Remember the original IBM PC 5150? First introduced on August 12, 1981 it was a first computer for many. I remember purchasing mine in Sears for about $2,500 and being overjoyed that it had 5.25″ floppy diskette’s instead of the cassette tape storage that my school’s Tandy TRS-80 machines used. Loaded with between 16k and 256k (that’s K NOT G) of memory with a display that came in any color output so long as you enjoyed green. It would not be until March 1983 that internal hard drives started to become standard on the IBM. Lest we forget PC’s younger sibling IBM PCjr first announced in November 1983, shipped in March 1984 and deceased in mid-1985.

IBM PC

On July 10th, 1457 years ago, the Armenian calendar originated. 500 years ago today, John Calvin was born. 153 years ago today, Nikola Tesla was born. 147 years ago today, the U.S. began construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. 99 years ago today, the Chicago White Sox’s Comiskey Park opened, and the Browns beat the White Sox 2-0. 84 years years ago today, jury selection took place for the John T Scopes evolution trial. 83 years ago today, Fred Gwynne was borne. 76 years ago today, Eastchester Township, New York operated the first police radio system. 62 years ago today, Arlo Guthrie was born. 51 years ago today, the first of 625 parking meters were installed in England. 47 years ago today, Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested during a demonstration in Georgia.

And on July 10th, 45 years ago, Wayne Schulz made his entry into the world…and nothing has been the same, since!

Please join me in wishing Wayne a very happy birthday!

June 17th happens to be the same day that Venus Williams, Barry Manilow, Newt Gingrich, and Joe Piscopo add another candle to their layer cake; if he were still alive, M.C. Escher would as well. It also happens to be the day that our own Doug Goldring entered this world. I can think of a lot of people who are glad for that.

Please join me in wishing Doug a very Happy Birthday!

Once again Gear Diary gets to celebrate two team member’s virtual birthday parties in a row; for you see today is not only the day that Russell Brand, Freddy Fender, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Angelina Jolie, and Julie Strietelmeier were born, it is also  Christopher Gavula’s special day!

Please join me in wishing Christopher a very Happy Birthday!

Please join me in sending Happy Birthday wishes to Clinton Fitch, Gear Diary team member and owner / operator of Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! Clinton is our resident F1 junkie, and I am sure that in the back of his mind he has visions of the Turkish Grand Prix which starts in just a few days…Go Kimi!

And no, I have no idea what that means exactly – but I see it on so many of his Facebook and Twitter posts that it just comes naturally.

Please join me in wishing Clinton a very Happy Birthday!

May 8th is “Wear No Socks Day” in the US, and it also happens to be the day that we celebrate our own WonderDawg, Kerry Woo’s birthday!

Please join me in wishing Kerry a very Happy Birthday!

Each birthday is a new beginning, full of promise and opportunity and the chance to make dreams come true.

Most of us enjoy birthdays over New Year’s Day because it serves as a unique marker in time that we all own to recall the “best of times and worse of times” we experience from year to year.

Today April 17^th marks a special day for all of us at GearDiary to celebrate a special occasion; and no, we’re not talking about the debut of Daffy Duck in 1937, but rather Judie’s birthday!

While our geek oriented life can throw us challenges that try men’s souls: Mac or PC?, surf or turf, packing and moving, deadlines, dents in our cars, dropped calls, 2 year contracts, no internet… one thing we can say about Judie when facing challenges – she’s consistent.

All of us on the writing team have come to witness the consistency of cheerfulness, humor and generous spirit that Judie exudes in her text messages, phone calls, and the mountain of emails from dawn to dusk. Quick to encourage, constantly multitasking, always asking great questions, but most endearing to those who know Judie, it’s her genuine love of people and humbleness – just try to pay her a compliment – “pfft!” – and she’ll deflect it back on you. It’s no wonder that we are blessed to call Judie Lipsett “friend”.

