – Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel run the first successful test of the distributed Domain Name System (DNS). This automated process was to take over failing Arpanet and CSnet protocols because those relied on address books. DNS uses a hierarchical distributed naming system for the Internet or any private network. It associates the domain names with numerical IP addresses. Nintendo 64 is launched The Typewriter is patented Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe! Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS | More

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Day in Tech History / Microsoft

June 21, 2019

June 22, 2009: The End of Kodachrome Color Film

2009 – Kodak announced they would ended the production of Kodachrome color film. Once the leftover film is distributed, there will be no more made. That lasted until December, 2010. Kodak created their iconic Kodachrome film in 1935. This is a non-substansive, color reversal film was used in still photos and cinematography. It used the subtractive color method – which required a complex chemical system to make the negative. Kodachrome was invented by John Capstaff, who worked for a competitor until Eastman bought the company out. Dean Fox leaves Atari IBM and NNSA announce Blue Gene/L Kodak ends production of Kodachrome film...

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Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM)

Computer / Day in Tech History

June 20, 2019

June 21, 1948: Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine Runs First Program

1948 – What was first expected to be a practical use computer, the SSEM, or Small-Scale Experimental Machine became the first stored-program computer. Basically, it stores program instructions into it’s electronic memory. This 32-bit word length, cathode-ray tube computer was designed to only run subtraction and negation through hardware. Other functions could be run, but only through software. The first program was run on this day. It was written by Professor Tom Kilbum. The seventeen-instruction stored-program took 52 minutes to run. The program was tasked to find the highest proper factor of 218 (262,144). Start of the Summer Solstice Congress Robot Caucus...

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Day in Tech History / Google / Microsoft

June 19, 2019

June 20, 2014: Smartphone Kill Switch

2014 – Microsoft and Google agree to the Kill switch technology. In a California bill SB-967, Smartphones built after July 1, 2015 will consist of a hardware or software option to “kill” the phone. Further, a $500 to $2,500 fine will be issued to anyone selling a stolen phone. Once switched, the device will not be able to turn on, even during a hard reset. 1926 – First wireless phone is demonstrated 1989 – Lotus 1-2-3 version 3.0 is released 2000 – IBM 1GB Microdrive 2003 – Wikimedia Foundation is founded 2009 – Nokia purchases Nortel Podcast: Play in new...

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Computer / Day in Tech History

June 18, 2019

June 19, 1984: X Window System

1984 – Jim Gettys and Bob Scheifler announced collaboration of a new operating system in the X Window System. This gives the basic framework for a GUI. Currently, it is refered to as X11, R7.7. I’ve spent the last couple weeks writing a window system for the VS100. I stole a fair amount of code from W, surrounded it with an asynchronous rather than a synchronous interface, and called it X. Overall performance appears to be about twice that of W. The code seems fairly solid at this point, although there are still some deficiencies to be fixed up. We at...

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Day in Tech History / Yahoo

June 17, 2019

June 18, 2007: Terry Semel of Yahoo Step Down

2007 – Terry Semel was under pressure by the board because of dissatisfaction of his compensation. Terry was brought in to create a partnership with Hollywood, which really didn’t happen. He handed the reigns over to Jerry Yang, who started promising revitalized talks with Microsoft. There are a few that even speculate that was when the buyout of Yahoo began. Jerry Yang stepped down in 200 1999 – Palm announces the m100 2009 – Jammie Thomas-Rasset was found guilty of copyright infringement and ordered to pay 1.92 million to the RIAA. Microsoft announced the Surface Tablet Podcast: Play in new window...

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Head of the Statue of Liberty: Paris World's Fair, 1878

Day in Tech History / Geek

June 16, 2019

June 17, 1885: Statue of Liberty is Delivered

1885 – Arriving in over 200 crates, the Statue of Liberty is fully delivered to New York City. French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, along with Gustave Eiffel, created this statue for America to be a symbol of freedom and friendship between the US and France. Yet, it almost didn’t get assembled due to an argument on who would pay for the pedestal at Ellis Island. President Cleveland finally dedicated the statue on October 28, 1886. Linus Torvolds announces he will leave Transmetta to work for the Open Source Development Labs Flickr co-founders leave the company Compaq announces the Armada line of computers Podcast:...

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