International Business Machines (IBM) started in the 1880’s as different companies: the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, the Computing Scale Corporation, and the Bundy Manufacturing Company.. IBM was officially founded on June 15, 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) through a merger. They built computers – from mainframes to Personal computers. IBM sold their PC line to Lenovo, but continues to build enterprise equipment.
1954 – Fortran is a blend from the IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System that started as the assembly language for the IBM 704. A general-purpose, procedural programming language that is suited to numeric computation and scientific computing.
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2006 – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was a game that changed perception of the industry. The grit and cruelty of the GTA franchise has not only brought controversy, its also brought the fans.
One bit of controversy was the “Hot Coffee” minigame within GTA. Hot Coffee was a euphemism for sex. In the minigame, the main character and the girlfriend initiated in coitus, which got a lot of parents upset.
The Hot Coffee minigame was disabled by Take-Two, but people found ways around the block. This minigame prompted a re-rating to Adult, ultimately getting pulled from many game shelves.
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2004 – It was an interesting day in the Tech community when we heard the news. IBM was getting out of the desktop and laptop markets and focus on server and infrastructure. They started by selling all their assets to Lenovo – China’s largest computer manufacturer. Lenovo wasn’t a household name in the US, but this pretty much changed that overnight.The deal was for $650 million in cash and $600 million in stock. Lenovo would also acquire $500 million in IBM liabilities, which would put the total to $1.75 billion. In return, Lenovo would instantly become the 3rd largest PC vendor with $12 billion in revenue, not to mention major markets in both China and the U.S.
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RCA demonstrates Split Screen technology for the first time.
1981 – For many years, whenever something came out, it was “IBM’s Data Processing Division releases”… Well, on Dec 3rd 1981, IBM decided and announced that the Data Processing Division was going to be absorbed into the IBM National Accounts Division (NAD), and the National Marketing Division. The 2 divisions would then become part of the Information SystemsGroup. This would be effective January 1982.
The Data Processing Division was launched in 1956. IBM DPD had launched many 370 mainframe systems, as well as the 7090 – which we talk about it’s release on Dec 3rd 1968. For more information, see IBM on the IBM Data Pprocessing Division.
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1959 – Want to see a 2.9 million dollar computer? That was the IBM 7090 – a transistorized mainframe computer that was designed for scientific research and tech applications. It replaced the 709 series, which used vacuum tubes. The first two were delivered – one of the 7090’s would be used for the Mercury and Gemini space missions. Check out more on the IBM 7090
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1983 – To counter IBM, Tandy releases the Tandy TRS-80 Model 2000 computer. It housed the 80186 processor and 128 KB of RAM. There were 2 – 720 KB floppy drives and the MS–DOS Operating System. The prices ranged from $2,750. For an additional fee you could get a Monochrome graphics card, optional color monitor and extra RAM.
The Tandy 2000 was considerably faster than the IBM PC models.
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Sony releases the Playstation 2 in the US
33 year old man dies from Cell phone battery – except not
1983 – Windows 1.o was announced at the Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York City. It was one of the most elaborate product introductions to date. Gates says Windows 1.0 will officially release in 1984, yet it didn’t release until June, 1985.
Atari
1986 – Back in that day, Comdex was the big computer show. There were two versions: one that was held in Chicago in the spring and the other in Las Vegas mid-November. At this time, Atari was the big dog on the block. Jack Tramiel was putting all efforts in this years Comdex after seeing a small dip in the shares.So they set up a 65 booth display with different 3rd party developers that would show off what the Atari could do. The big innovation that year – the SX212 1200 baud modem for $99.95. They also showed off the Atari 2600jr and the Atari 7800, and because of that impressive show, Atari boasted a $25 million profit that year.
Of course, the company went well for a few more years, merged with JTS, which was then bought by Hasbro in 1998. The company still is survived in a way to this day, but not in the glory that it was back then.
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Pets.com sock puppet was the most popular part of Pets.com
2000 – It was a time that would be known as when the Bubble burst. The event technically happened on March 10, 2000. Since that time, dot com-ers began losing their sites and livelihood. Although Pets.com had a pretty good run and marketing strategy, they didn’t have the momentum to keep investors on board. The company worked hard at trying to sell, but even the puppet mascot of a dog holding a microphone wasn’t enough to reel in an interested buyer. The only good sales at Pets.com were the sock puppets, which was eventually sold upon bankruptcy to a company called Bar None – an auto loan firm.
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IBM and Motorola shun Microsoft on a new computer platform