Deep Thought’s first year has been a wild ride, in which we’ve encountered lost databases, crashing servers (two in one day!), three redesigns, and a little controversey along the way. It’s been a year where we have felt our way through running a tech news site, something none of us had any experience in before. It’s been a year in which we’ve seen a number of changes to our staff; old friends leaving and new ones coming in. It’s been quite a year indeed.

13 November 2004: Deep Thought is concieved. Below are the words that started it all, in an iChat between Pilky and myself:

pilky: hmm, I wonder
how would you like to start a blog with me, analysing tech news?

13 November-2004 November 2004: The formative days. During this time, the original staff--all members of the XvsXP.com forum at the time--was assembled and the site was built.

23 November 2004: Deep Thought Officially opens to hordes of cheering geeks (well, five geeks anyway--the staff).

24 November 2004: My iBook dies one day after DT is launched. Coincidence or bad omen?

7 December 2004: I get an Apple-issued replacement iBook.

10 December 2004: Deep Thought Forum opens.

13 December 2004: Deep Thought gets MacSlashed.

14 December 2004: The blog database is lost while building the PC site; all news articles and blog entries are lost (though some have been resurrected thanks to the magic of archive.org).

28 Decmeber 2004: Deep Thought PC launched.

11 January 2005: Deep Thought covers MWSF, my iBook dies and takes a trip to Apple’s repair center. Bad omen.

12 February 2005: Deep Thought buys dtgeeks.com domain, work on DT site version 2.0 begins.

28 February 2005: Deep Thought officially moves to dtgeeks.com domain. Please update your bookmarks accordingly.

1 April 2005: DT “breaks” the news that Apple is abandoning OS X and going into the Windows PC business (Aprils fools!).

22 April 2005: To celebrate Tiger’s launch, the DT Mac site switches to a Tiger-inspired black and orange look (the site would maintain that look until July); Pilky decides it’s time to redesign DT again.

24 April: DT is featured on MacBytes, DT sees its highest-ever traffic volume at the time.

26 April: Paul Thurrott claims Apple will announce an Intel Switch sometime in 2005. We all laugh at his stupidity. Deep Thought is the first Mac site as far as we could tell to report Thurrott’s claim.

29 April 2005: Tiger ships, DT posts Tiger review.

3 June 2005: Word breaks that Apple will announce a switch to Intel chips. Unrelatedly, the DT server goes down (DT gets back up that evening).

6 June 2005: WWDC, Apple announces Intel Switch. Deep Thought’s fragile server goes down in a blaze of glory as Mac users flock to WWDC coverage. We would crash another server and see over 2700 visits before the keynote even ends!

7 June: Our web host puts DT on a newer, faster server; yay! Site remains partially down.

8 June: DT back up and running.

16 June: DT gets pwned? Our server gets hacked and the site defaced (June was not kind to us!). Our web host is at the server farm when a magnitude 5.3 earthquake strikes the Los Angeles area.

17 June: Server is restored, DT not functioning properly. A week’s worth of forum posts are lost somehow. Crap.

19 June: Temporary DT site up, new site construction kicks into high gear.

14 July: DT sees a site record 5959 visits in a single day.

22 July: New Deep Thought site opens at 12 PM GMT -0(4 AM PDT -8); the Mac and PC sites are merged into one.

15 September: Apple discontinues the one-buttton mouse. Deep Thought breaks the story first.

30 Sept: The month of September ends up a record one for Deep Thought, with over 40,000 visits and 228,000 pages viewed.

23 November: Deep Thought celebrates one year since the site’s launch.

We’d like to thank all of our loyal readers for making our first year as strong and as fun as it was. Without you, there is no Deep Thought. What will the next year bring? You’ll just have to wait and see.