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Sprechen Sie Sassy?
April 29, 2004 The Sasser worm is released into the wild, infecting over 1 million Windows computers worldwide. Looks like 1 million PC users stepped into a big pile of sassy! Sprechen Sie Sassy? is original content of This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in…
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Commercial Computer Mouse Introduced
April 27, 1981 Xerox introduces the Xerox 8010 Star Information System, the first commercial system utilizing a computer mouse, among other now commonplace technologies. The 8010 was geared towards business and was not a commercial success, therefore the mouse remained in relative obscurity until the Apple Lisa, but more prominently the Apple Macintosh, brought the mouse into…
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Chernobyl Virus Melts Down PCs
April 26, 1999 The first known virus to target the flash BIOS of a PC, the CIH/Chernobyl Virus trigers on this day, erasing hard drives and disabling PCs primarily in Asia and Europe. One of the most destructive viruses in history, Turkey and South Korea alone report 300,000 infected systems. Chernobyl Virus Melts Down PCs…
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Do You Yahoo?
April 25, 1996 Yahoo! begins advertising its web-based search service on national television, featuring the tag line “Do You Yahoo?”. The ads first air during Late Night with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, and Star Trek. This was a very early example of the Internet entering into the mainstream. Do You Yahoo? is original…
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A Crazy Day for Apple
April 24, 1984 On the same day in 1984, Apple introduces the Apple IIc computer, announces Mac sales numbers, and discontinues the Apple III line. The Apple IIc was Apple’s first attempt at a portable computer. Dealers place orders for more than 52,000 units on the first day. Apple also announces that over 60,000 Macs…
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First YouTube Video
April 23, 2005 The first video uploaded to YouTube, “Me at the zoo,” is posted on April 23, 2005 at 8:27 PM by co-founder Jawed Karim. For now being a piece of history, the video is actually pretty dumb. Note to future entrepreneurs: what you do may be for posterity. Choose wisely. First YouTube Video is original content of This…
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Mosaic 1.0
April 22, 1993 Version 1.0 of the web browser Mosaic is released by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. It’s the first software to provide a graphical user interface for the emerging World Wide Web, including the ability to display inline graphics. The lead Mosaic developer is Marc Andreesen, one of the future founders of Netscape. My first experience…
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IBM Licenses PC Patents
April 21, 1988 The Tandy Corporation holds a press conference to announce plans to build clones of IBM’s PS/2 system computers. The conference comes soon after IBM’s announcement that it would license patents on key PC technologies. IBM made this decision as they realized they were losing control of the “IBM-compatible” PC market and could make…
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Windows 98 is Plug and … Whoa?
April 20, 1998 During the COMDEX Spring ’98 and Windows World shows in Chicago, a public demonstration of the soon-to-be released Windows 98 goes awry when Bill Gates’ assistant causes the operating system to crash after plugging in a scanner. Instead of showing the plug-and-play capabilities they were trying to demonstrate, a “Blue Screen of…
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Moore’s Law Published
April 19, 1965 Electronics magazine publishes an article by Gordon Moore, head of research and development for Fairchild Semiconductor and future co-founder of Intel, on the future of semiconductor components. In the article, Moore predicts that transistor density on integrated circuits will double every eighteen months for “at least” the next ten years. This theory will eventually come…