Nerd

The term "nerd" comes from an original spelling "knurd." The term is originated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the late 1940s. Students who party and rarely study are called "drunks," while students who are always studying are known as "knurds" (drunks spelled backwards). The TV show Happy Days gives the phrase its national popularity.
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The year the World Wide Web

1993 is the year the World Wide Web makes its prolific debut. In January 1993, there are only fifty web servers in existence. By October 1993, the number of web servers increases to approximately 500. Through the entire year of 1993, web use grows at a 341,634% annual growth traffic rate. The Word Wide Web is here!
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WiFi

The IEEE publishes the 802.11 networking standard in 1997 as an over-the-air interface between a wireless client and an access point. As the standard is worked into computers and peripherals, its use begins to climb, especially as a home networking product. The 802.11-compatible standard is later dubbed "WiFi" which helps further market and popularize the wireless networking technology.
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The first spell checker

In order to cope with a personal shortcoming, Stanford University researcher Les Earnest develops the first automated spell checker in 1966. Stand-alone spell checker programs eventually appear for CP/M computers in the late 1970s, followed by packages for the IBM PC in 1981. By the mid 1980s, the spell checker is a common feature in word processing programs.
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The C language

Bell Labs engineers Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie develop the C language in the early 1970s. Thompson first develops the language "B" based on the Basic Combined Programming Language (BCPL) and is used in UNIX system development. Ritchie builds on B in 1973 to create a new language called "C," which inherits Thompson's taste for concise syntax, high-level functionality, and detailed features.
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Apache

The Apache web server is established in February 1995 when a small group of webmasters begin coordinating updates and patches to the public domain NCSA Web server program. The first public release of Apache is delivered in April 1995. The Apache Software Foundation is formed and the Apache web server subsequently becomes one of the most widely deployed web server products in the world.
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Simula

Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard develop Simula at the Norwegian Computing Center in the mid 1960s. Simula is designed to process complex and intensive data for ship simulations. It introduces many key concepts of object-oriented programming including objects and classes, inheritance, and virtual functions. Simula is used as the basis for Bjarne Stroustrup's development of the C++ language.
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