2000 – Microsoft CEO Bill Gates announces he will be stepping down from his role but remain on the Board and embrace a new role as Chief software architect. Steve Ballmer will take over the CEO role and also remain president.
Love him or hate him, Ballmer kept Microsoft running and helped raise annual revenues. Ballmer would remain CEO of Microsoft until February 2014, then take over as the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Bill Gates continued on the board. In 2014 he stepped down to Technology Advisor. Gates is also co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation
1966 – Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson entered our lives via ABC on Wednesdays. The television series “Batman” debuted with the episode Hi Diddle Riddle. Each half hour episode contained either part 1 or part 2 of the dynamic duo’s fight against the criminal of the week.
Of course, the show offered some high-tech video work, including angled cameras and inserted “BAM”, “SMACK” and “POW!!” graphics. Each episode did more than conquer a bad guy – it was also a chance to learn about the importance of doing your homework, using seatbelts and drinking your milk.
The show lasted three seasons before getting cancelled in 1968. There was one movie that also was produced in 1966.
Of course, we cannot ever forget “the Batman” dance move…
2001– Dave Weiner added a new functionality to the RSS feed called “Enclosure“. It was defined as passing any audio file (mp3, wav, ogg, etc), video file (mpg, mp4, avi, mov, etc), PDF, or ePub (electronic publication) into the syndicated feed. Weiner demonstrated by enclosing a Grateful Dead song in his website at Scripting News. This was an idea that was proposed by Tristan Louis.
It wasn’t until Adam Curry and crew started iPodderX and in February 2004 the name “Podcasting” was coined by Ben Hammersley. But its roots all come back to this day when RSS 0.92 was demonstrated.
At MacWorld 2001, Steve Jobs announced Mac OSX – the base OS for Apple for the next couple decades. With Darwin, an open source BSD Unix service, 2D (Quartz), 3D (OpenGL) and Quicktime (QT5). The programming language of Classic, Carbon and Cocoa allowed programs from OS9 to run. Cocoa is an object oriented API for new apps.
OSX became available on March 24, 2001 for $129
Jobs also announced the PowerMac G4 with “Power to Burn”. Based on the PowerPC G4 chip at 733 MHz. Four models coming with CD-RW and Superdrive, 133 MHz system and memory bus, AGP 4x graphics and nVidia graphics.
Finally, Jobs announced iTunes – Their interface was simple and powerful. Create playlists and burn CDs in one window. You can also take an MP3 player and connect to iTunes to drag and drop titles. Finally, iTunes has an internet radio function to listen to all your favorite stations.
Below is the keynote from 2001 also showing off iDVD, iMusic, and the Powerbook G4 Titanium.
1940 – a full-scale relay calculator designed by Bell Labs engineer Dr. George Stibitz, becomes operational. The machine was first designed in February 1938, and construction began in April, 1939. Although the device was ready by October, 1939, it didn’t go into operation until this day.
The Complex Computer used 400-450 binary relays and initially could only run complex multiplication and division. The machine had to be modified to do addition and subtraction. In September, the device was connected to phone lines, sending information to a teletype unit.
2000 – Up until May 1, all GPS signals were scrambled for protection. President Bill Clinton announced they would be turning off the Selective Availability (SA) because it didn’t propose a greater threat. But it also gave geeks something new to play with. But what to do?
Dave Ulmer ultimately started the GeoCaching phenomenon. He hid a bunch of trinkets out in the woods of Portland, Oregon. He then went to the USENET group sci.geo.satellite-nav and stated “If you take something, leave something”.
The Usenet message:
From: Dave ([email protected])
Subject: The Great American GPS Stash Hunt!
Newsgroups: sci.geo.satellite-nav
Date: 2000/05/03
—
The Great American GPS Stash Hunt !!
—
Now that SA is off we can start a worldwide Stash Game!! With
Non-SA accuracy it should be easy to find a stash from waypoint
information. Waypoints of secret stashes could be shared on the
Internet, people could navigate to the stashes and get some
stuff. The only rule for stashes is: Get some Stuff, Leave some
Stuff!! The more valuable the stuff the more stashes will be
started.
I’m thinking of half burying a five gallon plastic bucket with
lid at the stash point. Putting in some stuff. Adding a logbook
and pencil so visitors can record their find. The log should
contain: Date, Time, What you got, and What you put in. Scanning
the log book should give you a quick inventory of the stash.
I’ll look for a place near a road where few people would
normally go… Put in some cash, an old digital camera, and some
antique silverware!! I will come up with a cool name for my
stash and post coordinates soon!!!
Make your own stash in a unique location, put in some stuff and
a log book. Post the location on the Internet. Soon we will have
thousands of stashes all over the world to go searching for.
Have Fun!!
Dave…
He also made a video, which has the container and contents.
1965 – Intelsat I, a.k.a. Early Bird, went into service. This geosynchronous satellite sent the first signal between nine different countries. A “One Hour TV Spectacular” was broadcast to Europe from the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Intelsat I went up in space on April 6, 1965 and had only 240 voice circuits, so it could only transmit one TV channel at a time. Early Bird was one of three satellites that broadcast the first landing on the moon in 1969.
1993 – You may see www, but it’s true meaning is World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee wrote WorldWideWeb during the 1990, while working for CERN. He did it on a NeXT Computer and developed it for the NeXTSTep platform (which Apple bought and turned into Mac OS X). But it was today that was most momentous, as the World Wide Web entered in the public domain. That meant anyone could access without license fees. Now a person could apply style sheets or post media on the web. The initial web browser was also the web editor.