1964– The Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC) is retired after fifteen years. SEAC was the first to use all-diode logic. SEAC was bason on EDVAC. It had 747 vacuum tubes, and the clock rate was under 1 mHz.
2000– Before smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants were the device to have. You could store contacts, write memos, set up, read and send email and even play a nice game of Solitaire, or the game where you eliminated color marbles. I – in my IT career – not only had a Palm III, but also ran with an iPAQ 3650, Handspring Visor and Jornada. Well, while this was not the first handheld, we would see a day where many vendors would release the new versions of their devices. It all hovered around Microsoft and their release – the Pocket PC specification: Windows CE 3.0 with mobile IE, Windows Music Player and Mobile Word. Compaq then releases the iPAQ, HP releases the Jornada 545 and Casio introduced the Cassiopeia E-115.
2006 – Toshiba launches the HD DVD format in the US. The first HD DVD players were the HD-A1 and HD-XA1. RCA would rebrand the A1 to the HDV-5000. The first HD DVD with TrueHD soundtrack was the Phantom of the Opera.
2000 – Five arial images of Area 51 are leaked onto Terraserver from a Russian satellite called “Sovinformsputnik. The amount of traffic that went to the site brought the server down, so they had to take the photos off until they could handle the traffic.
1996– Nineteen year old Jennifer Kaye Ringley takes several webcams and places them within her house. For the next seven years, she would livestream her life to all on the Internet. Since Ringley was raised a nudist, she would appear on the video without clothes on. The site was not pornographic – although any sexual escapades would be caught live. Jennifer leads a Social media free life nowadays.
1965– You may have heard about Moore’s Law. This states that every 18 months, a processor will double in speed. The law’s name is coined after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore. He said:
It can’t continue forever. The nature of the exponential is that you push them out and eventually disaster happens.
The law started with the Integrated circuit. It has continued to this day – especially since we switched ideas and, instead of speeding up, we double the amount of processors.
2009– Susan Boyle takes the Stage at “Britian’s Got Talent”. A person that most would write-off at first glance, sings “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables. Once she was done, the 48 year-old Scot got a standing ovation. The next day, her audition was posted and became one of the most viral on YouTube. It had been downloaded over 347 million times.
Of course, Boyle’s performance has been overshadowed by Gangnam Style…
April 6, 1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey releases to theaters
1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey actually premiered in Washington DC on April 2nd, New York and Los Angles on April 4th. It was April 6th that was the major theatrical release date for the US. This Stanley Kubrick classic won an Oscar for best visual effects and was nominated for best director, best art direction and best writing , story and screenplay. For any Sci-Fi geek, this is an important movie in the genre. It was also known as “How the Solar System Was Won” and “Journey Beyond the Stars” (working titles).
1992 – At the Spring Comdex in Chicago, IL, Microsoft released “Janus” – otherwise known as Windows 3.1. The new 16 bit Operating System had some inventive features, including support for TrueType fonts, support for media formats like CD ROMs and MIDI and Super VGA monitors. Price: $149.00