Microsoft founded April 4, 1975

Microsoft founded April 4, 1975

On April 4, 1975, childhood friends Bill Gates, then 19, and Paul Allen, then 22, founded Microsoft, a company that makes computer software. Originally based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Microsoft relocated to Washington State in 1979 and from there grew into a major multinational technology corporation. In 1987, the year after Microsoft went public, Gates became the world’s youngest billionaire at age 31.

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Anandtech made its debut April 3, 1997

Anandtech made its debut April 3, 1997

AnandTech was an online computer hardware magazine founded in April 1997 by then-14-year-old Anand Lal Shimpi. Shimpi remained CEO and editor-in-chief until August 2014, with Ryan Smith replacing him as editor-in-chief. The website was a source of hardware reviews for off-the-shelf components and exhaustive benchmarking, targeted towards computer-building enthusiasts. Its debut article, released April 3, 1997, was a review of AMD’s then-new K6 processor.

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What happened to CompUSA?

What happened to CompUSA?

Readers of a certain age will remember CompUSA, a defunct big-box computer retailer. What happened to CompUSA? It went out of business, then came back as an undead brand, then went away again.

In some ways, CompUSA was the epitome of 1990s computer retail. It had huge big box stores with aisles of software and upgrades. It sold desktop computers, including its own house brand, Compudyne, manufactured for CompUSA by Acer. But the business model didn’t work as well in the 21st century.

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Andy Warhol died February 22, 1987

Andy Warhol died February 22, 1987

On February 22, 1987, American pop artist Andy Warhol died at the age of 58 in New York City of irregular heartbeat following gallbladder surgery.

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Google Fiber announced February 10, 2010

Google Fiber announced February 10, 2010

It was 15 years ago today, on February 10, 2010, that Google announced Google Fiber. This was the first truly high speed Internet service in a modern sense in the United States.

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Advantages and disadvantages of Lotus 1-2-3

Advantages and disadvantages of Lotus 1-2-3

Lotus 1-2-3 was the killer app that made the IBM PC the standard for computers.  It wasn’t the first spreadsheet, making its debut January 26, 1983, but it ran on a computer that could easily address more than 64K of memory, it was fast, and relatively bug free. So it was super successful. Today we know it as the thing people used before Excel. So what were the advantages and disadvantages of Lotus 1-2-3?

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NCSA Mosaic: The mother of all web browsers

NCSA Mosaic: The mother of all web browsers

The title dates itself. On January 23, 1993, more people would have caught the reference. January 23, 1993 was the day the first cross-platform Web browser emerged from the NCSA, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, a computing research partnership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois.

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IBM’s big black and blue 1992

IBM’s big black and blue 1992

On January 19, 1993, IBM announced a stunning $5 billion loss for fiscal year 1992, earning the unfortunate nickname of “Big Black and Blue” until its turnaround later in the decade.

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RUN: The magazine for Commodore 64, 128 and VIC-20 owners

RUN: The magazine for Commodore 64, 128 and VIC-20 owners

It was 41 years ago this month, in January 1984, that RUN magazine made its debut. With RUN, Wayne Green applied the formula he used for 80 Micro to the hot-selling Commodore 8-bit home computers. While it was no longer an original idea, RUN arguably was even more successful than 80 Micro had been.

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VIA Cyrix III and C3 CPUs

VIA Cyrix III and C3 CPUs

The VIA Cyrix III was a short-lived Socket 370 CPU produced by VIA using technology it acquired from Cyrix and Centaur, two makers of Socket 7 CPUs. VIA first introduced the Cyrix III on January 5, 2001.

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