One of my favorite engineering magazines DE, Desktop Engineering did a fun thing in there December edition. Listing important Engineering events all the way from 1995 through the year 2010. I have to admit that I have not read all the articles in the December edition, but I have found myself picking the magazine up a couple of times to travel through memory lane and thought it could be a fun project to post pieces of the list and add a few comments and events of my own.
Since I am admitting to steal the idea from DE, and most of the content, I feel it will only be right to start with them. We will start with the year of 1995. Do you remember what you did that year?
DE Desktop Engineering
As I said, one of my favorite places to go finding what is new and moving in the engineering universe. 1995 was when the 1st issue of this magazine launched. Now these days they are not just a trade magazine that you should subscribe to recieve through the mail, but you should also keep a close eye on DE via cyberspace since they are very informative on what is going on in our field. Desktop Engineering
Windows 95
Oh yeah, that was a beautiful thing. Did you know that Win95 internal codename was “Chicago”? Making the fabulous step from 16 bit to 32 bit, kinda amazing that now 15 year later most people are still running 32 bit.
SolidWorks
Jon Hirschtick started this company in 1993, and 2 years later he launched the first version of what now have been 15 years of 3D awesomeness! Admittedly my favorite modeling software.
Solid Edge
Released by Intergraph. Intergraph was founded in 1969 as M&S Computing, Inc., by former IBM engineers who had been working with NASA and the U.S. Army in developing systems that would apply digital computing to real-time missile guidance. Solid Edge itself had a interesting journey ahead of it self, but we will get back to that.
FeatureCAM
British Delcam release there automated machining for parts on mills, lathes and wire EDM.
What else… We had about 16 million internet users. The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) was developed, holding almost seven times more than the CD. JavaScript was first introduced and deployed. Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.
That concludes the first of the series…We will take a 24 hour break before heading into 1996.