Day in Tech History

During a one-hour test in 1955, Arco, Idaho became the first town to be fully electrically run on nuclear power. The small community was powered by the National Reactor Testing Station” (NRTS). NTRS later became the Idaho National Laboratory.

2006 – Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass and Evan Williams launch this 140 character “What are you doing” social network. The group first started production in March of 2006, but it launched on the 15th. Currently, over 200 million users are on Twitter. The Enigma machine was the first electronic cipher machines, producing encrypted messages. German engineer Arthur Scherbius […]

1994 – The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) released I3enc – otherwise known at MP3. This is also known as MPEG-3. The MP3 moniker did not get chosen until July 14, 1995 (it was .bit before .mp3). MP3 is still licensed to Fraunhofer Institute – therefore, you must pay a license fee to use the […]

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 […]

Not the email version. In 1937, Hormel came out with the first can of SPAM. The Luncheon meat. Spam was derived from the words Spiced Ham. It is pre-cooked meat that contained chopped pork, ham mean, salt, water, potato starch, and sodium nitrate. So if you have high blood pressure, you might want to stay […]

“Happy Independence Day. In return, we are going to give you a great new way to get email. It’s called “Hotmail“. Be free from your internet service provider!” That was the call to action on 1996. Hotmail launched their email service as “HoTMaiL” (HTML is upper-case). It is the first web-based email that was later […]

1991 – IBM’s Jim Cannavino met with John Sculley of Apple. They worked out a deal and signed a sharing agreement. It would allow Mac to integrate with IBM enterprise systems. It would also allow Apple to use the PowerPC with their RISC based Mac to work together.Power PC stands for Performance Optimization with Enhanced […]

Napster, the file sharing service (started by John & Shawn Fanning, and Sean Parker) that was up since 1999, had a series of trials and tribulations until 2001. After lengthy legal battles with artists like Madonna and Metallica, Napster began to realize their business model is not going to work. They shut down the entire network to […]

2011 – HP announced the TouchPad, their entry into the tablet market. Using the WebOS software they purchased from Palm back in 2010, the TouchPad introduced some new features, including the ability to sync with the upcoming Pre3 phone by touching the two together. However, the tablet was squashed in September by then CEO Leo […]

2000 – Dr. Alan chow and brother Vincent announced they successfully placed a silicon microchip beneath human retinas. The chip is smaller than the head on a pin and only microns thin. These chips also contain solar cells to help power the chip. In what is called “Optobionics”, the ASR chip is inserted behind the retina […]

2000 – IBM unveiled the ASCI White – their fastest computer yet. This supercomputer was based on IBM’s commercial RS/6000 SP computer. 512 computers were connected to make this supercomputer. over 8 million processors, 5 Terabytes of memory and 160 TB of disk storage. The computer was completed on this day in New York, and would […]

2014 – Trying to be the first provider of over-the-air channels, Aereo was told to shut down completely after a supreme court decision went against the company. The idea was simple – take the over-the-air network channels and offer them on the Internet. Based in New York, the company opened services in 24 different cities. You […]

2008 – Microsoft CEO Bill Gates officially steps down from office. He hands the reigns over to Steve Ballmer, and stays on as Chairman of the Board. Gillette makes the Erasermate – the first erasable pen Atari is established

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 […]

1981 – Microsoft goes through a restructure to incorporate in Washington. Bill Gates would become president, Paul Allen was Executive Vice President. Steve Ballmer would come on full-time with a $50,000 year salary. The reason why they incorporated? On this same day, Paul Allen sends a proposal to Rod Black of Seattle Computer Products for Microsoft […]

2008 – Nokia announced they have purchased Symbian outright. They originally owned 46% of the company, and bought out the remaining 54% for $410 million. But then the company turned around and created the Symbian Foundation – a group that would house and give away the software code. The group and software would remain functioning until […]

1983 – Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel run the first successful test of the distributed Domain Name System (DNS). This automated process was to take over failing Arpanet and CSnet protocols because those relied on address books. DNS uses a hierarchical distributed naming system for the Internet or any private network. It associates the domain names […]

2009 – Kodak announced they would ended the production of Kodachrome color film. Once the leftover film is distributed, there will be no more made. That lasted until December, 2010. Kodak created their iconic Kodachrome film in 1935. This is a non-substansive, color reversal film was used in still photos and cinematography. It used the subtractive […]

1948 – What was first expected to be a practical use computer, the SSEM, or Small-Scale Experimental Machine became the first stored-program computer. Basically, it stores program instructions into it’s electronic memory. This 32-bit word length, cathode-ray tube computer was designed to only run subtraction and negation through hardware. Other functions could be run, but only […]

2014 – Microsoft and Google agree to the Kill switch technology. In a California bill SB-967, Smartphones built after July 1, 2015 will consist of a hardware or software option to “kill” the phone. Further, a $500 to $2,500 fine will be issued to anyone selling a stolen phone. Once switched, the device will not […]