April 15Th May Have Been Shipped, but Loan from Atari in Return for Fewer Than 500 Were Sold Giving Them Access to the Lorraine Designs

market for a few weeks. By one mortgage on his house, and the estimate, as many as 2,560 dolls company obtained a $500,000 April 15th may have been shipped, but loan from Atari in return for fewer than 500 were sold giving them access to the Lorraine designs. Edison’s Doll The issue of which company April 15, 1890 First Round-the- owned the Lorraine chipsets quickly became a legal matter Thomas Edison’s [Feb 11] World Telephone between Atari and Amiga. It was "Phonograph Doll" was a actually mostly a proxy war children’s toy standing 22’ Call between ex-Commodore inches tall, weighing a founder Jack Tramiel [Jan 16] substantial four pounds, because April 15 (or 25), 1935 who had just bought Atari's of its porcelain head, jointed The first round-the-world Consumer Division [July 1], and wooden limbs, and most telephone call was made when Commodore who had recently importantly, a miniaturized Walter S. Gifford, president of acquired Amiga. phonograph embedded in its tin AT&T called T.G. Miller, a mere body. Its musical repertoire vice president. In fact both men included nursery rhymes, such were only around 50 feet apart, as “Jack and Jill” and “Mary Had in adjacent rooms at the Long LISP Unveiled a Little Lamb.” Lines Building in NYC, but their April 15, 1959 The doll had been developed conversation travelled across The LISP programming language back in 1877, but only went on some 23,000 miles. One of the was originally created by John sale today as part of Lenox phones was later preserved at McCarthy [Sept 4] as a Lyceum's electrical exhibition in the Smithsonian Institute. mathematical notation for NYC in its “Dolls’ Theatorium”. Other firsts for Gifford included describing programs, and first the first user of the transatlantic described in the MIT report, phone service [Jan 7], and a “Recursive Functions of participant in American's first Symbolic Expressions and Their long distance TV demonstration Computation by Machine” [April 7]. However, the first released on this day. It was round-the-world telegram heavily influenced by Alonzo message was sent by President Church’s [June 14] lambda Theodore Roosevelt on [July 4] calculus (also announced on this 1903. day, but in 1936) .

A LISP system was first implemented on an IBM 704 David Shannon [May 7] by Steve Russell, who had realized (to McCarthy’s An Edison Phonograph doll, Morse surprise) that LISP’s centrally 1890. The mechanism housed in important eval function could be the body has been removed and Born: April 15, 1943; implemented in machine code. is displayed alongside. Photo by Lexington, MA Mabalu. CC BY-SA 4.0. Died: Nov. 2, 2007 LISP quickly became the favored language for AI research, Jay Miner [May 31], along with because of useful features such The delay had been due partly to several other Atari staffers, had as tree data structures, the difficulty of designing small, resigned from the company after automatic storage management, relatively lightweight become increasingly fed up with dynamic typing, higher-order mechanisms that were also its management, and Miner and functions, recursion, and a read- sturdy enough to withstand Morse set up "Hi Toro" Inc. in eval-print loop. children. Even so, the wax Sept. 1982, which later changed records wore out quickly, and its name to Amiga. The name LISP derives from were prone to warping and “LISt Processor”, although many cracking. Miner's first project was the students who have suffered development of a 68000-based before its elegantly simple This doll marked the first games console codenamed syntax have argued that the attempt to reproduce sound for Lorraine (named after Morse’s name stands for “Lots of commercial and entertainment wife), which ultimately became Irritating Single Parentheses.” purposes. It was also the first the Amiga 1000 [July 23]. time people were employed as Lorraine was first demoed at The first LISP compiler written recording artists – in this case CES [June 24] in June 1984. in LISP, was implemented in nearly 20 women to recite the 1962 by Tim Hart and Mike rhymes. It was, however, a sales By this time debts were piling up Levin, which helped persuade failure, and only lasted on the and Morse took out a second may die-hard coders that LISP

