1975 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen write a letter to the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry System (MITS) stating they have BASIC language for the Intel 8080 processor and would like to incorporate on the Altair computer in exchange for royalty payments. MITS agrees and Micro-soft was born. Later it would become Microsoft.
2001 – One problem with technology is that you hit limitations, mostly due to materials used or how small machines can make parts like transistors. For instance, today’s multi-core x86 processors will eventually be replaced because we won’t be able to put anymore transistors on the die – It’s called “Moores Law“. Intel and AMD work hard to get around this law – which is why x86 technology has been around since the 90’s.One thing scientists do to circumvent is to change the restructure the transistor. In 2001, Intel did just that. They launched the TeraHertz – a new transistor, using several new materials – including Zirconium Dioxide (which is used to reduce leakage issues). The new THz transistors brought processing to a new level; High process tasks like facial recognition could be achieved. The TeraHertz also worked on 0.6 Volts, so it vastly reduced power needs.
Intel expected this technology to be implemented by 2005. However, as to this date, the TeraHertz transistor has not been, nor seems to be planned for implementation in processors.
2013 – AOL shocked a lot of geeks when they announced WinAmp.com would be shutting down and the software would be no longer available come December 20th. The next day rumors surfaced that Microsoft was planning to buy it – which didn’t go further than the inital report. The service did not shut down though.
On January 14th, 2014 it was announced a Belgian radio website called “Radionomy” had purchased the Nullsoft brand, including WinAmp and Shoutcast.
On this day, the word “hacking” was used in an issue of “the tech”, which is a massachusetts institute of technology newspaper.
Here is a snippet of the article:
Many telephone services have been curtailed because of so-called hackers, according to Prof. Carlton Tucker, administrator of the Institute phone system…
Basically, hackers were tying up phone lines between Harvard and MIT.
1977 – Most of the time, we skip over movie releases, unless it has had a definite impact on the Tech and geek community. That is the case with this movie. Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Richard Dreyfuss, and Teri Garr was released to 272 US theaters. It was produced on a budget of US$20 million, amd would gross US $5,379,460 in the opening weekend.It also changed the way I ate mashed potatoes.
1971 – Intel announced the 4004 microprocessor in an ad in Electronic News Magazine. Intel called it a micro-programmable computer on a chip, this was the first single-chip processor. It was also concidered to be the precursor to the x86 processor. The 4004 was followed with the 8008, 8080 and 8085 processors. Federico Faggin was the chip lead designer. He holds 2 of the chip’s patents.The 4004 could run 60,000 interactions per second (0.06 MIP). The clock rate on the chip was 108 KHz and was accompanied by the Intel RAM chip. It only cost $200. The chip made it’s debut on March 2, 1973 – More information on the Intel 4004
2002 – Gary McKinnon has been in the news ever since his arrest. Back in 2002, he hacked into networks run by NASA, the Pentagon, along with other military bases around the US. He claims he was on a hunt to find evidence that the US has been covering up alien contact.What makes this a tough case is that McKinnon lives in the UK. Since the arrest, he has been waging a war against being extradited to the United States. He has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome – a form of Autism.
BTW – this is the largest military hack known to have been perpetrated by one individual.
2012 – John McAfee goes into hiding because his neighbor (Gregory Faull) was found dead from a gunshot the day before. Belize police wanted McAfee to come in for questioning, but McAfee stated the police were “out to get him”. He fled to Guatemala where he was arrested for illegal entry. He was deported to the US on December 12th.
The World Wide Web proposal is published by Tim Berners-Lee
1999 – It was over 12 years that we saw Microsoft go through the Department of Justice over Monopoly issues. US district Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued a 207 page Findings of fact on this day. In it, he ruled that Microsoft did have a Monopoly power over the OS in the Intel market. During the week we talked about what leads up to this 207 page ruling.
Intel announced in 1995 the next generation processor – the Pentium Pro. Unlike the Pentium, the Pentium Pro was a chip designed for 32-bit architecture, so Windows 95 and Windows NT could run true. The processor ran between 150-200 MHz, with a bus speed of 60 MHz (for 150 or 180 MHz processor) or 66MHz (for 166 or 200 MHz processor). The processor used a .35 micron process and prices started at $974 to $1989.