The AS/400

IBM introduces its AS/400 midrange system in 1988. Whereas most other minicomputer vendors are seeing their market eroded by PCs and client/server systems, IBM has reasonable success with its AS/400 series. By 1998, IBM is selling an AS/400 computer system to a customer every 12 minutes in a working day. In 2000, the AS/400 is renamed the iSeries server.
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Linux

Linux is created by Finnish computer scientist Linus Torvalds in 1991. Torvalds decides to rewrite Unix from scratch and give away his work for free. The ability to see the source code, to improve it, and share it with others inspires many programmers to dedicate sleepless nights to work on it. Linux is eventually improved to the point where it becomes more popular than many commercial Unix packages.
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H316 Kitchen Computer

Honeywell releases its H316 Kitchen Computer in 1969. At $10,600, this computer is marketed to the wealthy and savvy housewife. The computer requires about two weeks worth of programming to operate and can be programmed to keep track of various things like golf scores, investments, dinner menus, and membership lists of charity organizations.
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Stanford University

Stanford University creates the Stanford Industrial Park in Palo Alto, California in 1950. The goal is to create a center of high technology close to the university in order to raise money. This is the genesis of Silicon Valley, the world famous technology area that radiates outward from Stanford University and lies between the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west and the Coast Range to the southeast.
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CompuServe

CompuServe is founded in 1969 as a computer time-sharing service. In 1979, CompuServe becomes the first to offer electronic mail capabilities to personal computer users. One year later it becomes the first to offer real-time chat online. By 1982, the company is providing wide-area networking capabilities to corporate clients. Today, Compuserve is owned by America Online.
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Booting

Booting is the process that loads the operating system from the disk into the computer's memory. The term booting or bootstrapping is inspired by the legend of the Baron Munchhausen. Munchhausen was an 18th century German Nobleman who told tall tales about himself, including the ability to pull himself out of the sea by his bootstraps.
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The first Internet service provider

The world's first public Internet service provider is established in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1989. Software Tool & Die begins "The World ISP, A Public Information Utility," equipped with a Sun computer, six 2400 bps modems, homemade modem cables, and basic account-creation software. The first online customer logs on in November 1989.
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RFID

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) was developed during World War II. RFID transponders placed on an aircraft would give the appropriate response to an interrogating signal so that friendly aircraft could be distinguished from enemy aircraft. Today, RFID technology is being used in many applications including meds tracking, people and animal tracking, toll collections, and inventory control.
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BABAR experiment

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center's BABAR experiment maintains the largest known computer database on record. The experiment is a collaboration of 600 physicists observing collisions between subatomic particles to understand how matter shapes our universe. The experiment generates up to 500 gigabytes of data per day that is sent continuously to the experiment’s custom built database.
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The Lisa Computer

Apple Computer announces the Lisa Computer in 1983. Lisa officially stands for Logical Integrated Software Architecture. The Lisa's significance in computing history is that it is the first commercial computer with a GUI and mouse designed for the mass market. Although critically acclaimed, the Lisa generates relatively low sales numbers due to its $10,000 price tag.
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The History of Computers

A floating-point division bug is discovered in Intel's Pentium chip by University of Kentucky math professor Thomas Nicely in November 1994. The story circulates through the media leading attorney generals in eight states to file liability suits against Intel causing a public relations disaster for the company. Intel's first-ever chip recall results in a $475 million charge against company earnings.
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Computer science

"Computer science is not as old as physics; it lags by a couple of hundred years. However, this does not mean that there is significantly less on the computer scientist's plate than on the physicist's: younger it may be, but it has had a far more intense upbringing!" - Physicist Richard Feynman.
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Spammer files suit

Cyber Promotions files a lawsuit against America Online (AOL) in November 1996. The suit comes about as AOL blocks undeliverable junk e-mail generated by Cyber Promotions. The spammer files suit in U.S. district court and argues that it has a right to send junk e-mail and that AOL had no right to restrict its ability to send junk e-mail. The District Court rules in AOL’s favor in two separate decisions.
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Inkjet printers

