June 6, 2011 Steve Jobs gave his last keynote for Apple
2005 – Steve Jobs spoke in front of the masses at the WWDC announcing that Apple will switch their processors from PowerPC to Intel. He then showed off the Mac OS X running on aPentium 4 CPU. The reasoning was that PowerPC chips took too much power to run and also ran hotter than an Intel chip.
1983 – Coleco announced at the Consumer Electronics Show the Coleco Adam. It was their first attempt at a computer hybrid system – gaming and desktop computing. The $725 price tag didn’t hurt, either.
With a Zilog Z80 processor and 80 kB RAM with 16 kB video RAM, the Adam could do what you needed. Also available was a printer, tape drive, and spots for 3 expansion cards.
Unfortunately, the computer didn’t do as well as the company wanted. They expected a half-million sold by December, but didn’t reach that goal. Ultimately, the Coleco Adam was discontinued in 1985.
1896 – Henry Ford gets ready to test drive the first Quadricycle (a.k.a. Car). Only one problem – They didn’t make the garage door big enough. Out comes the Ax – A couple chops and a wider door was created. The car ran 2 speed, but could not go in reverse.
2009 – Intel introduces the Nehalem Core i7 processor, code-named “Lynnfield”. The i7-950 and 975 models are 4-core processors with a speed of 3.06 GHz. The processor ran 64-bit instruction set and could take up to 24 GB of RAM at DDR3 800/1066. Price: $294.00
1988 – While not the first version of the PS/2, the Model 70 was introduced with the 80386 processor. 16, 20, and 25 MHz clock speeds. The Model 70 also used a 25 MHz Intel 486 processor in a complex called the Power Platform.
If you wanted to upgrade to the 80486, you would have to replace the PS/2’s BIOS chip along with the processor board.
The model 70-A21 sold for $11,295 and included 2 MB of RAM, 120 MB ESDI hard drive, MS-DOS and OS/2. If you wanted a monitor for it, you would have to put down an additional $595 for the 8512 VGA.
Model 70 was a desktop case and Model 80 was a tower. IBM also introduced the PS/2 Model 25 LS and PS/2 Model 50 Z.
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.
1802 – A patent for the first steam engine was issued to Richard Trevithick and Andrew Viviane. The machine was called the “Puffing Devil” or “Puffer”. The engine could produce 145 psi to push the car forward.
Richard had two versions of the engine – one as a car and the other as a locomotive. The car was first demonstrated on December 24, 1801, unfortunately, the puffer engine suffered catastrophic failure as it overheated and caught fire.
Eventually in 1804, Trevithick’s patent gave way to the first locomotive where he pulled ten cars along a track. He continued his work until 1833 when he passed away.
2001 – It’s called the “Deorbit” – Space Station Mir was a controlled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Ultimately, the space station burned up over the ocean by New Zeland. Some parts of Mir could survive the re-entry process, so putting the ship over a large body of water was the best way to reduce casulties. Still, New Zeland was at full alert if winds brought large pieces inland.
The official statement had Mir at complete Deorbit around 5:59:24 GMT.