In 1977, FORTRAN-80, Microsoft’s second language product, was released at a cost of $500 for an individual license.
The name FORTRAN is an acronym for FORmula TRANslation, because it was designed to allow easy translation of math formulas into code.
Learn more at http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMVOZ1VQUD_0.html
In 2004, Microsoft launched a technology preview of their own MSN search engine, MSN.
MSN had some features that Google lacked at the time on its home page, such as the ability to easily search a dictionary and encyclopedia (Microsoft’s Encarta) as well as get stock quotes and movie listings through a drop down menu.
Learn more at http://money.cnn.com/2004/07/01/technology/techinvestor/lamonica/index.htm
In 2004, Cassini-Huygens successfully sent back the first close-up photographs of the Saturn’s rings.
The spacecraft was named for Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), a Dutch scientist who discovered Saturn’s rings and its largest moon, Titan, and Italian Jean-Dominique Cassini (1625-1712), who discovered Saturn moons Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione, and the narrow gap separating Saturn’s rings, known as the ‘Cassini Division’.
Learn more at http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Cassini-Huygens/SEMVOZ1VQUD_0.html
