Today in Tech History – August 29

1831 – Faraday Discovers Electromagnetic Induction

          English scientist Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction. Electromagnetic induction is the primary principle behind electric motors and electric generators, two very important inventions that power and drive our electronic technology of today.

1965 – Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper, orbiting 100 miles above the Earth in Gemini 5 talked with aquanaut M. Scott Carpenter in Sealab II, 205 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It happened to be Cooper’s wedding anniversary.

1990 – The British Computer Misuse Act Goes into Effect

          One of the earliest laws anywhere designed to address computer fraud, the Act resulted from a long debate in the 1980s over failed prosecutions of hackers – in one well-publicized case, two men hacked into a British Telecom computer leaving messages in the Duke of Edinburgh’s private mailbox.

1997 – Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings founded Kibble Inc. The service initially let you rent individual DVDs by mail without late fees. There was no subscription service and no streaming. And the service was later renamed Netflix.

2003 – b. variant Blaster tracked down

          Jeffrey Lee Parson was arrested from his home in Minneapolis MN. He was suspected to be developer of the b. variant of the Blaster virus the virus would turn infected computers into unit that would give windowsupdate.microsoft.com a Denial of Service by simply flooding it with requests. The Secret Service worked by tracing this virus to the source via the information super highway. That is what wound them to Jeffrey Lee Parson.

Niklas Zennstorm and Janus Friis started Skype service, the Voice over Internet Provider that would go on to dominate the space.

2005 – Music Service Pandora left preview and became open for all to use.

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