May 13, 1987: Turbo-C Programming Language Released
1987 – Version 1.0 of the Turbo C programming language is released. It offers the first integrated edit-compile-run development environment for the C programming language for IBM-compatible personal computers. Turbo C was developed by Bob Jervis as “Wizard C”. It runs on just 384KB of memory and is capable of inline assembly with full access to C symbolic names and structures.
1936 – When typewriters first came out, many different people worked on keyboard layouts to become the standard. QWERTY was a popular system but was not efficient. August Dvorak and William Dealey decided to create and patent an alternative to this style, the end result – the Dvorak keyboard was born.
The keyboard was more efficient, too. Key letters were together so you would “roll” words. T was next to H, N was next to S. The sub-dominant hand would take care of vowels and lesser-used consonants, while the dominant hand took care of most of the consonants. Therefore, a left-hand and right-hand Dvorak keyboard was designed.
More interesting – People would type twice as fast as with a QWERTY style (120 words per minute). However, the people were typing so fast, the hammers on the typewriter would get stuck together. With those two major issues, the Dvorak keyboard did not get accepted.
One can switch to a Dvorak keyboard, though. Simply change the keyboard settings, and don’t look down at your keyboard (because the letters will be all wrong).
1983– The Trash-80, as it was so admirably called in the day, a.k.a. the TRS-80 Model 4 is introduced. It contains a 4 MHz processor, 16 KB of RAM, a cassette interface, Keyboard and Monochrome monitor. $1000 for the base model, or $2000 if you upgraded the RAM to 64 KB and 5.25 disk drives. The first TRS-80 was released in 1977.
1984 – Apple introduces the Apple IIc, their answer to a portable machine. It weighed 7 1/2 lbs and featured a 1.023MHz CPU and 128 KB RAM. $1,295. The device device had a built-in floppy and peripheral expansion ports. This was a closed system – no expansion slots to plug in cards. It was deemed an appliance computer, which meant was ready to go when you pulled it out of the box.
2009 – Oracle announces they have purchased Sun Microsystems in a $7.4 billion dollar deal. This includes stock at $9.50 / share. That would also be the acquisition of SPARC processors, Solaris OS, Java and MySQL, among other items. The deal would be finalized on January 27th 2010.
April 8, 1983: Steve Jobs entices John Sculley to Apple as CEO
1983 – John Sculley, who was president of PepsiCo at the time, decides to leave to become president and CEO of Apple Computer at request of Steve Jobs. Sculley’s campaign of “the Pepsi Challenge” was new thinking and helped Pepsi gain market share over Coca Cola. Steve Jobs wanted that passion so he could beat IBM. Sculley was responsible for incorporating the PowerPC chip in Mac computers.John Sculley took the 800 million dollar in sales to 8 billion. Tension ultimately took it’s toll, as Sculley was forced out in 1993 and was replaced by Gil Amelio.
April 6, 1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey releases to theaters
1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey actually premiered in Washington DC on April 2nd, New York and Los Angles on April 4th. It was April 6th that was the major theatrical release date for the US. This Stanley Kubrick classic won an Oscar for best visual effects and was nominated for best director, best art direction and best writing , story and screenplay. For any Sci-Fi geek, this is an important movie in the genre. It was also known as “How the Solar System Was Won” and “Journey Beyond the Stars” (working titles).
1992 – At the Spring Comdex in Chicago, IL, Microsoft released “Janus” – otherwise known as Windows 3.1. The new 16 bit Operating System had some inventive features, including support for TrueType fonts, support for media formats like CD ROMs and MIDI and Super VGA monitors. Price: $149.00
April 3, 1973: The first mobile cell phone call was made
1973 – Martin Cooper made the first handheld cellular phone call in public. Walking down the streets of New York, Cooper – the General Manager of Motorola’s communication system division – talked on the phone. It’s not the first cellular call since car phones have been around before then. The phone is also known as the “Brick” cell phone.