Birthday
Latest
Enter at Your Own Rift: Happy half-birthday, RIFT!
It's hard to believe -- but amazing nevertheless -- that RIFT is almost a half-year old. Six months ago, hundreds of thousands of gamers rushed through the gates to become the first to explore Telara, included me, and we were introduced to what's become one of the most dominating MMOs of the year. Following this smooth release (and it was smooth), Trion Worlds set a remarkable standard for itself by pumping out meaty content updates at a steady, rapid pace and marketing RIFT out the wazoo. We've already witnessed two live events, numerous subscription specials, the addition of a ginormous raid, and my not having hit 50 yet -- to my eternal embarrassment. Of course, there have been bumps in the road as well: a lackluster initial world event, a segment of disgruntled players and opponents, and the looming specter of several heavy-hitting MMOs waiting in the wings. But for right here and right now, this is Trion's time, and the company is taking advantage of this half-year milestone to light the fireworks and lay out the good china in celebration. We got on the phone with Scott Hartsman and his Justice League to talk about what the studio has up its sleeves for this event -- and what's next for this rapidly expanding title.
IBM exec says PC is 'going the way of the typewriter,' kills our birthday buzz
Well, this is awkward. As the IBM PC celebrates its 30th birthday today, one of its original designers is already mulling the end of its reign. In a blog post penned this week, Mark Dean, IBM's CTO for the Middle East and Africa, reflected on the dawn of the desktop era and looked forward to its seemingly inevitable demise. "When I helped design the PC, I didn't think I'd live long enough to witness its decline. But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they're no longer at the leading edge of computing. They're going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs." Dean added that he's glad his company sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2005, as part of a move that, according to him, allowed IBM to position itself at the forefront of the "post-PC" era. No word yet on when the funeral rites will be held, but you can read the full post at the source link, below.
Australia's first mobile network celebrates 30th birthday with a quiet night in
Why is this phone staring at the ground in dismay? Because it can't believe that it's been 30 years since it made history. On this day three decades ago, this 14 kilogram beast was used to place the very first call on Australia's very first mobile network -- the Public Automatic Telephone System, operated by Telstra (or Telecom, as it was known at the time). Back then, the network could only support 1,000 users at once and provide coverage for the greater Melbourne area (things have since changed for the better). The device, meanwhile, was known simply as The Mobile Phone and, in retrospect, wasn't all that mobile; the carphone system included a 45 centimeter handset, a transceiver and rooftop antenna -- all for a little over $5,000. It could also store a whopping 16 phone numbers and would notify users of incoming calls by sounding the car's horn and flashing its headlights. The Mobile Phone's Australian reign, however, would be relatively short-lived, with the DynaTAC 8000x ushering in a new handheld era, just two years after Telstra's inaugural call. Dial past the break for a Wagnerian commercial that'll tell you everything you always wanted to know about antiquity, but were too afraid to ask. [Thanks, Vincent]
World Wide Web turns 20, finally shakes that acne problem
Happy birthday, World Wide Web! Hard to believe you're turning 20 already. It seems like just yesterday we were hearing the pitter patter of little dial-up, delighting at the words "you got mail," and getting frustrated when calling our friends and receiving that dreaded busy signal. You're all grown up now, helping people learn how to farm and become overnight pop sensations. What, we wonder, will the next 20 years bring? At the very least, you'll eventually have to move out of your parents' basement, get a real job, and settle down. It's hard to pay attention to that kind of stuff, though, when you've got another year of sneaking beers ahead of you. So go ahead, World Wide Web, enjoy yourself tonight -- just make sure to be home by midnight.
