A man will die, but not his ideas.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
25 years ago...
25 years ago, dBase II, a database software package, was developed by Wayne Ratliff. Ashton-Tate acquired dBase from Ratliff when dBase was at its peak (dBase III). dBASE was the first widely used database management system or DBMS for microcomputers, published by Ashton-Tate for CP/M, and later on the Apple II, Apple Macintosh and IBM PC under DOS where it became one of the best-selling software titles for a number of years. I was lucky to complete my first computer-related course on the dBase IV (along with MS-DOS 3.3) at the time I was in the intermediate-level at school. To my surprise now, I discovered that this particular version of dBase was the cause for its collapse due to the many bugs it had. dBASE was sold to Borland in 1991, which sold the rights to the product line in 1999 to the newly-formed
dBASE Inc.25 years ago, the HP-85 personal computer was released. It was based on an 8-bit microprocessor and combined an alphanumeric keyboard, CRT screen, thermal printer tape drive unit, user read/write memory and a ROM operating system in one portable package. It had 32K ROM and 16K RAM. It was HP's first entry into the personal computer marketplace.
HP-85 the prototype of the IBM PC was being designed by a team of twelve people at IBM managed by Donald Estridge. At the same time, IBM constructed the first 1 Gigabyte Harddisk. Its size was as big as a large refrigerator, and it weighed 150 kilo's and its cost was 40.000 USD.
25 years ago, Seagate Technology introduced the first hard disk drive for microcomputers, the ST506. It was a full height (twice as high as most current 5 1/4" drives) 5 1/4" drive, with a stepper motor. This first born could store 5 Mb. The access time was low: 180 - 240 milliseconds.
Seagate ST-412. An enlarged 10 MB two-platter ST-506 Ronald Reagan and John Anderson were running for presidency against Jimmy Carter, the US president back then. Here in Egypt president Sadat was still alive and walking amongst his citizens. Two-thirds of Sinai had been transferred back to Egypt, but Sadat halted further talks with Israel in Aug. 1980 because of ontinued Israeli settlement of the West Bank.
25 years ago, the First Persian Gulf War, which was between Iraq and Iran, broke out. A war that lasted for nearly 8 years and ended when Iran accepted United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 598, leading to a 20 August 1988 cease-fire.
Iranian Soldiers in the battle-field the Voyager 1 space probe reached the ringed planet, Saturn, after a 3 years journey and sent back the first vivid photographs of the planet. It was just 12 miles (19 km) off course after its epic journey.
Saturn and its magnificent rings my eyes first saw the light...
Posted by A ::
12:43 AM ::
5 Comments:
Post / Read Comments
-------------------------------------
Unless otherwise expressly stated, all original material of whatever nature created by the blog's author and included in the "A man will die, but not his ideas." weblog and any related pages, including the weblog's archives, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
* Java and the Java Coffee Cup Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems,Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.
HP-85
Seagate ST-412. An enlarged 10 MB two-platter ST-506
Iranian Soldiers in the battle-field
Saturn and its magnificent rings
