2006 – The book iWoz: from Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple and had Fun Doing it. (**WHEW!**) came out. It was a book that was written to dispel some of the rumors and misconceptions on many different items.
1998– In 3 years since it’s inception, eBay grew to be a powerful auction site. Therefore, eBay decided to go public. They offered 9 million shares on NASDAQ starting at $18 a share. When all is said and done, they closed the day at $47.375.
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 24
1999 – Its considered the one of the earliest publishing tools, Blogger personal website publishing system by Pyra Labs was released. The software was co-founded by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. The Blogger code was re-written in 2002 and in 2003, Google purchased Pyra for an undisclosed sum.
2002 – Mozilla releases Phoenix 0.1, the first release of what will become Firefox. The browser will change names because of trademark issues with Phoenix technologies. The initial first release of Firefox, though will be released on Nov. 9, 2004
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 23
1999 – an ebay user (litterally) puts 500 pounds of Marijuana on the auction block. The auction itself hits up to 10 million dollars. eBay finds out and pulls down the auction, but it does say something for the power of illegal drugs over the internet.
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 22
1994 – Microsoft releases the second version of the Windows NT OS – Windows NT 3.5 in two flavors; NT Workstation and NT Server. This replaced NT 3.1 and was the first Windows NT version to have a Server and Workstation version. NT 3.5 integrated Winsock and TCP/IP support for dial-up and networking. NT 3.5 also initiated FTP and LPR printer support. The VFAT option also allowed for naming conventions up to 255 characters.
This version was a problematic one, especially since it couldn’t install on a machine with a Pentium processor inside. Therefore, NT 3.5.1 was released in 1995 to supplement.
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 21
2011 – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made one of the biggest blunders of 2011 when he announced not only was the DVD section of Netflix getting a new name, but also that section was up for sale. Qwikster brought a lot of attention rapidly for two reasons – 1. It was close to Amway’s spin-off Quixster, and 2. Qwikster used to be the twitter handle of a pot-smoking Elmo character. Since then, Hastings apologized and the company reeled back the statement. However, it was not before they lost 2/3 of their stock and over 800,000 subscribers. Currently, their stock is at $57 a share (from $295 back in July 2011).
1995 – The National Cash Register Company (NCR) Started in 1884 with Point of Sales registers. The company deals in all types of POS, but had financial problems. In 1991, AT&T purchased NCR for $7.4 billion. NCR has been the only AT&T acquisition that retained their original name. on Sept. 201995 AT&T would spin NCR back into it’s own company due to the antitrust issues put forward
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 19
1989 – 4 years after resigning from Apple, Steve Jobs and his newest company NeXT finally release the NeXTstepOS. It is a Unix based system, with some aspects of BSD and using the Mach kernal. This is the OS that will eventually merge into Apple when Jobs comes back.
1990 – The NeXTstation is finally released. It used the 68040 Motorola processor running 33MHz and the 68882 math co-processor running at 25 MHz. 2.88 MB floppy, 8 MB RAM, monochrome monitor, all for $4.995.If you wanted 4096 colors, that would cost you – $7,995.
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 18
2008 -Sarah Palin succumbed to a hacker in a different way – through her Yahoo! email. The infiltrator gained access by using common information to reset the password. David Kernell then posted her email and new password on 4chan.org under the alias “Rubico”. It showed that by using common information to set up an account, it could also turn into a “back door” for someone who would know that information.
This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 17