Time to party for AIKA's first birthday
Wish AIKA a happy birthday, because it's turning one year old this month! To celebrate the occasion, T3fun is hosting a plethora of exciting events for AIKA players. For starters, all players will receive double experience for the entire month of August, making it the perfect time to grind out those levels you need. Also on the calendar is the "WAR is Back" event, in which players "kill hostile characters and get rewarded with whatever is behind the W, A and R medals left behind." For the PvP-inclined, every Wednesday and Saturday the team will host a King of Ka-Hill PvP match, which pits two teams of 24 against one another in a struggle for control. And finally, there's the Run for Glory. On August 19th and 26th, each nation's Lord Marshall will be granted access to a special Invader account containing an extremely powerful Paladin. The Invader must run through an opposing nation with the objective of reaching that nation's Regenshein. It's up to members of that nation to ensure that his job isn't an easy one. The events are going on all month, so jump in and join the festivities.
Fiesta Online celebrating third anniversary
Three years ago today, Fiesta Online's first server opened to the public, and gamigo has just announced plans for the title's birthday celebration via a new press release. The festivities will run through August 18th and include "special events and major contests." First up is the Birthday Cooking Competition and Come Party With Me events on the the Fiesta Facebook page. There's also the Fiesta Birthday Quest and Fiesta Online Summer Festival events, as well as new and exclusive track suit and mini gift items in the game's cash shop. Fiesta is free-to-play and features five classes as well as PvP, in-game weddings, and an estate system that allows for decoration and personalization.
Google doodle marks birthday of the pea meister, Gregor Mendel
Once in a while we see a Google doodle we just have to cover. This one marks the 189th birthday of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, whose vital discoveries about inheritance patterns in pea plants weren't fully acknowledged until after his death in 1884. Feeling overlooked in his final years, he famously promised himself that meine Zeit wird schon kommen ("my time will yet come"). And today, Gregor, it has.
Hotmail turns 15, checks spam folder for misfiled birthday wishes
This Monday marked the 15th anniversary of the birth of Hotmail. That July 4th launch date is no coincidence -- the service's founders intended its release to highlight the symbolism of its independence from more traditional e-mail models. The following year, the service would be snatched up by Microsoft and housed under the software giant's MSN umbrella. The subsequent years haven't always been easy for the brand, thanks in part to competition from Yahoo and Google-owned services. In 2007, the service fired back, revamping and rebranding itself as Windows Live Hotmail. It's been a decade and a half of ups and downs, but the webmail service continues to be one of the most widely used in the world. Got any Hotmail-related memories? Please share them in the comments below.
Happy First Birthday, iPhone 4!
One year ago today, where were you? Were you standing in line waiting to snag the newly announced iPhone 4, or were watching from afar, marveling at the long lines? Unless you had your head in the sand, you were likely doing one or the other. In the 12 months since its launch, the iPhone 4 has left an indelible mark on the smartphone industry. It's now available globally and remains the top-selling handset. Speaking of first anniversaries, a friendly reminder for those who were early adopters of the iPhone 4: the one-year warranty runs out starting today for those who bought their handset at launch. You might want to add the extra protection of AppleCare to cover you until the iPhone 5 comes out.
Quake turns 15, ready to be ported to a learner's permit
In the ever-changing world of gaming, a 15-year-old title is downright ancient, so there's a lot to be said for the fact that we're still talking about Quake a decade and a half after its release -- and what a packed decade and a half it's been. The game has spawned a still thriving convention and has made an appearance on pretty much every platform, ever, including, recently, Android, webOS, Chumby, BUG, and, of course, a maze for lab mice. So, happy birthday, old man. Now how about playing on something more your age? Like, say, the Jitterbug? Got a favorite Quake moment? Be sure to share it with us in the comments below.
Second Life's CEO Rod Humble talks anniversaries
Second Life recently hit a milestone in the MMORPG industry: eight years in service. This is ancient in MMO terms, and yet the game has shown continued growth. How would you explain such success, especially when the game... er, world... is such an enigma? Even the players are not sure how to describe it. Well, we called out the big guns and sat down with Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab, the maker of Second Life. He was kind enough to not only do the interview but allow us to embed the audio in the article for you to hear! Don't worry; we've also written up much of what was said, so you can choose to listen, read, or both! Click past the cut and let's get right to the interview with Rod as he talks about success, explaining Second Life and some of the surprises he's met with along the way.
