FTC1914 – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is formed to regulate business in the US. President Wilson issued this to “Trust bust”. The FTC is controlled by a 5 member panel that serve in 7 year terms. They govern all fair trade practices.
Companies like Microsoft and IBM have been under the microscope with the FTC and the FCC.
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 26 [dithzagg]
2011 – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made one of the biggest blunders of 2011 when he announced not only was the DVD section of Netflix getting a new name, but also that section was up for sale. Qwikster brought a lot of attention rapidly for two reasons – 1. It was close to Amway’s spin-off Quixster, and 2. Qwikster used to be the twitter handle of a pot-smoking Elmo character. Since then, Hastings apologized and the company reeled back the statement. However, it was not before they lost 2/3 of their stock and over 800,000 subscribers. Currently, their stock is at $57 a share (from $295 back in July 2011).
ATT Logo
1995 – The National Cash Register Company (NCR) Started in 1884 with Point of Sales registers. The company deals in all types of POS, but had financial problems. In 1991, AT&T purchased NCR for $7.4 billion. NCR has been the only AT&T acquisition that retained their original name. on Sept. 201995 AT&T would spin NCR back into it’s own company due to the antitrust issues put forward
2007 – Lulu.com is a site that allows people to publish their own books. Hulu.com is an online video site. Still, Lulu felt that Hulu was way too close to their name, so they decided to file a lawsuit for similarity.Similarity of what?
Now if you want to go sue someone who is backed by NBC Universal, you have a lot of marbles. Nonetheless, it sounds more like a publicity stunt for Lulu to get their name out. Well, the lawsuit was dropped on Oct. 22, and Hulu launched in Beta. Ultimately, by March 12th, 2008, Hulu.com was officially launched.
August 21, 2001 – using a 45 MBs line, Brazil became part of the Internet2, an internet connected to multiple academics. The connection went from Rio de Janerio to Miami Fl. Internet2 member rolls included over 200 higher education institutions, 40 members from industry, 30 research and education network and connector organizations and over 50 affiliate members.
2013 – Jeff Bezos puchased the Washington Post for $250 million dollars. The deal was officially finalized on October 1, 2013. Later, in an article in Forbes, Bezos admits he was talked into the purchase.
The Washington Post is a separate entity from Amazon.
2002 – The Internet2 – Otherwise known as the Abilene Network – deploys Internet Protocol v.6. The switch from IPv4was to give a network layer that could include packet-switched internetworks. This increases the IP addresses available.
Focused on members’ technology needs since 1996, Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education (R&E) organizations to solve common technology challenges, and develop innovative solutions in support of their educational, research, and community service missions. Activating the same partnerships that produced today’s Internet, our members are forging the future Internet through community, an unsurpassed innovation platform, and trans formative, above the-network services and applications.
Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.That was the first book Amazon sold on July 16th, 1995. The company ran from their garage in Bellevue, Washington. 3 SPARC machines was all they had and a cool little mechanism that rung a bell every time a book was sold. The business model was set to make profit in 5 years. It was a good thing, because that may have helped it survive the dot com bubble.
17 years later, Amazon is going strong. Purchases of companies like WOOT! and Zappos!, along with the introduction of Kindle e-reader and Amazon Prime, the company is one of the largest resellers of product on the web.
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.
2001 – To compete with AOL, Internet Service Providers NetZero and Juno Online Services announce they will merge to become United Online. The company would eventually acquire other assets to keep afloat, including the purchase of the FTD group in 2008.
Of course, NetZero had changed their business model to a Wireless plan in 2012 and operates a broadband and dial up service nation-wide.