1987 – Version 1.0 of the Turbo C programming language is released. It offers the first integrated edit-compile-run development environment for the C programming language for IBM-compatible personal computers. Turbo C was developed by Bob Jervis as “Wizard C”. It runs on just 384KB of memory and is capable of inline assembly with full access to C symbolic names and structures.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 12
1936 – When typewriters first came out, many different people worked on keyboard layouts to become the standard. QWERTY was a popular system but was not efficient. August Dvorak and William Dealey decided to create and patent an alternative to this style, the end result – the Dvorak keyboard was born.
The keyboard was more efficient, too. Key letters were together so you would “roll” words. T was next to H, N was next to S. The sub-dominant hand would take care of vowels and lesser-used consonants, while the dominant hand took care of most of the consonants. Therefore, a left-hand and right-hand Dvorak keyboard was designed.
More interesting – People would type twice as fast as with a QWERTY style (120 words per minute). However, the people were typing so fast, the hammers on the typewriter would get stuck together. With those two major issues, the Dvorak keyboard did not get accepted.
One can switch to a Dvorak keyboard, though. Simply change the keyboard settings, and don’t look down at your keyboard (because the letters will be all wrong).
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 12
2011 – Eric Schmidt shows off the new Google Chrome OS but with an added feature as he introduced Google Chromebook – a personal computer with the Google Chrome OS built-in. The device loads straight to the browser where you can install applications for functionality on your Chromebook. The first Chromebook would begin selling on June 15, 2011.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 11
2001 – TAT-14, the Transatlantic cable begins commercial service. A dual, bi-directional ring configuration using Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplex (DWDM) – Sixteen wavelengths of STM-64 per fiber pair. It carried 640 Gbps, and connectedGermany, the UK, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands with the US.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 10
2008 – Dan Kaminsky announced he has been in contact with Microsoft over a flaw in the DNS naming system. At this time, there were no other details as to keep this issue as secret as possible while they try to fix the problem.
On March 27, Kaminsky discovered that within the Conficker virus, the hosts had a detectable signature when scanned remotely. This was known as DNS Cache poisoning. Over 568,000 computers were infected because of this. The patch was released on July 8th, 2008.
Wikazine – Full show notes of Technology History for March 31
1993 – The graphics software labs at AT&T closed down and relocated to the AT&T Multimedia Software Solutions. The division focused on software products that included 3D vector based graphic programs like AutoCAD, RIO, TOPAZ for PC and Mac computers.
Wikazine – Full show notes of Technology History for March 30
1979 – At 4 PM EST, the nuclear reactors in Middletown, PA (Dauphin County) experienced a partial meltdown. The incident was officially rated a 5-of-7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale: Accident with wider consequences.
A stuck open pilot relief valve was to blame for the incident in the primary system. The valve allowed for nuclear reactor coolant to escape into the atmosphere. During the event, the EPA was dispached where they took daily samples of the air to make sure the levels were not harmful to the community.
The evacuation of Middletown was ordered 28 hours later – mostly women and children. Only half of the 663,500 population evacuated within a 20 mile radius.
1802 – A patent for the first steam engine was issued to Richard Trevithick and Andrew Viviane. The machine was called the “Puffing Devil” or “Puffer”. The engine could produce 145 psi to push the car forward.
Richard had two versions of the engine – one as a car and the other as a locomotive. The car was first demonstrated on December 24, 1801, unfortunately, the puffer engine suffered catastrophic failure as it overheated and caught fire.
Eventually in 1804, Trevithick’s patent gave way to the first locomotive where he pulled ten cars along a track. He continued his work until 1833 when he passed away.