Time Toast 1 - Grant Romney By garomney Feb 14, 1946 Electronic Computer ENIAC was the first electronic general-purpose computer ever created, paving the way for the computers used today, which obviously have a massive impact on our day to day lives. Jan 16, 1947 RAM RAM, standing for Random-Access-Memory allowed for information to be restored in an order other than the one in which it was written. It is used in nearly all computers used today, adn was a great leap forward in information technology. Sep 30, 1968 Touch Screen Touch screens allow for physical interaction between the user and the visual display. This technology has become widespread among many non-commercially-used machines such as ATMs. Since the release of the iPhone is has also become wildly popular on handheld computer devices used every day by many. Nov 17, 1970 Computer Mouse While initially invented by Douglas Englebart in 1970, the computer mouse was not initially commercially successful, the first widely used computer mouse was found on the Apple Lisa Computer. The mouse has since become so intrumental to computer usage that most users would not be able to use a computer without one. Nov 11, 1971 Email Email was invented in late 1971 by Ray Tomlinson. The first email was sent between two computers that were actually sitting besides each other. Eamil is used by almost everyone who uses the internet or computers in general, and is a necessary tool to communicate in today's world. May 9, 1972 Video Game Consoles The first commercial video game console was launched in August of 1972, and video game consoles have since become a multi-million dollar industry consumed by many individuals. Aug 16, 1981 MS-DOS MS-DOS was the primary operating system on IBM computers when it was introduced, dominating the market, resulting in it having a large infulence on the development of computers. Its success also paved the way for Microsoft to become the giant it is today. Feb 4, 1982 Computer Viruses While not well liked, computer viruses have nonetheless become a part of using one, shaping our experiences every day. The first computer virus released into the world, Elk Cloner, was created in February of 1982. May 24, 1985 AOL AOL was for a time a primariy internet provider, being the first major comapny to provide dial-up internet access. Sep 13, 1985 Windows OS Windows was one of the first graphical interfaces for a computer, and the first to popularize it. Windows set the stage for all future graphical interfaces, which are almost exclusively used today. Nov 21, 1995 USB Ports The USB 1.0 debuted in late 1995 and transferred data at a rate of 12 megabits per second. USB has since become an industry standard for connecting devices to on another. Nov 19, 1996 DVD DVD's are a disc shaped format for storing information that is supported by nearly all computers, and was a major step forward in the advancement of digital storage, being relatively compact and robust. Until recently, most software was sold in DVD format. Sep 15, 1997 Google Google.com was first registered as a domain name on September 15, 1997. Since then, google has essentially become the search engine industry, and has branched into other web services such as G-mail. Jun 16, 1999 Napster File distribution is a very common, and legally grey, use of the internet today. This largely began with Napster, a music distribution service, which laid teh way for future "pirating." Jan 15, 2001 Wikipedia Wikipedia was created initially as way to increase interest in the creators' project nupedia, but quickly took on a life of its own, gaining massive popularity. It's crowdsourced design, while resulting in somewhat flawed articles, allows for quick growth. Wikipedia today can be used to access summaries on an absurd number of subjects, making it a useful jumping off point for information gathering. Oct 23, 2001 iPod The iPod was the first well-designed mp3-player, raising the bar for the creation of all future media players. Aug 1, 2003 MySpace While little used today, Myspace helped to lay the foundations for the idea of an online social network, paving the way for facebook. Feb 4, 2004 Facebook Facebook is a social media site visited by over 400 million users per month, being used by so many individuals that there is significant pressure to use it. May 11, 2005 Youtube Youtube was created as a beta site in May of 2005, and is the dominant platform for sharing and hosting videos, with some individuals even being able to create videos on the site as their primary source of income. Mar 21, 2006 Twitter Twitter has become a social media giant, with hundreds of millions of users, allowing users to communicate with millions of their peers, as long as it is in 140 characters or less.
