The Altair 8800 is released and the Maldal. D worm spreads. All on today’s On This Day from TEST Huddle.
1974 – Altair 8800 is released
On This day.. in 1974, the Altair 8800 microcomputer kit goes on sale in the U.S. The computer is released as a do-it-yourself computer kit. and sold by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) for $397. The Altair uses switches for input and indicator lights as a display. The computer is powered by a 2MHzIntel 8080A microprocessor. The computer is first sold through Popular Electronics magazine. However the company underestimated the popularity of the kit. Initial plans to sell a few hundred to hobbyists were exceeded by the demand for the product. Many commentators acknowledge the Altair kit as the birth of the personal computer revolution. The Altair will also feature Microsoft’s first product, the Altair BASIC language.
2001 – Maldal. D Worm
On this day in 2001 the Maldal.D worm, otherwise known as ZaCker (for its subject line), is first discovered. The worm spreads quickly as it disguised as a attachment named Chritmas.exe which many internet users open. The worm deletes data from Windows computers, including files integral to antivirus software.
Images: Wikipedia/f-secure
