the ashes of the original, now- Jack (Idek, Jacek) defunct Atari. Dec. 13th Tramiel (Trzmiel, As a child, after the German Tramielski) invasion of Poland in WWII, he and his family was sent to the Ernst Werner von Born: Dec. 13, 1928; Auschwitz-Birkenau Łódź, Poland concentration camp, where he (von from 1888) Siemens Died: April 8, 2012 was examined by the notorious Born: Dec. 13, 1816; His Anglicized last name is SS officer Dr. Josef Mengele. Lenthe, Germany pronounced truh-MELL. Tramiel was rescued from the Died: Dec. 6, 1892 Tramiel founded Commodore Ahlem labor camp in April 1945 Siemens and Johann Georg [Oct 10], the company behind by the 84th Infantry Division, Halske founded "Telegraphen- the PET [April 15], VIC-20 [May and after emigrating to the US, Bauanstalt von Siemens & 00], Commodore 64 [Jan 7], he joined the army. In later life, Halske" on Oct. 1, 1847. The Amiga 1000 [July 23], and Tramiel gave regular talks about company was built around several other home computers. the Holocaust, and was a co- Siemen's pointer telegraph Inexpensive and immensely founder of the US Holocaust which used a needle to point to popular, they helped kickstart Memorial Museum. It includes a the right letter, rather than the PC industry. plaque which reads, “To Vernon requiring the user to know W. Tott, My Liberator and Hero.” Tramiel’s abrasive, autocratic Morse code [Oct 19]. By the Tott had been in the 84th style was renowned, as were his 1960's the company was known Division. yelling fits, dubbed “Jack simply as Siemens, and had Attacks”. Steve Arnold of become the largest industrial LucasArts [Sept 12] once said manufacturer in Europe. that Tramiel reminded him of Relay I Siemens & Halske's early "Jabba the Hut", although within telecommunication successes Atari, the preferred "Star Wars" Dec. 13, 1962 included building the first long- comparison was with "Darth NASA’s Relay 1, the first active distance telegraph line in Vader". repeater communications Europe, stretching 500 km from Tramiel once said “Business is satellite, was launched on this Berlin to Frankfurt. In 1867, the war, I don’t believe in day, and began transmitting test company completed the first compromising, I believe in patterns on Jan 3, 1963, once its Indo-European telegraph line winning.” For example, in 1983, solar cells had been fully (from Calcutta to London, via when Commodore was at its charged. Berlin, Odessa, and Teheran). height, he ran a full-page Also, they employed their cable- On Nov. 22, 1963, it became the newspaper advertisement that laying ship, the Faraday, to lay first satellite to broadcast TV announced: “Commodore ate the several transatlantic telephone signals from the US to Japan, Apple.” cables in the later 1870's after which happened to be the earlier attempts had failed [Aug announcement of the 16]. assassination of John F. Kennedy. The following summer, Other Siemens inventions it was used to broadcast the included the world’s first Summer Olympics from Japan, electric elevator (1880), the relaying the signal via another world’s first electric street satellite, Syncom 3. This was the lighting, installed in Godalming, first time two satellites had been England (1881), and the first used together for transmitting a electric-powered trolleybus TV broadcast. (1882).

Siemens’ name was adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance in 1971. Amateur Computer Club Jack Tramiel (1982). Photo by Michael Tomczyk, Dec. 13, 1973 Commodore's "VIC Czar". CC The UK’s Amateur Computer BY-SA 4.0. Club (ACC) sprung into existence as a byproduct of Mike Lord On [Jan 16] 1984, Tramiel publishing the first issue of the resigned from Commodore, and ACC Newsletter in March 1973. soon after formed Atari Each issue contained lots of Corporation [July 1], raised from good stuff, including data sheets

