1999 – Believeinkids.com became the five-millionth domain name in the world. At the time, a domain name cost $70 for the first year, $35 a year thereafter.
The domain name was abandoned and is still available to this day.
2006 – Toshiba launches the HD DVD format in the US. The first HD DVD players were the HD-A1 and HD-XA1. RCA would rebrand the A1 to the HDV-5000. The first HD DVD with TrueHD soundtrack was the Phantom of the Opera.
1981 – The first vinyl video record, a.k.a. the videodisc, hit stores in the U.S. The “Capacitance Electronic Disc” looked just like any other vinyl record protected in a plastic caddy and held 60 minutes of NTSC video. That is approximately 27,000 frames per second.
However, the CED players did not make the impact RCA had hoped. Only 100,000 were sold by the end of the year. The “BetaMax vs. VHS” war was in full swing and the tapes were considerably smaller than the discs. Laserdisc was also available to the public, which led to a lot of confusion of formats.
The RCA Selectavision was retired in 1984 with the last discs released in 1986
2002 – The trial of Jon Lech Johansen, better known as “DVD Jon,” begins with Johansen pleading not guilty. DVD Jon has been a pioneer in “Reverse engineering”. O.K, so that is a fancy way of saying “Pirating”, but without his efforts, advances might not have been made. He was acquitted on January 7, 2003.
2011 – CEO Reed Hastings announced a bombshell that, in turn, brought on Netflix’s single worst year ever. He announced that they were splitting Netflix streaming from DVD rentals. With that, the price would be doubled – $8 for 2 DVD rental plan and $8 for streaming. If you were an existing customer, you would be grandfathered in until September. This news caused their stock to fall, which continued when Hastings announced the DVD division was to be rebranded as Qwikster, and sold (which, of course, didn’t happen).
1923 – HollywoodLand Sign is dedicated to the people in Los Angeles CA. The sign was shortened to Hollywood where it stands overlooking LA.
1985: Live Aid was first held. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for Ethiopian famine releif. Over 175,000 people attended what was called the global jukebox. The concert was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was one of the first and largest shows broadcast on satellite in 1985.
2002 – The trial of Jon Lech Johansen, better known as “DVD Jon,” begins with Johansen pleading not guilty. DVD Jon has been a pioneer in “Reverse engineering”. O.K, so that is a fancy way of saying “Pirating”, but without his efforts, advances might not have been made. He was acquitted on January 7, 2003.
2011 – CEO Reed Hastings announced a bombshell that, in turn, brought on Netflix’s single worst year ever. He announced that they were splitting Netflix streaming from DVD rentals. With that, the price would be doubled – $8 for 2 DVD rental plan and $8 for streaming. If you were an existing customer, you would be grandfathered in until September. This news caused their stock to fall, which continued when Hastings announced the DVD division was to be rebranded as Qwikster, and sold (which, of course, didn’t happen).
1923 – HollywoodLand Sign is dedicated to the people in Los Angeles CA. The sign was shortened to Hollywood where it stands overlooking LA.
1985: Live Aid was first held. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for Ethiopian famine releif. Over 175,000 people attended what was called the global jukebox. The concert was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was one of the first and largest shows broadcast on satellite in 1985.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for July 13
1999 – Believeinkids.com became the five-millionth domain name in the world. At the time, a domain name cost $70 for the first year, $35 a year thereafter.
The domain name was abandoned and is still available to this day.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 29