Most of the world had been embroiled in various wars in the Middle East for what already felt like a decade, even though it had only been a year. John Kerry was gearing up to lose what should have been the easiest possible presidential campaign in history. Gasoline prices were getting out of hand for the first time. Myspace, a site now long-forgotten, had just started in August.
People were watching Stellvia (I don't know why), some other space one that I recall sort of liking, Last Exile, that .hack/sign thing, and I'm sure Cartoon Network had just finished re-airing Cowboy Bebop for the 39th time. I say people here, only if you count those that watch anime as people. Real people were probably watching culturally significant things or perhaps going outside…
An 8Lb/6kg laptop with a whopping 60GB hard drive cost over $2,000 (£1,600 or €8,500,000,000 if my memories of once-favorable exchange rates are correct).
Notable things happening concurrent to 1 October 2003 included the California recall election. This is important because there's a related picture.
(I'm working on it)