In 1982, the emoticon was born. Research Professor Scott E. Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh proposed the use of an emoticon to express humor for the first time anywhere. Here is his original post to the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science department’s general […]
I never quite got around to updating my Mac OS from Lion (Mac OS X 10.7) to Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8), which was released on July 25th. I’m am usually fairly timely on upgrades, performing them in the first week or so. Somehow Mountain
In 1980, Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez became the first person of color sent into space. Tamayo-Mendez, also the first Latin American in space, was an astronaut aboard Soyuz 38, which docked with Salyut-6 for eight days, starting on September 19th and returned to Earth on September
In 1976, NASA unveiled the first Space Shuttle, the Enterprise. The shuttle was originally called Constitution. A write-in campaign by “Star Trek” enthusiasts urged President Gerald Ford to go with Enterprise and, as a result, the name was changed. The Enterprise was a test vehicle
Geek Facts for September 17th – The Space Shuttle and a Couple of Handheld Computers Read More »
In 2011, NASA scientists announced the discovery of a circumbinary planet, a planet the orbits two stars. Known as Kepler-16b, it is located 200 light-years from Earth. Previous research had hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets. Learn more at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/15sep_doublesuns/.
In 1968, the Soviet Zond 5 spaceship, the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, was launched. In addition to a biological payload of turtles, wine flies, meal worms, plants, seeds, and bacteria, in the pilot’s seat was a 68.9 inches
In 1939, the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 became the first practical helicopter to ever successfully lift off. Designer Igor Sikorsky piloted the vehicle as it lifted off the ground to an altitude of roughly three feet for a duration of about ten seconds. Learn more at http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/sik_vs-300.php.
In 1941, Dr. Henry Edward “Ed” Roberts was born. Considered by many to be the ‘father of the PC’, he may be more accurately described as the ‘father of the PC industry.’ His Altair 8800 appeared on the cover of Popular Electronics in January 1975
Geek Facts for September 13th – A New Industry and Two New Computers Read More »
Today, Apple held its much anticipated iPhone media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to introduce its iPhone 5. Rumors have been running rampant for months, maybe ever since the iPhone 4S was announced, about what features the new iPhone
In 1960, IBM announced the IBM 1410 data processing system. The IBM 1410 contained large volume storage facilities and fast input/output units. According to IBM’s website, initial orders for the 1410 exceeded 3,500, making it the most widely-accepted data processing machine ever produced. Learn more
In 1877, English mathematician and astronomer James Jeans was born. One of Jeans’ major discoveries, named Jeans length, is a critical radius of an interstellar cloud in space. It is a function of the temperature and density of the cloud as well as the mass
In 1990 , the first Internet search engine, Archie, was launched. Archie was an index of FTP archives created by by Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Archie got its name from “archives”. It was shortened to Archie to
Geek Facts for September 10th – Archie and Gopher Read More »
In 1941, Dennis Ritchie, the father of C and co-creator of UNIX, was born. Windows was once written in C and UNIX underpins both Mac OS X and iOS. While Dennis Ritchie’s contributions are largely invisible to consumers, his contributions are critical to the digital
Geek Facts for September 9th – A Digital Revolution Titan and CoCo2 Read More »
In 1930, 3M began marketing Scotch transparent tape. Richard Drew invented Scotch® Cellulose Tape, later renamed Cellophane Tape. The tape helped people “make do” during the Great Depression since they could make simple repairs to household items. Learn more about tape at http://www.scotchbrand.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/ScotchBrand/Scotch/Resources/History/Timeline/.
