The Green Dec. 24th Machine Dec. 24, 1964 Andrew Chi-Chih In 1962, while still a student at Yao Berkeley, Thomas E. Osborne began building an electronic Born: Dec. 24, 1946; calculator that he nicknamed the Shanghai, China “Green Machine” (it resided inside a balsa wood box painted Yao's research areas include Cadillac metallic green). After pseudo-random number extending the design several generation, cryptography, and times, the device became communication complexity. operational on this day. It used Yao’s Principle (1977) is a 2264 diodes, 208 transistors, technique for reasoning about and could multiply more rapidly, randomized algorithms. It uses over a larger range of numbers, von Neumann’s [Dec 28] The 1955 Sears and Roebuck ad. than any desktop calculator then minimax theorem to relate the available. Colonel Harry Shoup answered average-case complexity of Osborne later joined Hewlett- the first call from a little girl deterministic algorithms to the Packard [May 17] as a wishing to speak to Santa. Shoup worst-case complexity of consultant, and his "Green decided to play along saying he randomized versions. Machine" was refined to become was one of Santa’s elves (or the HP9100A desktop calculator, The Dolev-Yao model (1981) is perhaps Santa himself according released on [Oct 4] 1968. the starting point for most to some versions of the story). current work on computer When the calls kept coming, security because it can be used Shoup recruited other CONAD to prove properties about staff to man the phones. interactive cryptographic GIF Licensing protocols. The first press release about the Dec. 24, 1994 new service stated: “CONAD, Yao’s Millionaires’ problem Army, Navy and Marine Air CompuServe [Sept 24] (1982) turns the famous Forces will continue to track and introduced the Graphics cryptographic couple, Alice and guard Santa and his sleigh on his Interchange Format (GIF) on Bob [Feb 00], into millionaires. trip to and from the U.S. against [June 15] 1987, and it quickly The problem posits that they're possible attack from those who became a de facto image interested in knowing which of do not believe in Christmas.” standard. However, GIFs were them is richer but want to find compressed using the patented Sadly, there's some debate over out without revealing their Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW [Feb the accuracy of the story. For actual wealth. 10; Nov 27]) technique, which example, the actual CONAD sparked controversy on this day Yao's wife, Frances, is a leading hotline employed a dedicated when Unisys (the patent holder) researcher in computational phone system that no one could and CompuServe announced geometry. She suggested that he dial into from outside. should switch from physics to that they were going to start computer science in the 1970's. In any case, NORAD staff and charging licensing fees for using GIF compression. volunteers currently answer more than 12,000 emails and The "League for Programming 100,000 calls from 200 Freedom" was formed to protest NORAD Santa countries. Nowadays, Santa can the change, and soon became also be tracked on the "NORAD known for its “Burn All GIFs” Dec. 24, 1955 Tracks Santa" website, and campaign. Another outcome was through Twitter (@NoradSanta) The Sears department store the development of an [March 21]. The toll-free hotline chain ran an advertizing alternative, patent-free, image is 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446- campaign in local newspapers in format – Portable Network 6723) which goes live at 6am ET Colorado Springs that Graphics (PNG), which debuted on Dec. 24. encouraged children to phone on [Oct 1], 1996. Santa. The given number, ME 2- In 2007 Google joined the The LZW patent expired on 6681, contained a typo that project, plotting Santa's [June 20] 2003, so GIF is once turned it into the number for the progress on Google Maps and again free. operations hotline at the Google Earth based on top- Continental Air Defense secret NORAD telemetry data. Command (CONAD, NORAD’s [Aug 1] predecessor).

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The Xenu CoffeeScript Revelation Released Dec. 24, 1994 Dec. 24, 2009 The first of many Although CoffeeScript eventually messages was posted to the compiles into JavaScript [July 4], newsgroup it hides this disreputable alt.religion., outcome by employing copious containing the “secret” writings syntactic sugar inspired by of Scientology, including L. Ron features in Ruby [Feb 24], Hubbard’s “Xenu story”. Python [Jan 31], and Haskell [April 8]. Useful new features On Jan. 11, 1995, Scientology include list comprehensions and lawyers attempted to shut the pattern matching. newsgroup down by sending a request to USENET servers On Dec. 13, 2009, Jeremy instructed them to delete the Ashkenas uploaded CoffeeScript group. Its main effect was to to GitHub [Feb 8] with the increase the public criticism of comment: “initial commit of the Scientology. mystery language.” On this day, the first documented release, version 0.1.0, was announced. Two other languages that give JavaScript a facelift are Google’s Dart [Oct 10] and Microsoft’s TypeScript [Dec 2].

L. Ron Hubbard (1950). Photo by Los Angeles Daily News.

Shortly afterwards a series of lawsuits were unleashed against various participants on the newsgroup, which turned out to be a more effective strategy. For example, the popular anonymous remailer, anon.penet.fi, closed down. Johan Helsingius, its operator, explained that the legal protections afforded him in his home country () were too weak to protect the anonymity of his users. For more Scientology, see [Jan 21].

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