On this special day, we extend a big-time clap*clap*clap to Judie Lipsett and why not? You R.O.C.K.! Happy Birthday!

P.S. By the way, a cake is on its way to you now… question is, will it ship?

UPDATE – It looks like the cake not only shipped but arrived intact – Kudos to Jennifer who made the cake (from scratch too!)..

Today is International Pillow Fight Day, and it is also the day that our own Linux geek gorkon, Joel McLaughlin, celebrates his birthday!

No sacking him with a pillow, okay?!

Please join me in wishing Joel a very Happy Birthday!

I have to agree with a comment Rocco Augusto made on Facebook the other day – March is definitely the coolest month ever – and we are only a little bit past halfway through it!

Not only does March give us Poundcake Day on the 4th, Daylight Savings Time kicks in again (this year on the 8th), we get Pi day on the 14th, we can celebrate the discovery of Uranus on the 13th, beware the Ides of March on the 15th, drink green beer on St. Patrick’s Day (17th), and celebrate the first walk in space on the 18th,

We’ve also watched some some famous birthdays of note pass by this month: Dr Seuss’ on the 2nd, Michelangelo’s on the 6th, Barbie’s on the 9th, Albert Einstein’s on the 14th…and Dan Cohen’s is today!

Please join me in wishing Dan a very Happy Birthday!

It can’t be easy having a birthday two days before Christmas, and I am sure that Chris is used to people trying to combine the two…but we aren’t going to let that happen!

Please join me in wishing Christopher Spera a very Happy Birthday!

Please join me in wishing our Grinding Gears Editor, David Goodspeed, a very Happy Birthday!

Ever since David joined the Gear Diary Team, our readers have been privy to some of the best auto journalism anywhere. With his Wednesday Walkarounds (like this one of the Dodge Challenger) and his unique takes on some of the most fascinating (and pricey!) currently available cars and trucks, David has opened many of our eyes to vehicles we might not have otherwise considered.

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Please join me in wishing good friend and team member Mitchell Oke a very happy and special 19th birthday!

So many things have happened since last year: Mitchell is now a published (and paid!) author, he is a second year university student, he has purchased yet another car, he’s been traveling a lot, and he has only continued to live up to the high expectations I’ve always had for him.

I just re-read what I wrote for his birthday last year, and you know what? It all still applies, and even more so now than when it was first written…

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Please join me in wishing Wayne Schulz, a very Happy Birthday!

As you may have noticed, Wayne is our resident newshound; he has an uncanny knack at sniffing out the craziest, most off-the-wall, most interesting items…in addition to finding scoops on some of the coolest tech gadgets. It’s to the point where Clinton and I have joked that we can’t wait to hit Gear Diary first thing each morning (we are in Central Standard Time) to see what Wayne’s posted…usually written at some ungodly early morning hour (he is Eastern Standard Time).

Wayne is a madman, easily one of the most prolific news posters I have ever seen, and his items are always interesting and quite often sharply funny. His emails help make behind-the-scenes team emails some of the funniest reading ever, although many are not suitable for public consumption.

Let me tell you a little bit about my friend Wayne…

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Please join me in wishing Doug Goldring a very Happy Birthday! Doug is not only a valuable Gear Diary Team Member, he is also the new owner of  JAMM and co-owner of My Today Screen. In his copious free time (heh!) he is also an attorney with the Department of Justice (Federal Bureau of Prisons), father of three little ones, fabulous husband to the lovely Sarah, and my “late night while we are both catching up on our writing” IM buddy.

Let’s just say that Doug has a lot on his plate.

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No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you; Gear Diary is fortunate, because we get to have two team member’s virtual birthday parties in a row.

Please join me in wishing a very Happy Birthday to Christopher Gavula!

From the very beginning, Chris entered our site with a BANG. His first post was about technology busting the Detroit mayor, and he hasn’t stopped sharing his wicked laser sharp insights since…

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