IBM turns 100, brags about bench pressing more than companies half its age
IBM is quite possibly the only tech company around that might have genuine difficulty whittling a list of its industry defining contributions down to a mere 100. And it's an impressively diverse collection at that, including the floppy disk, the social security system, the Apollo space missions, and the UPC barcode. All of this self-congratulation is not without cause, of course. IBM was born 100 years ago today in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, a merger between three companies, all peddling different technologies. That diversity has helped define IBM from its inception, and has offered a sense of flexibility, making it possible to keep in step with technology's ever-quickening pace for a century. In 1944, the company helped usher in modern computing with the room-sized Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, and 37 years later, it played an important role in defining the era of home computing with the much more manageable IBM Personal Computer. In 1997, IBM introduced a machine that beat the world's reigning chess champion, and earlier this year, it created one that trounced two of the greatest players in Jeopardy history. These days, when the company is not building machines dedicated to outsmarting mankind, it's looking to promote sustainable development through its Smarter Planet program. So, happy centennial, Big Blue, and here's to 100 more, assuming your super-smart machines don't enslave us all in the meantime.
Mitsubishi creates giant OLED globe for Tokyo's museum-goers, cloud gazers
This year, Tokyo's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation is celebrating its 10th anniversary -- a milestone that Mitsubishi is commemorating with a giant OLED globe. Comprised of over 10,000 Diamond Vision OLEDs (each measuring 96 x 96mm), the six-meter 'Geo-Cosmos' installation will hang about 18 feet above the museum floor, where it will beam clouds and other satellite images at a resolution of 10 million pixels. It may not be the first curved OLED we've seen from Mitsubishi, but it's the first that could double as a pretty sick disco ball. The globe will be unveiled on June 11th, but you can head past the break for the full PR, as well as an image of the beast while it was under construction.
Intel ships 100 million Atoms, celebrates third birthday of netbook CPU
Intel's Atom processor and the rise of the netbook have gone hand in hand, which has to this date resulted in a tally of one hundred million CPUs shipped by Intel. And though netboks are not quite the new hotness they once were, Intel is today celebrating the third birthday of its low-power processor and promising to keep it going for many years yet. That'll happen thanks to a category Intel is calling companion devices, which includes clamshells of the old netbook ilk and tablets of all sizes and varieties. As if to prove that point, the company showed off a tablet that could boot into MeeGo, Android and Windows -- choice is what it's all about, according to Intel. %Gallery-124975%
The Anvil of Crom: Age of Conan year three retrospective
The past 12 months have been something of a whirlwind for the Age of Conan team. While content updates for the game were a bit lighter than normal, Funcom was nonetheless working quite hard behind the scenes for much of the game's third year. As a result -- and despite the residual stickiness of the outdated "Failcom" rhetoric that floats around the internet -- there's never been a better time to be an AoC fan. The dev team has expanded, content updates are coming at regular intervals, and there's even a new server ruleset on the way for those of you in favor of unforgiving PvP action. Add to that the cryptic hints of a big announcement that Craig Morrison has been dropping over the last little while and you've got a recipe for Hyborian intrigue the likes of which we haven't seen since launch. Speaking of AoC's launch, it happened three years ago this week, and today's Anvil of Crom offers you a look back at year three's most memorable moments. Put on your birthday hats, break out the kazoos, and join me after the cut for more.
