Friday, August 14, 2009

Henry Gantt

Industrial engineer Henry Gantt invents the Gantt chart in 1917. The Gantt chart is an innovative horizontal bar chart used to manage overlapping tasks. Useful for coordinating and scheduling, the Gantt chart is revolutionary in that it is based on time rather than quantity. Gantt is also noted in management history for recognizing the importance of motivation as a psychological phenomenon in the work place.
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Thursday, August 13, 2009

The Matrix

The sci-fi action thriller film "The Matrix" is released in 1999. A computer hacker discovers that all life on Earth may be nothing more than an elaborate virtual world created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence for the purpose of using humans to fuel a campaign of domination in the "real" world.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The IBM PC

The IBM PC is released on August 12, 1981. Priced at $1,565, the personal computer has a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor and comes with a 160-KB floppy disk drive, an optional color monitor, and IBM's Disk Operating System. The development team at IBM develops and announces the IBM PC in 12 months, at that time, faster than any other hardware product in IBM's history.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Amdahl

After 18 years at IBM, Dr. Gene Amdahl partners with Fujitsu to establish the Amdahl Corporation in 1970. The company releases its first computer, the Amdahl 470 V6 in 1975. The highly successful machine allows customers to run IBM S/360 applications without buying higher priced IBM hardware. By 1979, Amdahl Corporation reaches one billion in revenue and has over 6,000 employees worldwide.
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Monday, August 10, 2009

Microsoft Certification

Arfa Karim Randhawa is believed to be the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world. Arfa is from Faisalabad, Pakistan and received her certification at the age of nine. Microsoft Certification is earned by taking a series of exams that prove your knowledge of Microsoft products and programming. Achieving this certification also earned Arfa a chance to meet with Microsoft's Bill Gates.
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Sunday, August 9, 2009

COBOL

Grace Murray Hopper initiates a project in 1952 that will eventually lead to the development of the COBOL programming language. The initial specifications for Common Business Oriented Language are presented in a report of the executive committee of CODASYL in April 1960. The language is designed to be business oriented, machine independent, and capable of continuous change and development.
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Saturday, August 8, 2009

MS DOS

IBM contracts the small PC software company Microsoft to develop a new personal computer operating system in October 1980. Microsoft creates MS DOS by purchasing the rights to 86-DOS for $50,000 from Seattle Computer Products. IBM allows Microsoft to market MS DOS to other PC makers and consumers thus providing Microsoft a growing presence in the emerging PC software market.
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