October 12 – technical history

1979 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first published unleashing in book form, the world of Vogon Poetry essential towel behaviour, and the BabelFish.

1988 – Steve Jobs’ NeXT Computer

Hailed by Steve Jobs as a computer “five years ahead of its time”, NeXT Inc. introduces their NeXT Computer. Due to its cube-shaped case, the computer was often referred to as “The Cube” or “the NeXT Cube”, which led to the subsequent model offically being named “NeXTcube”. The new computer introduced several innovations to personal computers, such as including an optical storage disk drive, a built-in digital signal processor for voice recognition, and an object-oriented development environment that was truly years ahead of its time.

While not a commercial success, the NeXT Computer and the technology developed for it have long and storied history. Tim Berners-Lee developed the first world wide web server and web browser on a NeXT Computer, crediting the NeXT developed tools for allowing him to rapidly develop the now ubiquitous Internet system. After Apple purchased NeXT in 1997, they used the operating system of the NeXT computer to form the base of Mac OS X. eventually Apple’s iOS, which runs the iPhone and iPad, was itself based upon Mac OS X and hence draws its lineage to NeXT. Finally, the object-oriented development environment that Berners-Lee used to create the World Wide Web is the forerunner of the development environment that today’s programmers use to develop iPhone and iPad Apps. If it wasn’t for the NeXT Computer back in 1988, you may not have your Angry Birds today.

1996 – Helmut Hoelzer, a German electrical engineer and remote-controlled guidance specialist who known for designing an electronic simlator for the V-2 rocket control system and built an analog computer to calculate and simulate V-2 rocket trajectories passed away at the age of 84.

2001 – An era ended as the Polarioid Corporation file for federal bankruptcy protection, killed off by 1-hour developing and the rise of digital cameras. Bank One bought most of the company and re-launched a company under the same name.

2003 – Adam Curry posted and AppleScript called RSS2iPod that took MP3s downloaded by RSS to a folder and automatically transferred them to a connected iPod. Christopher Lydon’s Radio UserLand was used as the example.

2004 – Microsoft Windows XP Media center edition 2005 is released.

2005 – After previously asuring us nobody wanted to watch videos on an iPod, Steve Jobs reversed course and Apple started making videos available on iTunes. ABC/Disney was the only TV network available at the time but you could get episodes of Lost and Desperate Hoursewives the day after they aired.

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