Geek Facts

In 1951, the first commercial computer, UNIVAC 1, entered service at the Census Bureau. The UNIVAC I used 5,200 vacuum tubes, weighed 29,000 pounds, consumed 125 kilowatts and could perform about 1,905 operations per second. Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_I#Major_physical_features

In 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave our Solar System. Launched on March 2nd, 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the Asteroid belt and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter.

In 2009, full power television stations had to convert from analog to digital broadcasting by midnight. An important benefit of the switch to all-digital broadcasting is that it freed up parts of the broadcast spectrum for public safety communications, the need for which became readily

In 1991, Microsoft released MS-DOS 5.0. MS-DOS 5.0 was a major upgrade. It allowed parts of DOS to load itself in the high memory area. It also added support for IBM’s new 2.88 MB floppy disks. Learn more at http://www.oldcomputermuseum.com/os/msdos_5.0.html

In 1996, Intel introduced and began volume shipments of the 200 MHz Pentium processor. The new chip incorporated 3.3 million transistors with a 66 MHz system bus. Its price was $599 in quantities of 1000. Learn more at http://processortimeline.info/proc1996.htm

In 1996, Linux v2.0 was released. Linux 2.0 was a significant improvement over earlier versions of the operating system. New to this version was support for multiple processors, IP masquerading, and Java. Learn more at http://oreilly.com/openbook/debian/book/ch01_02.html

In 1975, the USSR launched Venera 9 for Venus landing. The orbiter was the first spacecraft to orbit Venus, while the lander was the first to return images from the surface of another planet. Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_9

In 1975, Sony introduced the Betamax videocassette recorder for sale to the public. The Betamax format was on its way to becoming the industry standard until the appearance of JVC’s VHS a year later. VHS offered longer-playing ability, which made it possible to record an

In 2005, Apple announced that it was switching from Power PC processors to Intel processors. At WWDC, Steve Jobs stated that the Power PC processors used too much heat and energy to be used in upcoming Apple products. Learn more at http://www.everymac.com/mac-answers/macintel-faq/why-did-apple-switch-to-intel.html

In 1977, the Apple II went on sale. The Apple II had a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor running at 1 MHz, 4 kB of RAM, an audio cassette interface for loading programs and storing data, and the Integer BASIC programming language built into the ROMs.

In 2010, Falcon 9 Flight 1, the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40. The first flight launched a stripped-down version of the Dragon capsule. It was not designed to survive re-entry,

In 1984, Commodore made two additions to their line of computers. The Plus/4 – originally called the 264 – was released for $300. The “Plus/4” name refers to the four-application ROM resident office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, database, and graphing). Learn more about the Plus/4

In 1966, Surveyor 1 was the first US space probe to have a soft landing on the Moon. The Soviet Union was the first when the Russian probe Luna 9 had a successful soft landing on the moon on February 3rd of that year. The

In 1956, Tim Paterson, the author of MS-DOS, was born. MS-DOS was the most widely used operating system in the 1980s. Read more about Tim Paterson at http://www.patersontech.com/dos/micronews/paterson04_10_98.htm