1 was a real language. It was The Nova’s instruction set was that time produced about 17 quickly followed by the also an inspiration to Charles P. pages per minute. influential LISP 1.5 Thacker [Feb 26] and others at The 3800 was also very large – Programmer’s Manual [Aug 17]. Xerox PARC during their about 5 feet high and perhaps 12 construction of the Xerox Alto A quote from Philip Greenspun: feet wide along the front, and [March 1]. “SQL, LISP, and Haskell are the was also one of the first only programming languages The later battle between Data products to use a that I’ve seen where one spends General and DEC over the 32-bit microprocessor rather than a more time thinking than typing.” minicomputer market formed hard-wired controller. the background of Tracy He also coined "Greenspun's However, the invention of the Kidder’s book, “The Soul of a tenth rule of programming: “Any laser printer was due to Xerox New Machine” [July 00]. sufficiently complicated C or researcher Gary Starkweather Fortran program contains an ad- [Jan 21] back in 1969, based on hoc, informally-specified, bug- his modifications to a Xerox ridden, slow implementation of Canon Pocketronic 7000 copier. half of Common LISP” [Dec 8]. April 15, 1970 This of course means that Xerox could have been the first to Canon Business Machines of market with a laser printer but Data General Goes Japan announced the first hand- management was afraid that held pocket calculator, the four- such a product would negatively Nova function Canon Pocketronic. The impact their copier business. So, miniaturization was achieved by the innovation sat in limbo until April 15, 1968 the use of four Texas the announcement of the 3800. Data General was founded by Instruments (TI) chips, as part Soon after, Starkweather’s work Edson de Castro [Sept 14], of a joint venture. TI had became the Xerox 9700, which Henry Burkhardt III, and developed the underlying shipped in 1977. Richard Sogge of DEC [Aug 23], technologies in their and Herbert Richman of Cal-Tech Project [Sept Fairchild Semiconductor [Oct 1]. 29]. The three former DEC engineers The Pocketronic had left over its management’s didn’t have an LED reluctance to support their 16- display since they bit computer project. So it was were too expensive at hardly surprising that the first the time, and cheaper machine released by Data Nixie tubes would General was the 16-bit Nova in have made the 1969. calculator too big, and too power hungry. The Nova’s circuit boards were Instead the calculator similar in size to those in DEC’s printed its results on PDP-8 [March 22] (15 by 15 thermal paper tape, inches) but were connected which still made it An IBM 3800. (c) together using a backplane with rather larger than a typical www.retromobe.com. minimal manual wiring, which “pocket” – 8.3" x 3.9" x 1.9". greatly reduced their construction costs and was more One distinction between the two reliable. The computer was also products was that the 9700 was rack-mounted in a similar way IBM 3800 Laser a cut sheet printer while the to the PDP-8, but smaller and 3800 used continuous form considerably faster. Printer paper. Announced as “the best small April 15, 1975 computer in the world”, the The IBM 3800 model 001, Nova quickly gained a following, announced on this day, was the First West Coast especially in scientific and first commercial laser printer, educational markets. For and was the first to start Computer Faire example, Steve Wozniak [Aug shipping in July 1976. 11] (in high school at the time) April 15-17, 1977 was said to be so enchanted with It printed at a speed of about Computer enthusiasts gathered the Nova’s architecture that he 180 pages per minute, which at the first Annual West Coast had photos of its internals taped was blazingly fast. As a Computer Faire, held over three to his bedroom wall. comparison, the fastest IBM mechanical chain printers at days at the Brooks Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

Every exhibit spaces had been Over the three days, they presence at MOS that persuaded rented out, including the received about 300 orders for Commodore to buy the company balcony of the auditorium, and the Apple II, which was over a in 1976. the hallway leading to the hundred more than the total The demand for the PET was so restrooms. The event had been number of Apple I's ever sold. huge that the waiting period organized by Jim Warren [July The Apple II was also their first stretched up to 5 months even 20] and Bob Reiling. product to carry the rainbow- though people had to pay $795 Only around 20,000 - 30,000 striped apple logo (six colors, in upfront. It became very popular American homes had computers the wrong order for a rainbow). in schools, and turned at the time, but the event Rob Janoff designed it earlier in Commodore into a major player attracted an amazing 12,750 1977, and added the bite mark in the PC market. attendees, and they saw some to give people a cue about its Peddle later said that the owner amazing stuff – the debut of the size, so they wouldn’t mistake of Commodore, Jack Tramiel Commodore PET [two entries the fruit for a cherry. Janoff later [Dec 13], had promised to pay forward] by Chuck Peddle [Nov discounted as myth that the logo him a $1 bonus for every PET 25], and the Apple II [next was most meant to be a sold. Sadly that never occurred. entry], by youngsters, Steve Jobs reference to Alan Turing’s [June [Feb 24] and Steve Wozniak 23] death. It remained in use Later versions of the PET [Aug 11]. Brochures were also until [May 6] 1998, when it introduced the idea of a "Killer distributed about the short- became monochrome. Poke", a method for inducing lived, but supremely powerful, hardware damage by the Zaltair [three entries forward]. insertion of an invalid value into a memory-mapped control Indeed, many historians credit Commodore PET register via BASIC's POKE this event as the birth of the PC command [Jan 2]. industry, even though it wasn’t 2001 Announced the first show of its kind; that The PET's killer poke was was the World Altair Computer April 15, 1977 related to its video rasterizer Convention in Albuquerque on The Commodore [Oct 10] PET circuits. In early PETs, POKE [March 27] 1976. (Personal Electronic Transactor) 59458,62 made the machine display text much faster. The next Faire was held on came fully assembled in a Unfortunately, when the PET [March 3-5], 1978, at the San delicious cream-colored case. It range was revamped, it was Jose Convention Center. came equipped with 4K of memory (expandable to 32K), an discovered that this trick now

