1997 – Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet create a partnership to start and build on the Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP) as a non-profit organization. The industry group was formed to keep wireless devices on track, bring Internet connected devices to all who need it, create a wireless protocol that works on all network technologies, make scalable applications and content, and work with existing standards to expand as wireless needs grow.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 26
2003 – Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little created a Fork of B2/cafelog. From there, WordPress was born. Since its release, WordPress has taken over Content Management Systems (CMS) with its ease of use and plethora of programmers that have made plugins, themes and other tweaks to the system since. The current version is 3.5.1 which has been downloaded over 18 million times.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 27
1988 – The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is what we use daily to open up email, our web browser and even those apps on your smartphone or tablet. With the first real GUI came the first copyright infringement for it as Apple sued both Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard for stealing features from Macintosh’s interface.
Hewlett Packard was also named for their New Wave desktop environment. Missing from the suit is Microsoft Presentation Manager, which became the interface for IBM’s OS/2.
The lawsuit got muddied when Xerox sued Apple for the same thing. That instance got thrown out rather quick. But the original suit lasted until 1994 when the court ruled: “Apple cannot get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface, or the idea of a desktop metaphor…”
Apple tried to take the case to the Supreme Court but was denied.
Could you imagine saying today’s date as 2456450.35446? Looks like a stardate, but it’s the Julian calendar calculation of today’s date. The Julian calendar was moved to the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar is 365.25 and was used by some countries until as late as last century. Julian date simply counted up from Universal Time on January 1, 4713 BCE.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 26
2003 – Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little created a Fork of B2/cafelog. From there, WordPress was born. Since its release, WordPress has taken over Content Management Systems (CMS) with its ease of use and plethora of programmers that have made plugins, themes and other tweaks to the system since. The current version is 3.5.1 which has been downloaded over 18 million times.
1988 – In competition to IBM OS/2, Microsoft releases 2 versions of Windows 2.1x – One version for x286 computers (aka Windows 286) and one for x386 computers (aka Windows 386). Windows 2/x386 introduced the protected code Kernal – applications would run as a virtual 8086 mode, and MS-DOS programs could run in parallel. Windows 2/x386 also provided EMS emulation, which would give Windows memory management features. System RAM beyond 640k could be used, and felt like banked memory. Finally, it has a Presentation Manager mode, to compete with OS/2
Windows updated this software to 2.11. It was finally retired when Windows 3.0 was released in 1990.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 27
This was the promo video for Windows 386. It starred Victoria Carver (as Linda) as an executive who had to save a client. She was given a task to make a presentation by 5 pm. She decided to load and use Windows 386 to build this presentation. Using the “Mission Impossible” theme throughout, Linda is confronted by a fellow employee – Mike the mainframe guy. He wants to help Linda out, but Linda knows that the mainframe subroutines simply take too long to write. He then spots Windows 386.
“You are not suppose to be running OS/2 – we haven’t finished evaluating it” Said Mike, the mainframe guy.
“It’s not OS/2. It’s Microsoft Windows 386. It has the same interface as the OS/2 Presentation Manager. So, when OS/2 is recommended, I’ll be ahead of the learning curve.”
“As usual. What else does it do, besides look like OS/2?”
At this point, Linda shows Mike the interface. Of course, Linda then creates the presentation and keeps the client. The video is written like a cheesy 80’s soap opera, and goes on for twelve minutes.
Other Events in the Day in Technology History
Wang introduces: Wang Personal computer
Batman Debuts in Detective comics #27
Google gives away 4,000 Android phones at Google I/O
1999– America Online(AOL) completes the acquisition of Netscape Communications Corporation. The acquisition started in Nov. 24, 1998. The acquisition was a $10 million arrangement in stock and cash.Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark were the founders of Netscape. The Netscape browser would be discontinued in December 2007, and ultimately end support on March 1, 2008.