David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
On July 23, 1985, Commodore introduced its Amiga 1000 computer. And let’s just say the world wasn’t ready for it yet. Dave Haynie, a Commodore engineer who worked on the later models, has said there was no such thing as a 1980s computer. There were 1970s computers and 1990s computers, and it was the Amiga that dragged the rest of the industry into the 1990s.
On January 2, 1975, Microsoft announced Altair Basic, their first product. It was a programming language for the MITS Altair 8800 computer, a product that let people write their own software for the new computer. The makers of the computer licensed Altair Basic on July 22, 1975, and sold $16,005 worth of product by the end of the year.
On November 4th, 1997, MCI and Worldcom merged in a deal worth $37 billion. This was an attempt by two large telecommunications companies to to combine and rival AT&T, but instead it turned into one of the biggest scandals and bankruptcies of its era. On July 21, 2002, the combined company went bankrupt, setting a record at the time as the largest bankruptcy in history.
On July 17, 1991, Novell bought Digital Research for $80 million, a merger of a pioneer in desktop computer networking with a pioneer in desktop computer operating systems. Novell saw Microsoft coming after its business on multiple fronts, and saw the acquisition of Digital Research as a defensive move to counter it.
Intel was founded July 18, 1968, by semiconductor pioneers Gordon Moore (of Moore’s law fame) and Robert Noyce and investor Arthur Rock. Intel’s employee #3 was Andrew Grove. Moore, Noyce, and Grove had all worked together at Fairchild Semiconductor in the mid 1960s.
The name “Intel” means INTegrated ELectronics. Moore and Noyce didn’t want to name the company after themselves, as it would sound like “more noise.” With noise being an undesired property in electronics, they initially chose the name NM Electronics, using their initials, but changed the name to Intel less than two weeks after its founding. Intel was already a trademark of a hotel chain, so the young company bought the rights to the name.
On July 15, 1996, German PC manufacturer Escom declared bankruptcy. But Escom wasn’t necessarily just an ordinary PC manufacturer. Escom went bankrupt less than 2 years after acquiring the Commodore and Amiga brand names and starting to use their technology. Were Commodore and Amiga cursed? Or was there something else going on that led to Escom’s bankruptcy?
On July 15, 1983, the Famicom, or Family Computer, launched in Japan. Despite the name, the Family Computer was a game console, and it went on to shatter the Atari 2600’s record for the most sales worldwide by a game console. The Famicom remains one of the most successful and popular game consoles of all time, even if you know it better as the Nintendo NES, and even if it wasn’t as popular in Europe as it was in other parts of the world.
Code Red was a computer worm that exploited one of the earliest notorious Microsoft vulnerabilities, a buffer overflow in Microsoft IIS. It is credited as the first large scale mixed threat attack against enterprise networks. Code Red was released July 13, 2001, although its first observation happened two days later, on July 15, 2001. Infections peaked July 19, 2001, infecting 359,000 servers worldwide.
Gary Kildall’s death investigation, or the seeming lack thereof, has taken on mythical proportions. Gary Kildall’s story seems to have that effect on people. Just like the story of Kildall allegedly going flying instead of meeting with IBM in August 1980, the story of Gary Kildall’s death on July 11, 1994 spiraled out of control.
While Gary Kildall died under unclear circumstances, his death was less unusual than early accounts made it seem. That’s why the investigation seemed to fizzle out with less fanfare than it deserved.
Monorail was a short-lived PC vendor from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Founded November 2, 1995, they were the first company to sell a Pentium-class PC including a display for under $1,000. And Monorail PCs were the first desktop all-in-one computer that included an LCD rather than using a CRT. On top of all that, they assembled their computers in the USA, utilizing a facility in Kansas City, Mo. So what happened to Monorail? Why did it fail on July 9, 2005, less than 10 years from its launch?