1984 – One billion points on one quarter. That was the reason for Tim McVey Day. At the Twin Galaxies arcade back on January 17th, Tim scored 1,000,042,270 points on one quarter to the game “Nibbler” – a hybrid Pac-Man and Centipede game. McVey got his name in Computer Games Magazine for it, and so he became the first video gamer to get a civic day in his honor.
His record was broken eight months later by Enrico Zanetti.
Of course, this event gets overshadowed by the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing by Timothy McVeigh.
1984 – Michael Dell launches his new business of IBM compatible PC’s from his dorm in Austin, TX. The idea was to sell a philosophy over a product. The philosophy was to sell direct to customize to the shopper. Of course, Dell’s award winning service throughout the years has shown this to be a good plan. Happy Anniversary, Dell!
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for November 4
1995 – The online auction site eBay officially was founded on this day by Pierre Omidyar, but it was known back then as “AuctionWeb“. The first auction was for a broken laser pointer. It was sold for $14.83.Makes me wonder how much that laser pointer would be worth if it went back up on the auction block.
The hobby became a business real quick when his server fees increased dramatically. He decided to take AuctionWeb to the next level and hire an employee – Chris Agarpao. Soon, eBay got their first president in 1996 when Jeffrey Skoll took the reins.
Since then the company has grown to a juggernaut in the online Auction business. They even have an ebay slot machine. Just like the auction site, I personally didn’t do too well in profiting from it…
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 3
2011 – Steve Jobs, unable to continue due to failing health, officially puts his resignation in to Apple. He asks for his successor to be Tim Cook, then COO of Apple. The Board of Directors agree and announce the changing of CEO. The official resignation letter read:
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come. The official resignation letter read:
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
1995 – Microsoft releases Windows 95. It was a stellar event with it’s newest operating system. The first MS OS in 32 bit mode, it also debut TCP/IP, dial up networking and Long Filename support. The event brought along many different celebrations, including places like New York, which lit up the Empire State Building with the Windows colors.
IBM wasn’t sure if they were getting Windows 95 until 15 minutes before release. Companies like HP and Compaq (at that time they were separate) were able to let consumers know that they will get upgrades, but IBM could not make that promise.
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for August 24
1885 – Arriving in over 200 crates, the Statue of Liberty is fully delivered to New York City. French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, along with Gustave Eiffel, created this statue for America to be a symbol of freedom and friendship between the US and France.
Yet, it almost didn’t get assembled due to an argument on who would pay for the pedestal at Ellis Island. President Cleveland finally dedicated the statue on October 28, 1886.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 17
1997 – Several computer companies banded together to help create the NetPC. A disk-less computer that got all information, including install – from a corporate server or the Internet.
Basically, these would be similar to thin clients or “Dumb terminals” for work computers. No CD drive, no floppy disc and limited disk space. Cases were sealed so nobody could get inside to reconfigure the computer. Installs would be handled via the Internet, therefore, no personal software could be installed.
Microsoft and Intel unveiled the system at the PC Expo trade show. NetPC would work with Compaq, Dell, IBM, HP, Acer, Gateway 2000, Mitac, Misubishi, NEC, Pionex, and Groupe Bull computer companies to make the first group of NetPC computers.
The sub-$1,000 computer was a great idea that would work better today than in 1997. IBM dropped out of the project before the first NetPCs came out. They decided to make something their customers would use.
Microsoft finally pulled the plug at the Windows Engineering Conference in 1998 when John Frederiksen, lead project manager for thin clients acknowledged the phase-out process.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 16
2008 – Mozilla takes a new marketing step as they announce they want to break the Guinness world records for downloads in a 24 hour period of release. A grand idea, however, it was slightly hampered by the fact that the servers didn’t come up at 10 AM. The bug was fixed and they got the record of 7 million downloads. It was expected to be around 10 million if the bugs did not creep up, for some downloaded 3.0 from other sites.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 17
First started as Beverly Hills Internet (BHI) GeoCities was one of the largest online user-created communities. At it’s height, GeoCities was the third-most visited website. Pages built by users to slice their piece of the Word Wide Web Pie.
Yahoo! saw this as a great addition to their web so on January 28, 1999 Yahoo! announced they were purchasing GeoCities for $3.6 billion dollars and $1 billion in stock options. Because of this news, GeoCities stock jumped up 42.25 points to $117/share. Yahoo! jumped up 31 points to $367/share.
GeoCities was closed by Yahoo! on October 26, 2009