8K Microsoft Basic EPROM, a triggered strange behavior in membrane keyboard, a 9-inch the new video chip, which could Apple II monochrome 40 characters cause signal contention and wide display, and a built-in possibly damage the monitor. Announced cassette tape drive. However, no According to reliable records, April 15, 1977 mention was made at the Faire the PET will still be in use in 400 [two entries back] that the one years time, as it appears twice in Prev: [Jan 3] Next: [June 5] on display was the only one in the TV show "Buck Rogers in the existence. The Apple II and Commodore 25th Century", protecting the PET 2001 [next entry] both used planet via a defence grid and as the same processor, the MOS a video phone. However, in 6502 [Sept 16] (because it was 2285, as shown in "Star Trek II: cheap), but as part of The Wrath of Khan"[June 4; Nov diametrically opposed design 16], it won't be used on the strategies. Apple wanted to build bridge of the USS Enterprise computers with more features at [Sept 8], but rather as a working a higher price point, while antique in Admiral Kirk's [March Commodore wanted to sell 22] apartment. This makes it machines with less features at a seem likely that Kirk is a Basic lower price. coder in his spare time.

Apple’s booth at the Faire [previous entry] was near the The Commodore PET 2001 entrance and visible to (1977). Photo by Tomislav The Zaltair Story everybody entering the main Medak. CC BY-SA 3.0. hall, which they put to good use April 15-17, 1977 by running a kaleidoscopic The motherboard was a Steve Wozniak [Aug 11] has graphics program on a huge redesigned version of the KIM-1 often claimed that his best monitor. board [April 00], both developed computer prank was producing by Chuck Peddle [Nov 25] at 20,000 brochures for a phony MOS Technology. It was Peddle’s computer, which he distributed

