2006 – The book iWoz: from Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple and had Fun Doing it. (**WHEW!**) came out. It was a book that was written to dispel some of the rumors and misconceptions on many different items.
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.
Born in 1856, Nikola Tesla was the inventor of alternating current. Tesla even worked for Edison from 1882 to 1886. He then started the Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing company in where he worked more on AC electricity.
This started the “War of Currents”, which we talked about on January 3rd when Edison electrocuted Topsy, the Elephant.
Tesla was also known for many patents and inventions, including the Tesla coil, Electro-magnetic motor, incandescent electric light, electric railway system and many more. He was known for X-Rays, radio, the remote control and wireless communications.
1965 – Richard Wexelblat was the first candidate to complete his doctoral dissertation, hence giving him a degree in “Computer Science“. It was presented at the University of Pennsylvania – Moore School of Electrical Engineering. Richard went on to write the “History of Programming Languages” (ISBN:0-12-745040-8)
2013 – Jeff Bezos is interviewed on the show “60 Minutes” on CBS with Charlie Rose. During his interview he unveils a project Amazon has been working on – Flying drone delivery. This secret R&D project called “Octocopter” will have drones fly the packages from outposts in each city to the homes.
In a project Amazon is calling “Prime Air”, they expect the delivery system to be available in the next 4-5 years.
Charlie Rose’ reaction summed it up. “Oh, my God!”.
1999 – It was the most expensive internet domain name. Business.com was first bought in 1997 for $150,000 by Marc Ostrofsky. You might think that is pretty expensive, but economically, it was a great deal. On 12/01/99, Buisness.com was sold to Jake Winebaum for $7.5 million. At that point, buisness.com was officially founded.Jake was a chairman of the Walt Disney Internet group.This domain barely made it through the dot com bubble. They went through 2007 when R.H. Donnelley Corporation acquired the site for $345 million. R.H. Donnelley filed for bankruptcy in June 2009.
2009 – Microsoft released not only the Windows 7 Operating system, but also Server 2008 R2 (as mentioned on the Windows 7 team blog). Although there are many versions of Windows OS, Windows 7 stood for the 7th kernel update. It was release to Manufacturing (RTM) a few days prior – meaning the final code is sent out for people and companies to install on their desktops and notebooks. If you bought one as part of your Dell, HP, Acer or other computer, you would get an “OEM” version (Original Equipment Manufacturer), which could have add-ons that make the software work better on the computer.
“Not only is RTM an important milestone for us – it’s also an important milestone for our partners.” stated Brandon LeBlanc. “Today’s release is the result of hard work and collaboration with our partners in the industry to make Windows 7 a success. We delivered Windows 7 with a predictable feature set on a predictable timetable that allowed OEMs to focus on value and differentiation for their customers. “
There are different flavors of Windows 7: Home, professional and ultimate. Windows 7 supports computers with multiple cores and implemented more security protocols to protect people’s data.
1923– 90 years ago, Walt and Roy Disney start what is known as the Walt Disney Company. It started as the Disney Brothers Cartoon studio. Walt Disney created a short film entitled Alice’s Wonderland.
In 1986, the name was officially changed to the Walt Disney Company. Steve Jobs was a shareholder and board member. Walt Disney Studios is one of the largest in Hollywood with networks ESPN, ABC, A&E and more.
2000 – 10:15 AM, Mafiaboy – Michael Demon Calce, a 16 year old hacker from Canada – targets 7 sites with a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS). Amazon, Buy.com, CNN, eBay, E*E*Trade, MSN and ZDNet are all affected. Mafiaboy would be sentenced to eight months in a youth detention center for this DDoS.
The project was called Rivolta (riot in Itallian). Yahoo! was his first target.
Calce later said he downloaded the application but didn’t realize he ran it so he went to school. When he came back his computer was crashed and he had no idea what happened.