Open University

Its amazing the number of anniversaries are happening this year.  There must be something in the water every time we reach the end of a decade!  There are a number of obvious anniversaries that are happening and some not so obvious.  Below is my list of anniversaries that are happening this year:

Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger) – 10th

Would you believe it its been 10 years since the first MSN Messenger hit the scene back in 1999.  Since then its grown and grown and of course has now been rebranded into Windows Live Messenger like alot of other MS products.  There is now a website devoted to the 10 years anniversary with a timeline of all the releases

http://windowslive.com/Desktop/Messenger/Campaign/TenYear

Gameboy release – 20th

20 years ago the first good hand held gamer came onto the market, with its lovely black and green screen to sweeped the market and continued as a market leader for many many years.  I did not like the game boy when I got to the age of being able to buy one, I prefered the Sega Game Gear because it had a colour screen.  Sadly I think the Game Gear was to early into the market because battery life was not good enough.

Man on the Moon – 40th

The obvious one that you cannot miss at the moment is the first landing of man on the moon.

Open University – 40th

The Open university started in this year and is still going strong across the BBC and online.  Not plugging them but there are some good courses out there.

CICS – 40th

IBM released one of there first produces 40 years ago called CICS, which runs half the banks around the world!

The interesting question that I’m thinking about is what is the big thing from this year that we are going to see in 10, 20 maybe even 30 years time.  But I wonder with the way that technology moves on these days will there be many computer programs / services getting to be 30 years or older…..

Only time will tell.