almost seventy years: in 1937 Georgi Lopato [Aug 23], and Claude Shannon [April 30] Boris Babayan [Dec 20]. Nov. 2nd realized that Boolean algebra could be employed to optimize the design of electromechanical George Boole relay systems. He also showed Adriaan “Aad” van how relay circuits could solve Born: Nov. 2, 1815; Boolean algebra problems [Aug Wijngaarden Lincoln, UK 10]. Born: Nov. 2, 1916; Died: Dec. 8, 1864 Rotterdam, the Netherlands Boolean algebra was introduced Died: Feb. 7, 1987 by Boole in his 1847 pamphlet, Sergey Wijngaarden was one of the “The Mathematical Analysis of founding fathers of computer Logic,” and considerably Alexeyevich science in the Netherlands, expanded in 1854 when he especially in the areas of published “An Investigation of Lebedev numerical analysis and the Laws of Thought, on Which programming languages. are Founded the Mathematical Born: Nov. 2, 1902; Theories of Logic and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia On Jan. 1, 1947 he became the Probabilities.” Died: July 3, 1974 head of the computing In 1947, Lebedev designed the department at the new MESM [Nov 6], the earliest, fully Mathematisch Centrum in operational electronic computer Amsterdam, and led the in the Soviet Union, and in construction of the first Dutch continental Europe. As such, he's computer, the ARRA, in 1952. considered the founder of the The engineering group formed Soviet computer industry. by van Wijngaarden included several other Dutch pioneers, Next was the BESM-1 (“Bolshaya such as G.A. Blaauw [July 17], Elektronno-Schetnaya and Edsger W. Dijkstra [May 11]. Mashina”), aka the “High-speed Electronic Calculating Machine.” Wijngaarden developed W- It was completed in 1952, and grammar (also called the Van while the MESM jogged along at Wijngaarden grammar or vW- 50 ops/sec, BESM-l sprinted at grammar) first used for the 1000 ops/sec in its first form, definition of ALGOL 68 [Dec 20]. and increased in speed in later A W-grammar consists of a set of George Boole. Unknown artist. versions to reach 8000. Further meta-rules, which are used to machines appeared during the derive (possibly infinitely many) 1960's, with the BESM-6 Incredibly, Boole’s ideas were context-free grammar rules for a achieving 1 million ops/sec in largely ignored at the time, until language. This allows syntactical 1967. That computer stayed in the American logician Charles constraints to be defined which production for 17 years, with Sanders Peirce (and others) had to be previously written in over 350 being built. explained and elaborated on natural language, such as the them in the 1870's after Boole’s The BESM series were rule that the type of a variable death. Perhaps it helped that developed at the Institute of and its assigned value match Pierce coined the eponymous Precision Mechanics and each other. phrase in the chapter title, "A Computer Engineering (IPMCE), Boolean Algebra with One which was later home to the Constant "in his paper "The Elbrus supercomputer series Simplest Mathematics". [Dec 20]. By then the institute BBC TV However, the paper wasn't had been renamed in Lebedev's Nov. 2, 1936 published until much later, and honor. many historians prefer to credit The BBC TV Service was the catchy name to Henry M. In his spare time Lebedev was a launched at Alexandra Palace in Sheffer in 1913. keen mountaineer. Colleague London, becoming the world’s D.V. Svecharnik recalled their first to produce regular Boole's work caught the interest climb of Elbrus – Europe ’s programming, albeit just two of several creators of mechanical highest summit (5.6 km): “the hours per day (excepting Sunday logic machines. For example, last 50 meters I was literally when man rests). However, the William Jevons’ Logical Piano of creeping on my knees and world’s oldest TV station, 1869 (see [Sept 1]) was elbows but Lebedev was boldly although purely an experimental informed by his reading of skipping over rocks”. venture, went live in the US on Boole's 1854 paper. However, [Jan 13] 1928. the most decisive step took Other soviet computing pioneers include Bashir Rameyev [May 1], 1 The BBC edged its bets by installing and testing two Personal The Morris Worm competing technologies: Nov. 2, 1988 Marconi-EMI’s 405-line system Computer and John Logie Baird’s [Aug 13] Nov. 2, 1962 Robert Tappan Morris, Jr., a 240-line intermediate film graduate student at Cornell, system [Oct 2]. They transmitted At a meeting of the American released a self-replicating shell on alternate weeks until the Institute of Industrial Engineers process upon the ARPANET as Marconi system was chosen as in Washington DC, John W. part of a research project to the winner early in 1937. Mauchly [Aug 30] spoke of his determine the network's size. vision for the future of Baird’s system was arguably computing: “There is no reason The 'worm' exploited two technically