IBM invents the first inkjet-based printer in 1976. It takes twenty years of research and incremental developments including Siemens "drop-on-demand" inkjet technology, HP's "thermal" technology, and Epson's "piezo-electric" technology to overcome the challenges of producing a practical and affordable commercial inkjet product. Hewlett Packard releases the first personal inkjet printer in 1988.
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The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Eric S. Raymond publishes his essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" in 1997. Based on his observations of the software industry and his own software management experiences, Raymond describes his "Bazaar" model for software development as the basis of Open Source Software. The paper is published as part of a book in 1999 and becomes the manifesto of the Open Source Software movement.
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2001: A Space Odyssey

The epic drama of adventure and exploration "2001: A Space Odyssey" is released in 1968. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the story depicts a space crew that sets off on a spaceship controlled by HAL 9000, a revolutionary computer system. HAL endangers the crew's lives for the sake of the programmed mission and must be overcome by the crew.
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Hypertext

Ted Nelson coins the term "Hypertext" in 1965. He foresees a future where millions of people will be publishing hypertext on a worldwide network at a time when few people understand the concept. His writings describe a system that would allow users to aggregate meaning in snippets, in the order of their choosing rather than to a pre-established structure fixed by the author.
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Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems is established in 1982 by Stanford University students Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy, Bill Joy and Andy Bechtolsheim. The company derives its name from "Stanford University Network" and delivers its first UNIX workstation design while the group is still attending Stanford. Sun quickly becomes a recognized vendor of technical workstations.
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Sydney J. Harris

"The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers." - Sydney J. Harris, American journalist.
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Computer Associates

Charles B. Wang starts Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) in 1976. CA's first product is called CA-SORT, which delivers full-function sort, merge and copy capabilities for the OS/390 market. CA develops a successful strategy of providing multi-platform software products for its customers. After going public in 1981, CA grows into a worldwide leader in technology products and services.
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The PCjr

IBM announces the PCjr in November 1983. Following the success of the IBM PC, IBM attempts to capture the home market with the IBM PCjr. The $1,300 computer has an 8088 processor, comes with a CGA monitor, and a single 5-1/4 inch floppy disk drive. Predicted to be a huge success, the computer fails to compete with other portables coming onto the market. The PCjr is discontinued in 1985.
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The 4004 CPU

Intel releases the 4004 CPU in November 1971. The 4004 is the first computer on a chip and ushers in the era of the microprocessor. The combination of memory and processor on a single chip dramatically reduces size and cost while increasing computer speed. This event is the latest in the evolution of the vacuum tube to the transistor to the integrated circuit.
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Spacewar

The world's first computerized video game, Spacewar, is developed by Steve Russell on a DEC PDP-1 computer at MIT in 1962. Spacewar is a multiplayer space-combat simulation inspired by Doc Smith's "Lensman" science fiction novels. The game has been essentially under constant development since 1962 and is still played today.
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Identity theft

In November 2002, Federal investigators charge three men in the largest case of identity theft in U.S. history. The case involves a massive identity theft scheme with more than 30,000 victims and and over $2.7 million in losses. The thefts take place within Teledata Communications, a Long Island, New York company that provides computer access to consumer credit reports.
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Election results

CBS Television is the first to use a computer to predict election results during the 1952 Presidential contest. By 8:30 election night, a UNIVAC computer predicts an electoral vote of 438 for Dwight D. Eisenhower and 93 for Adlai Stevenson. These numbers appear dubious to the CBS news staff and are not reported to viewers. The official electoral vote: 442 for Eisenhower, 89 for Stevenson.
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UNIX Programmer's Manual

The first edition of the UNIX Programmer's Manual is released on November 3, 1971. Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie compile the manual two years after the two Bell Telephone Labs programmers develop the original UNIX operating system. The manual is divided into seven sections and includes over sixty commands.
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NET Act

A twenty-two-year old senior at the University of Oregon is the first person to be convicted under the No Internet Theft Act (NET Act) in November 1999. The student is sentenced to two years of probation for making copies of software available for download from a university web site. A related 1999 study estimates that software piracy will account for nearly $12 billion in lost revenue for the software industry.
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Dr. Dobb's

Dennis Allison and Bob Albrecht publish the "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia" in late 1975. The name "Dobb's" comes from an attempt to put together Allison and Albrecht's first names. Shortened to Dr. Dobb's Journal, the newsletter evolves into the highly popular monthly publication for computer programmers and developers.
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