This Month in IT History: Septembre 2019
This month we're highlighting important butlittle-known Canadian contributions to IT, including the first Internet searchengine launched from Montreal and a trailblazing portable computer designed bya Queen's University math professor
This month we're highlighting important butlittle-known Canadian contributions to IT, including the first Internet searchengine launched from Montreal and a trailblazing portable computer designed bya Queen's University math professor. September also saw the first version ofMicrosoft Word, an early eReader concept from Sony and more.
29 septembre 1983 Microsoft Word 1.0launched
Bill Gates tasked software architect Charles Simonyi with overseeing Microsoft's WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) word processor, Word. The Microsoft Mouse, also released in 1983, was used for input. BYTE Magazine was at first baffled by the mouse input, but wrote that Word was clever, put together well, and performs some extraordinary feats. Microsoft Word, in its many iterations, has remained a staple of businesses, and today Office 365 offers feature-rich mobile and tablet apps for modern wordsmiths.
10 septembre 1990 The first internet searchengine launches in Montreal
Archie, considered the first Internet searchengine, began as a student project at McGill University, where Alan Emtage andBill Heelan were asked to connect the School of Computer Science to the Internet.At one time, Archie's FTP archive index accounted for half of Montreal's Internettraffic, but it fell out of use after the advent of the World Wide Web and thesubsequent creation of modern, web-based search engines.
12 septembre 1991 Sony's Data Discman launched in the west
Before smartphones, eReaders or PDAs, Sonyreleased a handheld computer that let users read and search encyclopedias,dictionaries and novels. The Data Discman used a proprietary CD format thatcould contain about 100 000 pages of text, searchable with a QWERTY-stylekeyboard and arrow keys. Later models could also store images and audio.
The Data Discman targeted frequent travellersand students, but didn't find a significant audience outside Japan. The lastmodel was released in 2000, a few years before modern smartphones offered a newvision of portable computers that would reach billions of users.
7 septembre 2016 Dell acquires EMC to become world's biggest private tech company
On this day, Dell Inc. completed itsacquisition of EMC, becoming a USD$74 billion market leader in hybrid cloud,software-defined data centres, converged infrastructure and cybersecurity. DellEMC continues to help companies achieve their digital transformation goals withits Big Data solutions and cloud-native applications.
25 septembre 1973 Canadian inventor demonstrates first keyboard-based portable computer
Former Queen's University mathematics professorMers Kutt created the MCM/70, considered the first portable personal computer.The final design was demonstrated for the Toronto media in September 1973. Ithad a one-line plasma display, keyboard, compact cassette recorder and weighed20 pounds. In 1974, the base model sold for CAD$4,950 about $26 000 today.
Several hundred units were sold to customerssuch as NASA, the U.S. Army, hospitals and insurance companies. But Kutt wasunable to compete with the development and marketing budgets of largercompanies as they turned their attention to personal computers. His company,Micro Computer Machines, ceased operations in 1983.