pong

November 29, 1972: First Pong Machine

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 1129, aggregator, alcorn, Atari, Bill Gates, cappa, chimpanzee, co founder, day in tech history, founders, game, game designer, Geek, happy birthday, leo laporte, martin goldberg, mercury, mercury atlas, Microsoft, nolan bushnell, November 29, paul allen, Podcast, pong, pong game, roller rink, search deal, Table tennis, technology history, twitter, video game system, Yahoo 0 Comments November 29, 2024

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1972 – Andy Cappa’s tavern in CA was the site for the first Pong game was wheeled into the establishment. The coin-operated game was put in by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell and game designer Al Alcorn. The duo decided that making their own game – rather than having 3rd parties do it – would help keep costs down. They then turned an old Roller rink and converted to a production line. Pong was the first successful video game system.

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Microsoft is first mentioned in a letter from Bill Gates to Paul Allen
Mercury-Atlas 5 carries the first chimpanzee into space
Microsoft starts talking to Yahoo again – this time on a search deal
Happy Birthday Leo Laporte

Day in Tech History/ Linux

November 24, 2008: Novell Owns UNIX, UNIXWare

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 1124, aggregator, AOL, copyrights, day in tech history, Geek, ip, judge rules, lawsuits, Linux, netscape, nolan bushnell, novell, patents, Podcast, pong, pun, Santa Cruz Operation, santa cruz operations, SCO, sco group, shell, technology history, unix, worm 0 Comments November 24, 2024

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Novell

2008 – After a long court battle with the Santa Cruz Operations (SCO) group, a judge rules that Novell is the owner of UNIX and UNIXWare copyrights. In 2003 – just after SCO changed their name from Caldera – had made a claim that the SCO IP was incorporated into Linux and that they should get a cut from each copy sold. Novell states that they own the code to UNIX and therefore this claim was not valid. Battles still goon to this day, with SCO group dwindled down to a shell (no pun intended). Part of the rulings on this case have been reversed since. Currently, SCO has lawsuits with IBM and Linux.

BadTrans worm is released
AOL acquired Netscape Communications
Nolan Bushnell patents the Pong controller

Atari/ Day in Tech History

July 6, 1984: Jack Tramiel Fired Atari Staff

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0706, aggregator, apple, Atari, bold move, corporate president, day in tech history, e mule, fires, historical events, hulu, jack tramiel, Microsoft, move jack, nolan bushnell, Podcast, pong, source code, technology history, twitter 0 Comments July 6, 2024

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In a very bold move, Jack Tramiel laid off the majority of his staff outside of engineering. This comes in 1984, 3 days after Tramiel buys Atari for $240 million in 10 and 12 year notes.

The employees note that it wasn’t a Hard layoff. One employee stated that no one cared if they looted the building, so they did.

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ABC joins Hulu
Microsoft’s first corporate president
Source code of e-mule was released

Day in Tech History/ Gaming

May 7, 1967: Fox and Hounds – Ralph Baer Plays First Two-Player Game

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0507, 5 million, alignleft, Arcade games, architecture, bus, card slot, Central processing unit, Components, external cache, games, Google, Handheld TV game, Hardware, Hertz, intel, intel pentium ii, intel pentium ii slot 1, IPad, isa, magnavox odyssey, Magnavox Odyssey Series, memory, Microsoft, millionaire, mips, pentium, Pentium II, pentium ii processor, pong, process technology, processor intel, processor prices, Ralph H. Baer, satellite, slot 1 processor, speed, transistors, video game 0 Comments May 6, 2024

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1967 – Video game developer Ralph Baer plays the first two-player video game. Fox and Hounds was a game where the fox (a red dot) was chased by the hounds (white dots). The controller were two knobs – horizontal and vertical. You would see how long you could avoid the hounds.

From his own website: 7 May 1967 – Played first two-player video game (I lost!)

This was part of a series of more complex video games including shooting games, handball and Ping Pong. Ultimately leading to the Magnavox Odyssey TV game system in 1972.

Baer passed away on December 8, 2014.

The Millionaire Calculating Machine
Telstar II Satellite is launched
Microsoft lays off 3,000
Syria cuts off Internet and phones for 24 hours

Day in Tech History/ Geek

February 19, 1990: Adobe Photoshop 1.0 Released

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0219, 23 years, adobe photoshop, Adobe Systems, black and white, brother john, cellphone networks, computer, computer search, editor thomas, first computer, Graphics, image editing software, image editor, image viewer, john knoll, macintosh, Macintosh Plus, photo editing program, Photoshop, photoshop contests, photoshops, pong, search warrant, Thomas Knoll, university of michigan 0 Comments February 18, 2019

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1990 – Thomas Knoll was a student at the University of Michigan when he decided to write a program for his Macintosh Plus. The program was a simple image viewer, but when his brother – John Knoll – caught wind, he suggested that Thomas turn it into an image editor. Thomas took 6 months to develop the first version of the photo editing program. They then took the idea to Adobe, who snapped the idea up. At that point, Adobe Photoshop 1.0 was released. 23 years later, it is the premier image editing software for most. The first version only ran on Mac and because of the Monochromatic display, only created in black and white. There is not a day I go by without having to open up my version of Photoshop. I even used to do Photoshop contests – Here are some of the photoshops I did.

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The first computer Search Warrant
Pong gets patented
Analog Cellphone networks shut down

Day in Tech History/ Geek

November 29, 1972: First Pong Machine

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine aggregator, alcorn, Atari, Bill Gates, cappa, chimpanzee, co founder, day in tech history, founders, game, game designer, Geek, happy birthday, leo laporte, martin goldberg, mercury, mercury atlas, Microsoft, nolan bushnell, November 29, paul allen, Podcast, pong, pong game, roller rink, search deal, Table tennis, technology history, twitter, video game system, Yahoo 0 Comments November 28, 2018

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This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for November 25

Microsoft is first mentioned in a letter from Bill Gates to Paul Allen
Mercury-Atlas 5 carries the first chimpanzee into space
Microsoft starts talking to Yahoo again – this time on a search deal
Happy Birthday Leo Laporte

Day in Tech History/ Linux

November 24, 2008: Novell Owns UNIX, UNIXWare

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine aggregator, AOL, copyrights, day in tech history, Geek, ip, judge rules, lawsuits, Linux, netscape, nolan bushnell, novell, patents, Podcast, pong, pun, Santa Cruz Operation, santa cruz operations, SCO, sco group, shell, technology history, unix, worm 0 Comments November 23, 2018

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Novell

This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for November 24

BadTrans worm is released
AOL acquired Netscape Communications
Nolan Bushnell patents the Pong controller

Atari/ Day in Tech History

July 6, 1984: Jack Tramiel Fired Atari Staff

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine aggregator, apple, Atari, bold move, corporate president, day in tech history, e mule, fires, historical events, hulu, jack tramiel, Microsoft, move jack, nolan bushnell, Podcast, pong, source code, technology history, twitter 0 Comments July 6, 2018

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In a very bold move, Jack Tramiel laid off the majority of his staff outside of engineering. This comes in 1984, 3 days after Tramiel buys Atari for $240 million in 10 and 12 year notes.

The employees note that it wasn’t a Hard layoff. One employee stated that no one cared if they looted the building, so they did.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for July 6