January 27

1948
The Wire Recording Corporation of America announces the commercial availability of the “Wireway,” the first magnetic wire recorder. It is a is lightweight, portable device with a built-in oscillator. Price: US$149.50

1972
Magnavox begins producing the Odyssey video game system, which will be released in May. The Odyssey is the world’s first commercial video game console. The system is fairly primitive. It doesn’t contain any processors; its logic is completely the result of discreet electrical components. Game cartridges are only jumpers that set the configuration of the electronic components of the system. It will be discontinued after only a year on the market, selling very few units.”

1977
“The IBM Data Processing Division introduces the Interactive Instructional System, computer software for training employees or students via remote terminals.”

1994
US District Judge Richard G. Stearns dismisses the case against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student David LaMacchia in the Cynosure Piracy case, in which LaMacchia was accused of using MIT servers to run a bulletin board system (BBS) which offered pirated software. However, LaMacchia will continue to be under pressure until he learns on January 27 that prosecutors will not appeal the judge’s ruling. Although LaMacchia was alleged to have helped other users make illegal copies of software, there was no claim that he profited from the activity, and current laws that he was being prosecuted under only attach criminal penalties to copyright infringement done for profit. In his decision to dismiss the case, Stearns writes that the government’s “interpretation of the wire fraud statute would serve to criminalize the conduct of not only persons like LaMacchia, but also the myriad of home computer users who succumb to the temptation to copy even a single software program for private use.” The dismissal will later be referred to as “LaMacchia Loophole”, wherein it becomes difficult if not impossible to prosecute hobbyists who circulate pirated software recreationally. This loophole will later be closed by the 1997 No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act).

Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) co-founder Jim Clark resigns to found Mosaic Communications, which later became the Netscape Communications Corporation with with Marc Andreesen.

1995
Kevin Mitnick cracks into the WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link) community servers in order to post files stolen files from Tsutomu Shimomura and credit card numbers stolen from Netcom.

“The United States Attorney’s Office announces that it will not file an appeal of the dismissal of the case against David LaMacchia in the “Cynosure” BBS case, in which LaMacchia was accused of running a pirate bulletin board system (BBS) on servers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). LaMacchia’s case was dismissed because of what will come to be known as the “LaMacchia loophole,” under which the court ruled that sharing files without making a financial gain is not a felony.”

1997
“In an interview on CNBC – AOL chairman and president, Steve Case, explains that he has no intentions of issuing refunds to satisfy customers who are angry that AOL has failed to deliver the promised unlimited access promised as part of the new flat-fee pricing policy. Many AOL subscribers have either been unable to connect or have been disconnected from the system following the enactment of the new policies in December.”

1998
Apple Computer announces that it will restructure its Claris subsidiary, laying off three hundred employees to shift development back to Apple, and that it will be shifting the unit’s focus to developing FileMaker Pro. The subsidiary’s name will be changed to FileMaker, Inc., while the name of the ClarisWorks office suite will be changed to AppleWorks.

2003
The Apache Software Foundation releases version 2.0 of the Web Services Invocation Framework, a simple Java API for web services. Visit the official Apache WSIF website.”

The Sony Clie SJ33Sony releases the Sony Clié SJ33 handheld computer in Japan and Hong Kong, featuring a 66MHz Motorola Dragonball Super VZ processor, 16Mb RAM, an MP3 player, the Palm 4.1 OS, a 65,536 color 320×320 pixel screen, and a rechargeable battery. Price: US$318

2006
Western Union discontinued Telegram and Commercial Messanging services. [1]

2009
White House staff experience and e-mail outage for most of the day.

By using a special belt, baby Tyler kicked inside his mother is womb and the signal was sent through twitter.

The Senate appropriations committee approved a $365 billion spending bill – to the energy stimulus plan

2010
Oracle completes it’s acquisition of Sun. The announcement was on April 20. This added more servers, storage, SPARC processors, the Solaris operating system, Java, and the MySQL database.

After months of rumor and speculation, Steve Jobs announced a tablet computer called the iPad. The device would be released April 3 2010.

2014
Microsoft acquires the Gears of War Franchise for an undisclosed sum

Microsoft rebrands SkyDrive to OneDrive after losing to British Sky Broadcasting Group for the name.