3 at the First West Coast Since the acronym for their Celeron is seven letters and Computer Faire [three entries department was “OTH”, they three syllables, like Pentium. back]. called the browser “erwise”, as a The ‘Cel’ of Celeron rhymes with variation on the word ‘tel’ of Intel.” The biggest selling PC of the day “otherwise”. was the Altair 8800 [Dec 19], and so he named his spoof, the Things looked bright when no Zaltair. The “Z” was inspired by lesser a luminary than Tim LiveJournal the Zilog Z80 [March 9]. Berners-Lee [June 8] gave erwise a positive review, noting The brochure advertised, among Launched its ability to handle various other things, a new version of fonts, let users double-click on April 15, 1999 BASIC called “BAZIC”, with the hyperlinks, and support for ability to “define your own Brad Fitzpatrick (1980 - ) multiple windows. However, its language… a feature we call started LiveJournal as a way of development halted after the perZonality”. keeping his high school friends students graduated, even after updated on his activities, and it There was a fake quote from Ed Berners-Lee travelled to Finland soon grew into a blogging Roberts [Sept 13], then to try to encourage them to service. For example, “Frank the president of MITS, which spelt continue. Goat”, LiveJournal’s mascot in out the name of a rival company, Amazingly, they were unable to the early years, had his own Processor Technology [Aug 28], find funding to support more journal . based on the first letter of each development. The enormous Fitzpatrick sold the company to word: “Predictable reﬁnement of commercial potential of a Web computer equipment should "Six Apart" in 2005, which sold it browser only became apparent suggest on-line reliability. The onto a Russian media company, some two years later [March elite computer hobbyist needs SUP Media, in 2007. 25], when Marc Andreessen one logical optionless guarantee [July 9] met James Clark [March To this day, LiveJournal is still yet.” 23] quite popular in Russia, and the Steve Jobs [Feb 24] picked up a Russian translation of copy of the brochure, fell for it, "LiveJournal" became the and was happy that the Apple II standard word for blogging in stacked up so well against the Celeron Released Russia. However, many Zaltair. He only realized the April 15, 1998 commentators consider truth when Wozniak later gave LiveJournal’s demise to have him a framed copy of the The Celeron was Intel's occurred in April 2018 when brochure as a birthday gift. response to its loss of the low- George R.R. Martin (author of “A end chip market to Cyrix and Song of Ice and Fire”, aka “Game AMD chips [May 26]. Celeron of Thrones”) announced he was was the brand name for a moving his LiveJournal blog to Erwise Released number of different processors his own website. April 15, 1992 based on faster Pentium [March Although LiveJournal was an 22] and Core chips, but the early blogging platform, the first The Erwise web browser, built Celeron versions were was probably "Open Diary", using the Motif widget set, was significantly slower due to which opened on [Oct 20] 1998. probably the second graphical having less on-board cache, and UNIX browser, the first being by having advanced features ViolaWWW, released on [March disabled or removed. 9] 1992. However, neither of Damn Small Linux them was the first UNIX Web Today saw the release of the browser – that title belongs to Celeron Convington, which was April 15, 2005 Nicola Pellow’s Line Mode based on a Pentium II with its Browser [Aug 6], which was secondary cache removed. "Damn Small Linux" (DSL) was purely text-based. Substantial numbers were sold designed by John Andrews to at first, but interest faded in the run on older x86 hardware, Erwise was the Master’s project face of its poor performance. available as an ISO file of under of four students at the Helsinki 50MB. Tests showed it could run University of Technology: Kim Intel had hired the marketing in as little as 16MB of RAM, but Nyberg, Teemu Rantanen, Kati firm “Lexicon Branding” to come was much happier in 128MB. Suominen and Kari up with the “Celeron” name, The latest stable version was in Sydänmaanlakka. The group had after that company's earlier 2008, but "Tiny Core Linux" was decided to make a browser at success with “Pentium”. The forked from it, and is actively the suggestion of Robert Cailliau “San Jose Mercury News” maintained. "Tiny Core" comes [Jan 26], who had briefly visited described Lexicon’s reasoning in three variants: the lightest the university; their project was behind the new name: “Celer is weighs in at just 11MB, which supervised by Ari Lemmke. Latin for swift. As in ‘accelerate’ doesn't include a graphical and ‘on,’ as in ‘turned on.’ desktop.

For more Linux distributions, and companies such as Boeing, see [Aug 15], [July 17], [Sept 15], GE, and DHL adopted it. [Aug 11], [Dec 22], [Oct 20], and Changes in this new release [Feb 19]. included a higher resolution camera, extended battery life, faster Wi-Fi and processor, and a Google Glass red light that turned on when video was being recording. Most April 15, 2013 significantly, all of the electronics had been repackaged Google Glass was an optical in a “Glass Pod”, which could be head-mounted display in the attached to any Glass- shape of a pair of eyeglasses. It compatible frames, including was released on this day, just ten safety goggles and prescription months after its debut in an glasses. extravagant skydiving demo organized by Sergey Brin [Aug 21] at Google I/O [June 27].

A Glass prototype at Google I/O 2012. Photo by Antonio Zugaldia. CC BY 2.0.

Glass displayed information via a small LED display and a partially reflecting mirror. It included a touchpad on the side, a camera with the ability to record video, and the user could issue voice commands, with responses relayed back via bone conduction through a transducer beside the ear. Google initially only sold Glass to those people it labelled “Glass Explorers”, but it released it to the general public the following year. Despite the controlled rollout, Glass soon started being criticized over privacy and safety concerns. In one of several public relations disasters, a driver in California was ticketed in October for “driving with monitor visible to driver (Google Glass)”. On Jan. 15, 2015, Google announced the end of its “Google Glass Explorer” program aimed at the public, although Glass did eventually return in July 2017, as the “Google Glass Enterprise Edition”. This time it was marketed for use in factories,