EVE anniversary lottery offers over 40 billion ISK in prizes
Since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of the EVE Online universe, players have gambled their ISK for a chance to win it big in the BIG lottery. First launching on May 13th 2003, the BIG lottery has sold over 48,000 tickets worth a total of over 613 billion ISK. Each year, a special bumper edition of the game is launched to commemorate the birthday of both EVE Online and the BIG lottery, with CCP donating some awesome prizes. Last year's seventh anniversary lottery included billions of ISK in prizes, including a free year of game time, a battleship model from the EVE store, and more donated by CCP. This year's eighth anniversary lottery has a similarly massive prize fund, with official prizes of 25 billion ISK and 10 billion ISK for the first and second place winners respectively. The EVE Online Hold'em poker league has sponsored two additional prizes of 5 billion ISK and a full year of EVE game time. To top things off, CCP will be giving each of the four winners a $50 gift certificate to be used in the EVE store. Head over to the official forum thread or website for details on how to enter the contest. Tickets must be purchased before Sunday 15th May, and the drawing will occur on Monday the 16th at 2:00 p.m. EDT (18:00 EVE time) in the "BIG Games" in-game chat channel. Good luck to all those who enter!
MapleStory invites you to a Jubilation!
It's a stupendous month for MapleStory as the obscenely popular MMO not only dinged its sixth year in operation but also racked up over eight million accounts and 24 million characters created. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Nexon is throwing a joyful celebration for the game code-named Jubilation. As the name suggests, Jubilation is all about partying, and party the players shall. For starters, there's a dual-raid for two teams of three competing to down a balloon first. Those looking for more relaxing activities may want to help grow a small maple sapling into a mighty tree by collecting sunshine, assembling an anniversary jigsaw puzzle by collecting all the trees, or simply logging in every day to earn enough stamps for a loyalty medal with spiffy stats attached. MapleStory's sixth anniversary events are going on now through June 14th, so there's plenty of time to check it all out! You can read the full details of the game's Jubilation at the official site.
EVE Online giving players tasty beverages!
As we reported before, EVE Online is celebrating its 8th anniversary! As a great big thank-you to all of their loyal players, the fine folks at CCP are gifting everyone a six-pack of delicious Quafe Zero. What is Quafe Zero, you ask? According to the devblog, "Made from compounds found only in Sleeper vessels, each can of Quafe Zero promises to boost your Speed and Scan Resolution 5% for one hour, with zero booster side effects. Tastes great, won't fill you up, and makes you a better pilot." Can't wait to get your hands on this tasty beverage? Just log into EVE tomorrow and click the Redeem Items button in the lower right corner. Select the character to receive these refreshing libations and reap the revitalizing rewards. For full instructions and a small note of thanks from the EVE Online devs, click on through to the full article!
EVE Evolved: Eight years of EVE Online
In last week's EVE Evolved column, I celebrated the third anniversary of the column with a competition to win one of three prizes worth over 500 million ISK. Congratulations go to Uniqdragon, mdubs28 and Thorium88, who will be contacted via email to arrange receipt of their prizes. In a bizarre twist that I can't believe I haven't noticed for three years, it turns out that the anniversary of my column occurs just over a week before EVE Online's own birthday on May 6th. With that in mind, this week's column is dedicated to the game's anniversary and to looking back at another successful year. The past eight years have been a wild ride for EVE Online and its developer CCP Games. EVE has grown from a fledgling niche game with under 40,000 launch subscriptions to a global melting pot of over 360,000 actively subscribed accounts. The company itself has seem similar expansion, starting from humble beginnings as a small independent studio in Iceland and growing into a multinational monster with offices in China, Iceland, North America and the United Kingdom. In this huge two-page anniversary edition of EVE Evolved, I look at how EVE Online has kept up with the industry over the years and then go on to examine this past year in detail, from the highs and lows to all the scams and awesome events.
Celebrate six years of Guild Wars with prizes and an exclusive update interview
Let the celebration begin! Guild Wars is six years old, and as promised earlier this morning, ArenaNet has handed out the party hats and kicked off the festivities. Here at Massively we've got plenty of party treats for you! Not only do we have the full scoop on the anniversary update, but we chatted with Guild Wars Live Team members John Stumme and Matthew Moore about the creation of the event. Finally, we've got a special Livestream look at the new content along with a pile of prizes for Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 fans, so follow along after the jump for all the details!
