Saturday, November 14, 2009

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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Friday, November 13, 2009

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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Thursday, November 12, 2009

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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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

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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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

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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Monday, November 9, 2009

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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Sunday, November 8, 2009

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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