
1989 – A solar flare created a geomagnetic storm that caused three hard drives to fail in an otherwise fault-tolerant system at the Toronto Stock Exchange. This prevented access to critical market data, leading the exchange to be shut down for three hours.
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/9.15.html
1993 – Ian Murdock announced the Debian Linux distribution system. The name combined his then girlfriend Debra’s name with his own, Deb-Ian. And now you know how to properly pronounce it.
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-intro.en.html
1994 – The IBM Simon went on sale, combining a mobile phone with computer functions. It weighed 500 grams, could run apps and be linked to a fax machine, selling for $899. The word smartphone hadn’t even been coined yet.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28802053
1995 – The first version Microsoft’s Web browser, Internet Explorer 1, debuted. It was based on Mosaic, which Microsoft had licensed from Spyglass Inc.
http://gizmodo.com/5614186/internet-explorer-turns-15-today
2011 – Xiaomi launched its first phone, the M1 or ‘Xiaomi Phone’ with a 1.5 GHz dual core chip and 1 GB of RAM for ¥1,999.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/16/xiaomi-m1-with-miui-os-a-310-phone-with-1-5ghz-dual-core-soc-a/
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
Amazon has set its sights on buying Landmark theaters. What does this mean for the movie industry and will this push its rivals to pursue similar deals?
Amazon may buy Landmark movie theater chain, new Google One storage plans detailed, Reddit user helps crack hit-and-run case.