1 of surplus hardware, book “It is well-known that when Bill made up the Atari 800 [Nov 00] recommendations, how to get was young he didn’t have a very with a single motherboard with free time on university good driving record.” 64 KB of memory. However, it machines, and the latest prices soon gained a reputation for for chips. Two notable early being a crippled machine that articles gave a description of the was too expensive. There were instruction set for a simple 10- only two joystick ports instead bit computer designed by Ian of the four on the Atari 400 and Spencer, and John Florentin 800, its Serial Input/Output supplied details on how to build (SIO) port was incompatible a homemade PDP-8 [March 22]. with some devices, and its color enhancement feature couldn’t be The first actual ACC meeting was utilized because, inexplicably, held on this day at the South the designers had forgotten to Bank Polytechnic in London, but connect it to the monitor port. In according to a write-up in the general, the machine's “closed next newsletter, “only 10 people box” design made it difficult to managed to overcome the change the hardware. transport problems (no trains, hardly any petrol).” This refers Bill Gates (1977). A glamor shot The underlying problem seemed to the 1973 oil crisis. by the Albuquerque, New to be that the machine had been Nevertheless, the club grew to Mexico police department. brought to market too quickly, over 600 members by 1976. with the aim of competing Paul Allen [Jan 21] wrote that in against the unstoppable Other notable user groups, in the early days of Microsoft, Commodore 64 [Jan 7]. Given chronological order of their Gates amassed so many enough time, the subsequent foundation, include SHARE [Aug speeding tickets that he was Atari 600XL and 800XL proved 22], DECUS [March 00], USENIX forced to hire the best traffic to be better machines. [May 15], the Amateur attorney in Washington State to Computer Society (ACS [May 5]), There is an oft-repeated story, get him out of trouble. the Homebrew Computer Club that sales of the old Atari 800 [March 5], ACGNJ [June 13], In 2007, Gates told Gizmodo that shot up after the release of the A.P.P.L.E. [Feb 21], and the he remembered getting three 1200XL, as people tried to snap Chaos Computer Club (CCC) speeding tickets in 1978, two up the "better" machine before it [Sept 12]. from the same police officer, was withdrawn. while driving his Porsche 911 home to Seattle. Gates Arrested In 2016, Gates told another Tecmo Super Bowl interviewer that back then he’d Dec. 13, 1977 sometimes go out at night and Released “drive around at high speeds” Bill Gates [Oct 28] was arrested through the New Mexico desert, Dec. 13, 1991 for reckless driving in just to clear his head and think. Albuquerque, probably for "Tecmo Super Bowl" is an running a stop sign and driving In 2010, the ArsTechnica American football game for the without a license. The police website remarked that the NES [Oct 18] which was the first mugshot taken at the time keeps outline of Gates in the mugshot to acquire licensing agreements popping up on the Internet, and looks very much like the default with the National Football here it is again. silhouette used in the "People League (NFL) and the NFL Pane" of MS Outlook 2010. Players Association. This meant Years later, reporters wanting the game could use the names more juicy details were and attributes of real teams and disappointed when a players, and this approach later spokesperson for the Atari 1200XL became standard for sports Albuquerque Police department games. stated that no record could be Dec. 13, 1982 found. This probably meant that "Tecmo Super Bowl" has the charges were dropped and The Atari [June 27] 1200XL maintained an extensive cult Gates' record expunged. (It's (“extended look”) was following, partly due to how untrue that the department's announced at a press conference easy it is to modify the game to copy of MS Access deleted the in NYC as part of Atari’s "Sweet- support college football rosters data autonomously.) Sixteen" strategy, although it or present-day professionals. only started shipped in March Another spokesperson, this time 1983. It had a striking, high-tech There's a number of from Microsoft, commented that appearance designed by Regan tournaments based around the Bill Gates remembered being Cheng, and internally replaced game, including an annual world taken into custody, and added, the seven separate boards that championship held in Madison,

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Wisconsin. inserted "malicious code into legitimate software updates for Orion that allow an attacker remote access to the victim's Free environment". FireEye also Dec. 13, 2006 named the malware SUNBURST The Foundation SolarWinds later stated in an (FSF) pledged $60,000 dollars to SEC filing that 18,000 of its the Free Ryzom Campaign, customers had been affected by which hoped to purchase the Orion versions released between Ryzom MMORPG so it could be March and June 2020. Victims released as free software. Its included the US Treasury original developer, Nevrax, had Department, the National gone into receivership in Nov. Telecommunications and Information Administration, and The game featured a unique Homeland Security. character abilities system that International customers allowed players to construct impacted may include NATO, the custom actions like spells or European Parliament, GCHQ in attacks. It also had a scenario the UK [June 5], the UK Ministry editor that let players design of Defence, and the UK Home their own game areas. The Office. underlying , NeL (for Nevrax Library), had been It's now believed that APT29, open sourced in 2002. aka Cozy Bear, working for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Unfortunately, the 2006 Service, was behind the attack. campaign only raised €172,988, just short of the necessary In Nov. 2019, a security €200,000, and on Dec. 21 Ryzom researcher notified SolarWinds was sold to GameForge France. that their FTP server had a weak However, less than a year later, password; namely GameForge itself filed for "solarwinds123". Also The New bankruptcy before it had York Times reported that finished paying for the game, so SolarWinds didn't employ a it was returned to Nevrax. chief information security officer at the time, and that employee On May 6, 2010, Nevrax passwords had been posted on announced the release of GitHub [Feb 8] in 2019. Ryzom’s in partnership with the FSF, and it For a few more choice pieces of can still be downloaded from malware, see [March 4; May 7; https://ryzom.com/ July 15; Sept 5; Nov 21; Nov 24].

SUNBURST Reported Dec. 13, 2020 The Washington Post reported that multiple government agencies were breached via updates to SolarWinds's Orion software (a popular network management system). The hackers had acquired superuser access to token- signing certificates at SolarWinds which gave them trusted access to its networks. The cybersecurity firm FireEye (one of the companies affected) reported that the hackers had

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