and a curve plotter, and also be While no one could ever recall able to punch numbers onto seeing Curtiss sat at a computer Dec. 23rd cards for later use. The machine console, he always argued that, would be powered by steam. “I was involved in the salt mines of computing.” Sadly, the engine was never Analytical Engine constructed during Babbage’s Dec. 23, 1834 lifetime, but Babbage's son, Henry, did build the mill portion Robert Elliot Kahn Charles Babbage [Dec 26] (what we would call the ALU) announced a new machine with working from his father’s Born: Dec. 23, 1938; far greater capabilities than the drawings [Jan 21]. Brooklyn, New York Difference Engine [June 14] in a Perhaps more importantly for Kahn is one of the “fathers of the letter to the Duke of Wellington future inventors, Henry also Internet”; other parents include (which was mainly about the published his father’s plans and [June 23]. Jon Postel government's bedeviling lack of notebooks, along with Ada [Aug 6] and Larry Roberts [Dec funding for the Difference Lovelace’s [Dec 10] “Sketch of 21]. Engine). the Analytical Engine Invented In early 1969, Kahn helped build by Charles Babbage . . . with the Interface Message Notes by the Translator” [July Processors (IMPs [Aug 30]) at 10]. BBN [Oct 15] which acted as the In 1878 (after Babbage’s death), system independent interfaces the British Association for the between host computers and the Advancement of Science ARPANET [July 29]. He also gave described the engine as “a the first public demo of the marvel of mechanical ingenuity”, network at a conference in Oct. but decided against making one. 1972 by connecting twenty computers together (some reports say 40). He remarked later that this was “the John Hamilton watershed event that made people suddenly realize that Curtiss packet switching was a real Born: Dec. 23, 1909; technology.” Henry Babbage's Analytical USA In 1973-74, Cerf and Kahn co- Engine Mill (1910). Photo by Died: Aug. 13, 1977 invented the Transmission Marcin Wichary. CC BY 2.0. Curtiss played a key role in Control Protocol (TCP) by persuading US government to doodling on napkins [Sept 9], The first notes on the machine utilize computers more widely although they later published a appeared in mid-1834, the first after WWII. This began after learned paper about it [May 5]. design drawing is dated Sept. Edward U. Condon, the director Subsequently the protocol was 1834, and a workable design had of the National Bureau of split into more modular pieces, evolved by mid-1836, but Standards (NBS), assigned Curtis consisting of TCP and the User underwent a major revision in to survey the federal needs for Datagram Protocol (UDP) at the late 1837. For the next decade, computers and for a national transport layer [Jan 31], and the work on the Analytical Engine computing center. Internet Protocol (IP [Sept 1]) at consisted largely of refining that the network layer; this became basic design, with no attempt Curtiss had the opportunity to known as TCP/IP [Sept 9]. made to construct it. Over two put his ideas into practice after On [Jan 1] 1983, TCP/IP was hundred detailed engineering becoming the head of the adapted as the communication drawings were created. National Applied Mathematics Labs in 1947. He undertook a protocol at the heart of the The Analytical Engine would be massive recruitment program, "Internet", a term Cerf and Kahn able to store a 1,000 fifty-digit with the aim of accelerating the had invented in 1973 as an numbers, and calculate using construction of computers and abbreviation for “inter- base-10 fixed-point arithmetic. their use for scientific networking of networks.” Programs and data were to be computations. provided on punched cards, a method inspired by its He was also involved in the successful use in Jacquard looms organization of the Eastern [July 7]. When the machine Association of Computing needed any additional input, it Machinery (ACM), which would alert its operator by dropped the “Eastern” adjective ringing a bell. For output, the in 1948; he was its first engine would include a printer president in 1947.

1

[May 22]; and several languages other devices, such as varistor Butler W. such as Euclid (the first one and thermistor. And. . . I Lampson specifically designed to support suggested the name ‘transistor.’” program verification). Born: Dec. 23, 1943; In the Jargon File [Oct 2], his Washington, DC name is associated with the The MH-1 Lampson was part of Project milliLampson, a unit of talking GENIE [Nov 30] at UC Berkeley, speed, abbreviated as mL. Most Mechanical Hand which helped develop the people talk at around 200 mLs, Dec. 23, 1961 Berkeley Timesharing System but Lampson supposedly speaks for ’ SDS at 1,000 mLs. Heinrich Arnold Ernst 940 [July 24]. The goal was to completed his D.Sc. thesis at MIT show that a time-sharing OS on the MH-1 mechanical hand. It could be fast, small, and Transistor Demo was unique [March 13; Dec 10] economically feasible – features in being equipped with binary that were somewhat lacking in Dec. 23, 1947 touch sensors placed in different MIT’s mammoth time-sharing parts of the gripper, and with project, Multics [Nov 30]. Prev: [Dec 16] Next: [June 23] pressure sensors inside the The point-contact transistor was gripper. The touch sensors were demonstrated by William used to detect contact between Shockley [Feb 13], Walter the gripper and any obstacles in Brattain [Feb 10], and John the environment, and between Bardeen [May 23] to senior the gripper and the object being management at Bell Labs. grasped; the pressure sensors supplied data on the size of the To illustrate its use as a current object. amplifier, they connected a microphone and loudspeaker The control system executed on (or perhaps a pair of the TX-0 [Nov 20], and used its headphones) to the transistor. sensory feedback to determine a The story goes that one by one reasonable course of action after the managers picked up the a goal has been specified for the microphone and whispered, hand. The idea was to replace “Hello.” The loudspeaker at the traditional controls based on other end of the circuit shouted, numerical operations by pattern “HELLO!”. However, Brattain’s recognition and simulation of notes from that day only higher cognitive processes such as awareness and Butler Lampson (2018). Photo mention that the amplification understanding. by Duncan.Hull. CC BY-SA 4.0. suffered “no noticeable change in quality”. Shockley later wrote The concept had originated with Lampson is also a developer of that hearing speech amplified by Claude Shannon [April 30] programming languages, notably the transistor was a moment (Ernst's supervisor) and Marvin Cal, an interactive language for similar to Alexander Graham Minsky [Aug 9] in 1958. numerical computation derived Bell’s “Mr. Watson, come here, I For more handy robots, see [Feb from J. Clifford Shaw’s JOSS want you” [March 10]. 20; Sept 9; Nov 29; Nov 30]. [June 17]. This day is usually included in

