A quote by Armstrong: “The Joseph Leslie problem with object-oriented Dec. 27th languages is they’ve got all this Armstrong implicit environment that they Born: Dec. 27, 1950; carry around with them. You Betty Bournemouth, UK wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the (née Jennings) Died: April 20, 2019 banana and the entire jungle.” Born: Dec. 27, 1924; Armstrong worked on fault- Gentry County, Missouri tolerant distributed systems, Died: March 23, 2011 and developed the Erlang language with Robert Virding Masayori “Masi” Bartik and and Mike Williams at Ericsson [March 7] were the co-lead (the Swedish telecoms Oka of the ENIAC [May company). 00], and their projectile Born: Dec. 27, 1974; trajectory calculation program Originally Erlang was aimed at Tokyo, Japan telephony applications, but it was the main demo when the Oka is an actor, probably best soon became apparent that it machine was publicly unveiled known for his roles as Hiro was well suited to writing more on [Feb 15]1946. Bartik later Nakamura on NBC’s “Heroes” general-purpose concurrent said, “The day ENIAC was and as Doctor Max Bergman in . introduced to the world was one CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0”. However, of the most exciting days of my his first job after graduating life. The demonstration was from Brown with a degree in fabulous. ENIAC calculated the and trajectory faster than it took the mathematics was at Industrial bullet to travel. We handed out Light & Magic (ILM [Sept12]), copies of the calculations as they developing CGI tools, and were run. ENIAC was 1,000 working on the “Star Wars” [May times faster than any machine 4] prequel trilogy. Fortunately, that existed prior to that time.” this didn't prevent him from In 1947, Bartik was asked to being named the “Coolest Geek” lead a group that converted the at the Spike TV Guys’ Choice ENIAC into a stored program Awards on June 13, 2007. machine, working closely with He was at one time a leader of [Dec 28], the "Dawn of Valor" raiding Dick Clippinger, and Adele guild in "World of Warcraft" Goldstine [Dec 21]. Joe Armstrong (2009). Photo by [Nov 23], renowned across the Later she joined the Eckert- Måns Sandström. CC BY 2.0. land for its druids and warlocks. Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), programmed the BINAC The initial version was [April 4], and helped with the influenced by the PLEX language Town on EBay design of the UNIVAC I [March used in Ericsson telephone 31], including its cathode-ray exchanges, and was Dec. 27, 2002 tube-based memory. implemented in Prolog [Jan 24]. The "Erlang" name was due to Bridgeville is an 83-acre town Bartik and Holberton's Bjarne Däcker, and refers to the 420 km north of San Francisco, SORT/MERGE routine from Danish mathematician and that was once a thriving 1952 for data stored on UNIVAC engineer Agner Krarup Erlang , networking hub for the local tape drives was called “the first as well as being an abbreviation stagecoach route and a stop on major ‘software’ routine ever of “Ericsson Language”. the Pony Express [April 3]. developed for automatic programming” by Armstrong originally trained as On this day, it became the first [Jan 10]. a physicist, but was lured away town to be sold on eBay. Its by AI and robotics, worked with owners, the Lapple family, Bartik was originally hired as a Donald Michie [Nov 11], and advertised it as “a private “computer” by the Army in 1945 became a founding member of retreat, basking in the glory of when it was still considered a the British Robotics Association. the redwoods” and as a possible job title. She started out by When the funding for AI dried “economic powerhouse with the calculating firing table up as a result of the Lighthill potential for generating a large trajectories using a mechanical Report [Aug 30], he returned to cash flow.” desktop calculator, but was later physics at the Swedish Space taught to program by Adele Unfortunately, a potential buyer Corporation, and eventually Goldstine at the Moore school backed out of the $1.77 million joined Ericsson. [July 8]. deal after discovering that the town had fallen into a sad state

1 of repair. Bruce Krall, an Orange County banker, stepped in and snapped it up for a mere $700,000. He planned to turn it into a mind-body health resort, but eventually relisted it on eBay in 2006. For more unusual eBay auctions, see [Sept 22].

2