France was the first country to they didn’t have a ladies’ room offer an electronic telephone for me at the time.” She replied, Feb. 21st directory in 1981, on its Minitel “Well, what about the ladies’ system [May 10]. The directory room that the secretaries use?” was called “11” after its access “Well no, that wouldn’t be First Telephone number. proper.” ‘Book’ Feb. 21, 1878 Thelma Estrin A.P.P.L.E. The first telephone book - Born: Feb. 21, 1924; Feb. 21, 1978 actually a single 14 cm. x 21 cm. New York City The Apple Pugetsound Program sheet of cardboard - was issued Died: Feb. 15, 2014 by the New Haven Telephone Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) Company. It listed fifty Estrin and her husband, Gerald, was established by Val J Golding individuals, businesses, and helped build the first computer with fellow Apple II [June 5] other offices that had in the Middle East, the enthusiasts Mike Thyng and Bob telephones. There were three Weizmann Automatic Computer, Huelsdonk. or WEIZAC. It was constructed physicians, two dentists, two The first meeting brought at the Weizmann Institute boarding stables, twenty stores together 13-20 people, and the (hence the name) in Rehovot, and factories, four meat and fish organization grew rapidly, Israel, during 1954-1955, based markets, eleven residences, and reaching some 50,000 members on the IAS architecture [June 10] eight places marked by 1985. The organization is still developed by John von miscellaneous. At the time, New in operation, making it the Neumann [Dec 28]. Gerald led Haven, had a population of longest lived Apple group (but the project, while Thelma helped around 150,000 people. see below). redesign the arithmetic unit for Although other businesses had greater reliability. In 2013, A.P.P.L.E. released “The used telephones before, and WOZPAK Special Edition,” even printed lists of subscribers, containing Steve Wozniak’s [Aug this document was the first to 11] restored hand-written notes include private customers. and printouts about the Apple II. What isn’t on the sheet are any Their other retro books include: phone numbers; people instead “Nibble Viewpoints: Business had the switchboard operator Insights From The Computing direct their calls. New Haven Revolution”, “What’s Where in was also the first place in the US the Apple:”, and “The Colossal to have a commercial telephone Computer Cartoon Book” exchange [Jan 28]. (cheesy fun). Another New Haven telephone Golding has said of the group’s book, issued in Nov. 1878, sold name, “I started with the at auction in 2008 for $170,500. acronym and just played around This was the first with more with it until I found something than one sheet (40 pages in that fit. I was never happy with fact). It contains the names and combining “Pugetsound” but I addresses of 391 subscribers, Thelma Estrin. (c) Enginneering never figured a better word." and includes adverts. and Technology History Wiki. Other notable user groups, in The book also acted as a user chronological order of their After their return to the US, foundation, include SHARE [Aug manual, with suggestions such Estrin became associated with as: “NEVER take the telephone 22], DECUS [March 00], USENIX the Brain Research Institute at [May 15], the Amateur off the hook unless you wish to UCLA, and was an early use it", "Should you wish to Computer Society [May 5], the champion of the application of Amateur Computer Club [Dec speak to another subscriber, you computers to medical research should commence the 13], the Homebrew Computer and treatment. She developed Club [March 5], ACGNJ [June 13], conversation by saying one of the first systems for the ‘Hulloa!’", and " When you are and the Chaos Computer Club analog-to-digital conversion of [Sept 12]. done talking, say ‘That is all!’, electrical activity from the and the person spoken to should nervous system. ACGNJ is the oldest existent say ‘O.K’.” “Much trouble,” the group dealing with directory explains, “ensues from In the early 1950’s, she applied microcomputers, having started both parties speaking at the to work as an engineer at RCA in 1975. Since it includes Apple same time.” [Nov 20], and was turned down. machines within its ambit, it Estrin later recalled that the could claim to be the oldest personnel officer told her “that Apple group.

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Ek was deemed the most Daniel Ek important person in the music Born: Feb. 21, 1983; industry by Billboard Magazine CompuServe CB in 2017. Stockholm, Sweden