Lampson and L. Peter Deutsch the transistor's “Miracle Month," [Aug 7] co-developed the QSPL which started on Nov. 17 when system programming language, Bardeen and Brattain had begun DNSSEC Sourced and also QED [March 26], a line- their experiments. Dec. 23, 1997 oriented computer text editor. The “transistor” name is due to QED was a strong influence on Bardeen and Brattain’s John Gilmore [Aug 00], co- later UNIX text editors, such as immediate supervisor, John R. founder of the EFF [July 6], ed and sed. Pierce [March 27], who recalled: published the source code for DNSSEC (the Domain Name Lampson was a founding “The way I provided the name, System Security Extensions), member of Xerox PARC [July 1] was to think of what the device and thereby probably broke the where he contributed to many did. And at that time, it was law that restricted the 'export' of projects, including the Xerox supposed to be the dual of the cryptographic software. Alto [March 1] and Dorado [May vacuum tube. The vacuum tube 6], the laser printer [Jan 21]; had transconductance, so the Since DNS [June 23] is the two-phase commit protocols; transistor would have Internet's phone book, there's a [Oct 00] with Charles ‘transresistance.’ And the name strong incentive to keep it Simonyi [Sept 10]; should fit in with the names of secure, and DNSSEC is

2 considered a major part of that At its launch, the channel people were left without effort. DNSSEC uses public key included the first televised electricity for up to six hours encryption and digital Christmas broadcast by the during winter. signatures to certify every Queen from 1957, and gradually According to the companies, the address that’s resolved by DNS added all the others. Other attacks came from computers [Feb 13]. material included royal speeches, royal interviews, royal with IP addresses located in the However, over time it's Russian Federation. visits, and, of course, royal gradually become clear that weddings. The offensive seems to have DNSSEC has a few security started in the previous spring problems of its own, adds The previous year, the Queen’s when emails were sent to significant load to DNS servers, Christmas message had been workers containing an infected and cannot easily be scaled up to released as a podcast. Word document [March 26]. cover the full Internet. For more royal online activities, For another Ukrainian see [March 6], [March 26] cyberattack, see [June 27].

OpenSSL Begins Dec. 23, 1998 The End of VHS OpenSSL protects network Dec. 23, 2008 communication against The last major US supplier of eavesdropping, and hides the pre-recorded VHS tapes, identity of the user at the other Distribution Video Audio, Inc., end of the link. The library based in Palm Harbor, Florida includes open-source shipped its final truckload of implementations of the SSL and tapes. And so the VHS format TLS internet protocols, basic died. cryptographic functions, and various utilities. The first film released on VHS OpenSSL began life as a fork of was the 1976 South Korean drama, “The Young Teacher”. SSLeay by Eric Andrew Young The first three US movies were: and Tim Hudson, which had “The Sound of Music”, “Patton”, ceased development the week and "MAS*H", at $50-$70 each. before. The last major Hollywood movie As OpenSSL's importance has released in the format was “A grown, the development team History Of Violence” in 2006. has also grown, but still only consists of around 20 developers, and, despite its importance, relies mostly on Ukraine Power donations to keep going. In 2013, WikiLeaks [Oct 4] Grid Cyberattack published documents obtained Dec. 23, 2015 by Edward Snowden [June 21], which revealed that the NSA The first known successful [Oct 24] had broken early cyberattack on a power grid versions of SSL by exploiting occurred on this day at 3:30pm. vulnerabilities such as the Hackers successfully HeartBleed [April 1] bug. compromised information systems of three energy distribution companies in the Ukraine and temporarily Royal YouTube disrupted the country's Channel electricity supply. One worker reported seeing the Dec. 23, 2007 cursor on his screen moving by itself, and clicking on buttons to The UK Royal Household take substations offline. The launched a Royal Channel on machine then logged him out, YouTube to showcase exciting and changed his password. videos of Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the family in Thirty substations were action. switched off, and about 230,000

3