inferior, but he also to suppose the average boy or mechanisms to 'infect' systems: had some amazingly bad luck. girl cannot be master of a coding weaknesses in the UNIX On Nov. 30, 1936, the Crystal personal computer.” Thus was sendmail, finger, and rsh/rexec Palace, which housed all of the phrase “personal computer” utilities, and rudimentary Baird’s TV equipment, burned to coined. password guessing, using a the ground. The Marconi system dictionary of just 432 words. was adopted three months later. Mauchly also showed off a Lest we scoff, that dictionary "portable" 50-pound, suitcase- included the second most The viewership of the BBC's sized computer, and accurately common password as of 2020 service gradually increased from predicted that “the present (“password”), but missed a trick 100 or so homes, to an emphasis on miniaturizing by not testing for the all-time estimated 25,000 to 40,000 components of missile and most popular, “123456”. before the outbreak of WWII. It spacecraft will inevitably result was suspended on Sept. 1, 1939, in developing small, inexpensive Unfortunately, Morris' code but resumed, post-war, at 3pm computers within the financial included the ability for the on June 7, 1946. The popular reach of almost everyone.” worm to occasionally duplicate story goes that the service Unfortunately, the well-known itself even when another worm closed down in the middle of the photograph of Mauchley holding was detected on the system. This broadcast of the Mickey Mouse this ‘computer’ reveals, on closer proved to be a major design flaw cartoon "Touchdown Mickey" scrutiny, that it’s actually a as the growing number of (1933), and that it resumed demo box for his Critical Path worms slowed systems down to seven years later with the BBC Method (CPM) for scheduling a crawl. presenter Jasmine Bligh problems. explaining, “As I was saying when we were so rudely The term “personal computer” interrupted…”. Then the cartoon only started becoming popular was re-broadcast. six years later (1968) when Hewlett Packard began referring to its 9100A calculator [Oct 4] as a 'personal computer' in its Leonid advertising. They also called it a Anatolievich Levin “Powerful Computing Genie”. IBM was perhaps the first Born: Nov. 2, 1948; manufacturer to use “personal” Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine in a product name, with its IBM 610 Auto-Point Computer, Levin works in the areas of released on [Sept 3] 1957, which randomness, algorithmic Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. was also known as the PAC complexity, and intractability. (2008). Photo by Trevor (Personal Automatic Computer), Blackwell. CC BY-SA 3.0. Levin and Stephen Cook [Dec A well-known 'first' use of the 14] independently discovered phrase is ascribed to Alan Kay the existence of NP-complete The next day, Nov. 3, was later [May 17] when he described his problems. While Cook dubbed “Black Thursday” as Dynabook concept in a paper considered a problem involving sysadmins around the US called “A personal computer for Boolean formula, Levin looked at discovered hundreds or children of all ages” presented at search problems. thousands of worms on their ACM ’72 in Boston. machines, that reproduced faster than they could be killed. Or you might prefer when the Eventually the worm spread to magazine "Radio-Electronics" an estimated 6,000 machines, featured a real-life device, the roughly 10% of the ARPANET, Mark-8, dubbed the “personal and caused significant minicomputer,” on its front page disruption for two days. in [July 00] 1974. 2 Morris Jr. was dismissed from General Electric), and pages represent the statistical rarity of Cornell, and on July 26, 1989 from the user manual. such ventures,, although it soon became the first person became apparent that such Titor also made numerous convicted under the "Computer businesses weren't that predictions regarding Fraud and Abuse Act". However, uncommon. As of Oct. 2020, calamitous events that would he didn’t go to jail since the there were 450. occur in 2004 and beyond, none judge felt that “the characteristics of this case were of which have taken place. Maybe he inadvertently altered not fraud and deceit.” Instead, he the time-stream by revealing was sentenced to three years' them? probation, 400 hours of community service, and fined A 2009 investigation concluded $10,000. that Titor was likely the creation of Larry Haber, a Florida Morris, Jr. is the son of Robert entertainment lawyer, along Morris, Sr. a respected with his brother John, a cryptographer and computer computer scientist. professional who in the 1970's made significant contributions For more time travelling, see to UNIX, including the bc 'math' [May 7] and [Nov 26]. language, crypt, and (ironically) A unicorn on the City Hall, its password encryption scheme. Bristol. Photo by Angel the By the mid 1980’s Morris, Sr.