Simulator Ek was the co-founder with Feb. 21, 1980 Martin Lorentzon of the music streaming service Spotify which The Legend of CompuServe’s [Sept 24] most provides DRM-protected music popular feature was "CB obtained legally from record Zelda Released Simulator", a chat system which labels. Feb. 21, 1986 went live on this day, and attracted over a million Ek’s business model for Spotify “The Legend of Zelda” is a high- subscribers by 1988. was quite novel when it fantasy action-adventure game launched in Oct. 2008; it offered created by As the name suggests, it used a basic features for free with [Nov 16] and Takashi Tezuka for citizens band (CB) radio theme advertisements, and additional the NES/Famicom [Oct 18]. to help users understand multi- features if you paid a user chat and instant messaging. subscription. It's now seen as the forerunner Like CB radio it had “channels” of the entire role-playing genre, and commands like “tune,” and was also the first console “squelch,” and “monitor,” and game with a save function that numerous ‘quirky’ channels, let players stop playing and such as one where users spoke resume later. only Olde English. The “Zelda” games [Nov 21] CB Simulator had a major center on Link, who usually has influence on chat culture. For to rescue hapless Princess Zelda instance, many of the Internet’s from Ganon’s nefarious clutches. common abbreviations, such as There's also commonly some IMHO, MORF, and textual business involving a relic known emoticons like ;), first became as the , a set of three popular on CB Simulator. golden triangles (symbolizing power, wisdom, and courage) The first version was coded by that will save the land of Hyrule Alexander “Sandy” Trevor [April from destruction. 12], who “wrote it in assembly Daniel Ek (2011). Photo by language over a weekend on my Magnus Höij. CC BY 2.0. The game was partially inspired kitchen table.” The source code by Miyamoto’s love of exploring was made freely available in Spotify wasn’t the first music the hills, forests, and caves near 1983, allowing BBS hobbyists to streaming platform, but it tied his boyhood home in Sonobe, install their own chat system. together the strengths of Japan. Miyamoto often used a services like Pandora [Aug 25], lantern while exploring the cave Later implementations included Last.fm, and SoundCloud (e.g. system, which is why Link encrypted communications, and algorithm personalization, social always carries a lantern. support for multi-user games listening, and various such as the “Island of Kesmai” Miyamoto thought F. Scott subscription models). [Dec 15]. The first online Fitzgerald’s wife's name, Zelda, wedding was performed on CB As of late 2020, Spotify had 345 sounded “pleasant and Simulator on [Feb 14] 1983. In million active users, including significant”, so he used it for his 1985 it hosted the first online 155 million paying subscribers. princess, and as the title of the comic, “Witches and Stitches” game. However, in Japan, the [Sept 24]. It added multimedia Ek first had the idea for Spotify game was originally called “The support in 1995, which “got in 2002 when peer-to-peer Hyrule Fantasy”. rolling” with an online music service Napster [Nov 22] Actor/comedian Robin Williams conference call with Mick Jagger shut down and another illegal revealed in 2009 that his on [Dec 7] 1995. site Kazaa took over. Ek later said that he “realized that you daughter Zelda Rae was named For earlier chat systems, see can never legislate away from after the title character in the EMISARI [Aug 15], and PLATO’s piracy. Laws can definitely help, series. Talkomatic [July 00]. but it doesn’t take away the On July 9, 2021, a sealed "The problem. The only way to solve Legend of Zelda" cartridge sold the problem was to create a for $870,000 at Heritage service that was better than Auctions, setting a new world piracy and at the same time record for the most expensive compensates the music industry . The record lasted a – that gave us Spotify.” mere two days [Sept 13].

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Star Fox Released Feb. 21, 1993 "" (Starwing in Europe) was an SNES game [Nov 21] where the player had to fly a spacecraft, through a 3D environment while various enemies (spaceships, robots, creatures, etc.) attacked. It was ’s [Sept 23] first game to use polygonal 3D graphics, powered by a GSU-1 "Super FX" graphics coprocessor in the game cartridge. The "Super FX" chip was designed by , and was so much more powerful than the SNES’s standard processor (a 16-bit Ricoh 5A22) that the development team joked that the SNES was just a box to hold their chip. Originally the game had been intended for the NES [Oct 18], but Argonaut persuaded Nintendo to port it over to the SNES, while Argonaut extending the game’s engine. During development, the chip was codenamed “Super FX” or “MARIO”, an acronym for “Mathematical, Argonaut, Rotation & Input/Output”. “MARIO” is printed on the face of the chip. Argonaut was founded by British teenager Jez San in 1982, with the company's name being a play on his name (J. San) and the story, “Jason and the Argonauts” [June 19]. "Star Fox" ultimately sold over four million copies, and Nintendo went on to release five more games using the same characters. Nintendo also teamed up with Kellogg’s (the cereal company) and Nelsonic (an electronics manufacturer) to release a "Star Fox" LCD watch. The order form was printed on the back of Kellogg’s "Corn Flakes" boxes and the watch was free. The catch was that you had to eat (or at least buy) two large boxes of cereal first.

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