March 2019

April Fools Day History

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine aggregator, apple, april 1, beta, cyrix, Geek, gmail, Google, invitation, iTunes, RSS, Steve Job, steve jobs, steve jobs and steve wozniak, steve wozniak, SteveWozniak, twitter, webmail service 0 Comment March 31, 2019

Watch out today, as the internet becomes a bevy of fake information. The joke telling pre-dates the internet, but since the world started connecting online, the hoaxes have gotten not only more elaborate, but more fun.

Did you know that John C. Dvorak wrote an article in 1994 about a bill that would make it illegal to use the Internet while intoxicated?

Did you know in 2006, Apple pranked an add-on to your iPod that could allow it to make phone calls?

ThinkGeek made a few pranks that ended up turning into actual products, such as Unicorn Meat and the iCade?

What one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater are we going to see this year? Guess we’ll start to find out in the next 24 hours…

2004 – Google releases their Webmail service in “Gmail” . They release it as an invitation only beta. That would stay in effect until February 7, 2007.

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Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak incorporate Apple Computer Company
Windows Mobile 6.1 released
Cyrix vs. Intel Lawsuit settled.

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Day in Tech History/ Geek

March 31, 2008: DNS Addressing Flaw

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine admin policy, aggregator, ARMM, Atari, automated retroactive minimal moderation, cease and desist letter, dan kaminsky, Digital media, DNS spoofing, domain name system, Geek, harvard mark, iTunes, Joel Furr, Microsoft, microsoft bob, naming system, RSS, SPAM, technology history, term spam, Tetris, twitter, usenet 0 Comment March 30, 2019

2008 – Dan Kaminsky announced he has been in contact with Microsoft over a flaw in the DNS naming system. At this time, there were no other details as to keep this issue as secret as possible while they try to fix the problem.

On March 27, Kaminsky discovered that within the Conficker virus, the hosts had a detectable signature when scanned remotely. This was known as DNS Cache poisoning. Over 568,000 computers were infected because of this. The patch was released on July 8th, 2008.

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Construction of Harvard Mark I
Atari gets a Cease and Desist letter in manufacturing Tetris.
Microsoft Bob for Windows is released

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Day in Tech History/ Geek

March 30, 1993: AT&T Graphics Software Labs Close

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine aggregator, AT&T, AT&T Multimedia Software Solutions, census bureau, commercial computer, contracts, Encarta, first computer, Geek, gold, government agencies, graphic programs, graphics software labs, intel, iTunes, j presper eckert, john mauchly, john william mauchly, large numbers, maxtor, Nehalem, quantum, RSS, sperry rand corporation, states census bureau, technology history, United States, united states census, united states census bureau, univac, UNIVAC I, universal automatic computer, us air force 0 Comment March 29, 2019

1993 – The graphics software labs at AT&T closed down and relocated to the AT&T Multimedia Software Solutions. The division focused on software products that included 3D vector based graphic programs like AutoCAD, RIO, TOPAZ for PC and Mac computers.

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Quantum sells to Maxtor
Intel launches Nehalem
Microsoft ends Encarta

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Day in Tech History/ Geek

March 29, 1989: Pixar’s Tin Toy Wins Academy Award

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine Academy Award, Academy Award for best animated short film, aggregator, appliance server, Geek, gold, Hertz, iPhone, iTunes, melissa macro virus, Pixar Tin Toy, portable computer, portable machine, radio shack, RadioShack, RSS, Skype, small computer, Tandy Corporation, trs, TRS-80 Model 100 0 Comment March 28, 2019

1982 – The first completely computer animated video wins an Academy Award for best animated short film. “Tin Toy” by Pixar (now a division of Disney) was an animated short film about a toy named Tinny – a one man band – who was being played by an infant named Billy. The short film lasted 5 minutes and cost $300,000 to make.

The short film also won awards at the Seattle International Film Festival, World Animation Celebration, and National Film Registry.

A sequel was in the works, but Tinny was not a popular toy for the kids. Therefore, the film was not made as Pixar concentrated on the movie “Toy Story”.

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Melissa macro virus was first reported
Netfinity A-100 appliance server
Skype for iPhone

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March 28, 1979: Meltdown of Three Mile Island

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine aggregator, beos, Dauphin County, day, Flickr, Geek, gnome, gold, haiku, iTunes, kodak, launches, maui, Middletown, mozy, nuclear reactors, open source, open source version, PA, palm, partial meltdown, RSS, technology history, Three Mile Island, twitter, windows xp, Yahoo, yahoo photos 0 Comment March 27, 2019

1979 – At 4 PM EST, the nuclear reactors in Middletown, PA (Dauphin County) experienced a partial meltdown. The incident was officially rated a 5-of-7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale: Accident with wider consequences.

A stuck open pilot relief valve was to blame for the incident in the primary system. The valve allowed for nuclear reactor coolant to escape into the atmosphere. During the event, the EPA was dispached where they took daily samples of the air to make sure the levels were not harmful to the community.

The evacuation of Middletown was ordered 28 hours later – mostly women and children. Only half of the 663,500 population evacuated within a 20 mile radius.

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Other Events in the Day in Technology History

Kodak releases the DC40 camera
Yahoo launches Yahoo! Photos
Windows XP 64 is released

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Day in Tech History/ Geek

March 27, 1982: Pac-Man Fever Hits #9

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine Buckner & Garcia, business plan, Cat Scratch Fever, day, iTunes, link exchange, linkexchange, madin, Microsoft, microsoft excel, mozy, pac man fever, powerful advertising, rest is history, RSS, sanjay, stitcher, tony hsieh, torrentspy, twitter 0 Comment March 26, 2019

1982 – Recorded in 1981, the song Pac-Man fever was a song by (Jerry ) Buckner & (Gary) Garcia. Each song on the album was about a different video game and was released via album, cassette, 8-track and later via CD. The song is a parody of “Cat Scratch Fever” by Ted Nugent.

The song itself hit the Bilboard Hot 100 list at #9. Pac-Man fever also earned a gold certification by the RIAA.

The duo had a mini-hit with the song “Do the Donkey Kong”.

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TorrentSpy Shuts down
120 MHz Pentium Processor is released
Microsoft Excel 4.0 is released

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Computer/ Day in Tech History

March 26, 1976: Altair Computer Convention

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1976 – The First Annual World Altair Computer Convention is held at the Airport Marina Hotel near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bill Gates opens the convention with his position on software piracy.

Of course, it was all about the Altair 8800. MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) was a computer that came in kit form where you could build and improve upon it.