Without a doubt, one of the most notorious features of the IT industry is the constant litigation. Who is suing who now becomes difficult to keep track of. 1997 was no exception, one of the biggest suits and settlements that year involved industry heavyweight Intel and their rival in semiconductor manufacturing, Digital Equipment. The lawsuit centered around Digitals claim that Intel had violated 10 of Digital’s patents in creation of new products. The two companies had a long history of working cooperatively, including the fact that Digital purchased a lot of processors from Intel that they used in their products. Digital was in the process of developing their Alpha series chips that would compete with Intel in the Unix and Windows NT markets. In the end, the lawsuit ended with Intel purchasing 3 manufacturing plants from Digital and manufacturing Digital designed chips including the Alpha series and the new StrongArm processors used in lower power and mobile applications. The total payment that Digital would receive over time would approach 1.5 Billion dollars. In todays tech environment that dollar figure almost seems laughable. On the day of the announcement, Intel stock was the second most active and lost $4.38 in value.
What else happened this day:
1982 IBM ROM is capable of EGA graphics - 16 glorious colors
1988 “ET” released to home video (14 million presold)
It appears that October 27 is also a popular day to blow things up.
1961 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya & Sary Shagan USSR
1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1966 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
1966 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1984 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Blatant Theft from Uncle John’s Bathroom reader"
The end of tech. All products eventually reach end of life. Here we look at the swan song of many tech items. The last ofs include:
The last VHS tape - A History of Violence
The last Laser Disc - End of Days
The last HD DVD - Death Proof
The last major 8-Track - Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits
The last Atari 2600 game - Secret Quest
The last NES game - Wario’s Woods
The last SNES game - Frogger
Births on this Day:
1858 - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President
1874 - Owen D. Young, started the RCA corporation
1914 - Dylan Thomas, author
1939 - John Cleese
The Friday dose of CanCon:
During High School and University, Red Rider was one of my goto bands. Capable both of rocking songs and teary ballads, I present 2 songs today, one of each.
Quote of the Day:
Privacy is one of the biggest problems in this new electronic age. - Andy Grove
Cartoon of the Day:
Inspirobot:
Miss yesterday’s Spark - No blanks here from @jimender2 . Shoot on over and see how the West was won. Spark! Pro series - 26th October 2023
