Lake and Benjamin M. Durfee, shalt not covet thy Neighbor’s who had previously worked on System,” which he claimed to December the Harvard Mark 1 [Aug 7] with have “translated from the Old Don Piatt. Durfee and Piatt Geek.” He also revealed that the would later be assigned to the Mexican version of MS-DOS is Dickens and SSEC [Jan 27]. “DOS Equis” and the Swedish is “Häagen-DOS.” Babbage At the height of his renown, Dec. 1855 Armstrong donned vestments, glued a microchip to his Charles Dickens attended forehead (" the third I/O”) and Charles Babbage's [Dec 26] presented pun-filled “DOSpels” Saturday famous soirees at least to thousands at COMDEX [Dec once [March 00], where he may 3]. have seen a demonstration of the first Difference Engine [June A typical sermon began: 14] and listened to chitchat “Dearly C-loved, we are about the Analytical Engine [Dec assembled here together 23]. because PCing is believing. We’re here to console you; ASCII Dickens probably based the One of the Aberdeen PSRCs. character of the struggling and ye shall receive. We say Photo by Eric Hankam. (c) IBM there is a life worth debugging. inventor Daniel Doyce in “Little Archive. Dorrit” partly on Babbage and Data, data, everywhere, but not a on his engineer, Joseph Clement. thought to think, that’s the The first two PSRCs were The book’s fictional problem…. Friends, perhaps you delivered to the Ballistics Circumlocution Office satirizes know someone out there with a Research Lab (BRL) at the the British Treasury and its terminal illness…” Aberdeen Proving Ground in dealings with Babbage over Dec. 1944, where they were Armstrong also founded the funding for his engines. Doyce is known as the Aberdeen Relay world’s first tech religion, The described like so: Calculators. Church of Heuristic Information "He was not much to look at, Processing (C.H.I.P), and became The Aberdeens were America’s either in point of size or in point its sole prophet and apostle fastest digital calculators at the of dress; being merely a short, [April 4]. Then he gave it all up: time, capable of 24,000 six-digit square, practical looking man, “I lost interest and everyone was multiplications per hour, twenty whose hair had turned grey, and self-interested.” times faster than the Mark I. in whose face and forehead They were still being used in Armstrong is now a spiritual there were deep lines of 1952, by which time the BRL teacher and astrologer living in cogitation, which looked as also had the ENIAC [Feb 15], the Vancouver, where he founded though they were carved in hard EDVAC [April 12] and ORDVAC. the Vedic Academy of Sciences wood." and Arts, and is the author of The IBM 604, an electronic The novel first appeared in numerous books including: (vacuum-tube) version of the serial form, in 19 monthly “Spiritual Teachings of the PSRC was released in [June 00] instalments published between Avatar, Ancient Wisdom for a 1948. The 604 was the main Dec. 1855 and June 1857. New World.” computing element in IBM's Card-Programmed electronic Calculator (CPC), which sold The PSRC very well until moderately FORTRAN Begins priced, stored-program Dec. 1944 computers became available in Dec. 1953 the mid-1950's. The IBM Pluggable Sequence John Backus [Dec 3] submitted a Relay Calculator (PSRC) was a proposal to IBM to develop a special purpose punched card practical alternative to assembly machine for determining Jeffrey Armstrong language for programming the artillery firing trajectories for IBM 704 [May 7]. FORTRAN (aka Saint $ilicon) the Army. It's sometimes called (“FORmula TRANslator”) would the missing link between Born: Dec. 1947; simplify the programming punched card equipment and Detroit, Michigan process by allowing the use of the stored-program computer. algebra-like expressions when In 1987, Armstrong published writing software. Its specification was due to “The Binary Bible of Saint Wallace Eckert [June 19] but the $ilicon”, an omnibus of prayers, Backus’ boss, Cuthbert Hurd machine was designed and built nursery rhymes, and [April 5], gave him the go-ahead, by an IBM team led by Clair D. commandments, such as “Thou and work began in early 1954. 