2004 – A free raster graphics editor, Paint.NET was created and released by Rick Brewster as a school project at Washington State University. The software was released under the MIT License and was at first Open Source. After multiple cases of plagiarism, the software moved to Creative Commons, then in version 3.36 was turned to closed-source (but still free).
The latest version of Paint.Net 4.0 uses NET framework 4.5.1.
1999 – A program first developed by Brigham young University for Data General minicomputers, WordPerfect was the word processing application for anyone using a computer in the 80’s and 90’s. I remember writing reports and papers using this software growing up, along with Quattro Pro for bookkeeping and printing daily reports at work. However, in 1994, WordPerfect started to gain some major competition when computers turned to GUI, and DOS was getting put on the back burner.
Corel, the owners of WordPerfect since 1996, wanted to ramp up production of not only the word processor, but also their other products in Quattro Pro, Presentations, Paradox and Corel Central. They company always said they wanted to be the “Pepsi version of MS Word (Coke)”.
Therefore, WordPerfect Office 2000 was released. It was not their first attempt of a suite (first rel. 1993), but was the first version released by Corel, and a path to their current version of the WordPerfect Office X7.
Like MS Office, WordPerfect Office can be purchased in Home and Student, Standard and Pro versions. Other features in the pack are Corel WinZip, Nuance Paperport, and NaturallySpeaking 3.
1999 – A program first developed by Brigham young University for Data General minicomputers, WordPerfect was the word processing application for anyone using a computer in the 80’s and 90’s. I remember writing reports and papers using this software growing up, along with Quattro Pro for bookkeeping and printing daily reports at work. However, in 1994, WordPerfect started to gain some major competition when computers turned to GUI, and DOS was getting put on the back burner.
Corel, the owners of WordPerfect since 1996, wanted to ramp up production of not only the word processor, but also their other products in Quattro Pro, Presentations, Paradox and Corel Central. They company always said they wanted to be the “Pepsi version of MS Word (Coke)”.
Therefore, WordPerfect Office 2000 was released. It was not their first attempt of a suite (first rel. 1993), but was the first version released by Corel, and a path to their current version of the WordPerfect Office X7.
Like MS Office, WordPerfect Office can be purchased in Home and Student, Standard and Pro versions. Other features in the pack are Corel WinZip, Nuance Paperport, and NaturallySpeaking 3.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 25
2004 – A free raster graphics editor, Paint.NET was created and released by Rick Brewster as a school project at Washington State University. The software was released under the MIT License and was at first Open Source. After multiple cases of plagiarism, the software moved to Creative Commons, then in version 3.36 was turned to closed-source (but still free).
The latest version of Paint.Net 4.0 uses NET framework 4.5.1.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 6
Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) was first released to theaters. Opening weekend sees $6 million of the $11 million budget in return, however, the longevity of the movie has grossed over $797 million (for Ep. IV only). This surpassed Jaws as the nominal highest-grossing film and remained that way until being surpassed by E.T. the Extra Terrestrial in 1983. Add to that, George Lucas was the first movie maker to keep the rights of the toy creation – netting billi0ns in revenue. The film starred Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, and Alec Guinness, among others.
Star Wars: A New Hope was followed by Empire Strikes Back, then in 1983, the Third (technically 6th) movie in the series – Return of the Jedi – was released. That had a budget of $32 million and netted $23 million opening weekend and $656 million worldwide.
Of course, George Lucas also released Episode I: the Phantom Menace (1999), Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Happy 35th anniversary to a historic franchise!
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 25
1998 – Steve Jobs, just fresh out of his return to Apple, announces one of the many changes in the Mac line. The iMac G3 computer. The iMac was the first computer to offer USB ports as a standard. The “All in one” computer had a front loading CD drive – but no floppy drive, built in speakers and came in 13 different colors. The iMac mouse was a disc shaped device with one button. A standard Mac keyboard was also included.
The G3 came with a Power PC 233 to 333 MHz. The L2 cache could run at 512 or 1MB and came loaded with Mac OS 8.1. The price was given of $1,299 and Jobs expected this computer to be out within 90 days, although it didn’t officially start shipping until August 15th.
The G3 was discontinued on March 18, 2003.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 6