1 Backus sought out a correct switches on the console unwelcome, but the individual development team with would cause the girl’s hips to only replied, “but this is "creativity, a lot of smarts and sway, synchronized to music important!” In other words, this experience. We had a great played on the console’s buzzer. may have been the first spam variety of people: a physicist, a If the operator pointed the message, although Gary Thuerk crystallographer, an English console’s light gun (another is usually granted the award for major.” handy part of SAGE’s design) at that innovation [May 3]. the dancer's navel and pulled For example, Sheldon Best, on Another contender for first the trigger, her skirt would drop loan from MIT, wrote the part of email (on a time-sharing off and the screen go blank. the compiler that decided how machine) are the DIAL, LINK and Sadly, there's no pictorial record to use the 704’s index registers JOIN commands on the SDC [Oct of that program in action. efficiently. Roy Nutt, formerly 00] AN/FSQ-32 (aka Q32) at head of the data center at United DARPA. They were developed by Aircraft, was responsible for the Larry Roberts [Dec 21] and FORMAT I/O, and Harlan CTSS MAIL Thomas Marill in the early Herrick decided to call the 1960's. language's unconditional jump a Dec. 1964 For an alternative view on the GOTO [May 11]. Tom Van Vleck and Noel Morris origins of EMAIL, see [Aug 30]. For relaxation, the team held implemented the first e-mail lunch-time “blind chess” program for MIT’s Compatible matches and, in the winter, Time-Sharing System (CTSS impromptu snowball fights. [May 3]) in the summer of 1965. PDP-7 (and UNIX) However, the original idea of Dec. 1965 The first FORTRAN program was having a CTSS MAIL command successfully run by Herrick on had been proposed in The PDP-7 was DEC’s third 18- Sept. 20, 1954. A preliminary "Programming Staff Note" (PSN) bit machine, and quite similar to report on the language was 39 by Louis Pouzin, Glenda the PDP-4 but less expensive, released on [Nov 10] 1954. The Schroeder, and Pat Crisman in retailing at a very reasonable first FORTRAN manual appeared Dec. 1964. The full story was $72,000. It was the first machine two years later on [Oct 15] 1956, explained in a series of to use DEC’s “flip-chips”, 3 by 5 followed by the first compiler in fascinating articles that inch boards holding multiple 1957 [Feb 26; April 19]. appeared in The New York Times discrete components. Also, the in June 2011, written by the standard core memory capacity noted filmmaker Errol Morris was set at 4K words, expandable Computer Art (and brother of Noel). up to an impressive 64K words (equivalent to 144 KB). Dec. 1956 In the mid-1960's, Van Vleck wrote another “mail” command, The PDP-7 is probably best The earliest known computer- this time for Multics [Nov 30] remembered as the computer generated art work was a that he modeled on CTSS MAIL, where Ken Thompson [Feb 4] glamor girl image, probably and Bob Frankston [June 14] began developing UNIX. He was copied from the December 1956 (then an undergraduate) looking for a machine suitable as pinup drawn by George Petty for contributed a Multics version of a home for his “Space Travel” that year's Esquire calendar. text messaging. game, which he had nurtured on To be clear, these tools only Multics [Nov 30] until Bell The image was displayed during pulled out of the project in April the execution of a diagnostics allowed users to communicate 1969. He had first tried porting program used when data was on a single time-sharing the game over to a GE 635 transferred between two SAGE computer. The first program for running GECOS, but the OS [June 26] computers. The sending e-mail over the processed jobs in batch mode rendering was made possible ARPANET [Oct 29] was probably which was poorly suited to because each console included a Ray Tomlinson’s [April 23] playing games. Thompson then 19-inch circular cathode ray extension to SNDMSG in 1971. found an unused PDP-7, which tube (CRT) that could draw By the 1970's, there were over a sported an excellent Graphics II vector lines. We know all this thousand CTSS users. Van Vleck terminal (offering a resolution of because budding historian was mightily displeased one day 1024 x 1024 pixels). Also, the Lawrence Tipton snapped the in 1971 to discover that a machine's OS, DECsys, provided only known photo of the pinup sysadmin had sent a long anti- an interactive, single user, during his time at Fort Lee in war message to every user. It program development Virginia in early 1959. began: environment for Fortran and assembly language. However, SAGE veterans also remember THERE IS NO WAY TO PEACE. another risqué diagnostics PEACE IS THE WAY. the OS worked best on a PDP-7 program that debuted around with 8K words of memory and 1960. It featured the outline of a Van Vleck pointed out that this two DECtape mass storage topless hula dancer. Flipping the was inappropriate and possibly drives, while the machine 2 commandeered by Thompson microprocessor-based computer group of machines that were only had paper tape storage.