April 23Rd Remarked, “Don’T Tell Anyone! Tomlinson This Isn’T What We’Re Supposed Born: April 23, 1941; to Be Working On”
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trip. When Tomlinson demoed Raymond Samuel his work to a colleague, he April 23rd remarked, “Don’t tell anyone! Tomlinson This isn’t what we’re supposed Born: April 23, 1941; to be working on”. Walter Harry Pitts, Amsterdam, New York At the time, Tomlinson Jr. Died: March 5, 2016 programmed on a Teletype In 1971, Tomlinson Model 33 ASR keyboard [April Born: April 23, 1923; implemented the first program 00], and so decided to use its '@' Detroit, Michigan that could send mail between symbol to separate the user Died: May 14, 1969 machines connected to the name from the machine name in ARPANET [Oct 29], thereby an address, a scheme that's been Pitts was pivotal in establishing creating email. (Tomlinson used ever since. the theoretical foundations for always said that he preferred The '@' had begun appearing on viewing the brain as a kind of “email” over “e-mail”, because neural network-based computer, typewriter keyboards in the “I’m simply trying to conserve 19th century, used almost starting with a paper that he the world’s supply of hyphens”.) wrote with Warren McCulloch exclusively in financial [Nov 16], “A Logical Calculus of transactions to indicate “at the Ideas Immanent in Nervous rate of.” Its probable first Activity” (1943). He was also a appearance for that purpose was core member of the organization on May 4, 1536. Florentine behind the Macy cybernetics merchant Francesco Lapi conferences [March 21]. employed it as a measure of capacity in terms of the number At the age of 12, he spent three of terracotta jars (amphora) days reading “Principia needed to transport grain or Mathematica” and sent a letter liquid. to Bertrand Russell [May 18] pointing out what he considered Tomlinson was a co-author of serious problems with the work. RFC 561 (Sept. 1973), the first Russell responded by inviting standard for Internet email him to study at Cambridge, message formats. He was also unaware of how old he was. partly responsible for the first When Russell visited the virus program, and wholly University of Chicago in the fall Ray Tomlinson (2004). Photo responsible for the first anti- of 1938, he suggested Pitts study by Andreu Veà. CC BY-SA 3.0. virus application [March 15]. with the logician Rudolf Carnap. At the time, he was working at In 1943, Pitts moved to Boston BBN [Oct 15], and had already to become the unofficial student Digital Coined written a program called of Norbert Wiener [Nov 26]. CPYNET to transfer files across Sadly, their friendship ended April 23, 1942 the network. He’d also been suddenly in 1952, triggered by tasked with modifying SNDMSG In early April, George Stibitz Wiener’s acrimonious break which sent messages between [April 30] attended a meeting at with McCulloch. users on a time-sharing the Office of Scientific Research Pitts subsequently joined the computer running the TENEX OS and Development (OSRD) that Electronics Research Laboratory [Nov 29]. Tomlinson’s bright was charged with evaluating at MIT, where his reputation for idea was to add the ARPANET various proposals for anti- eccentricity grew. For example, networking code in CPYNET to aircraft fire-control devices for he refused several offers of SNDMSG. tracking and hitting targets. advanced degrees and positions, Incidentally, SNDMSG wasn’t the On this day, Stibitz released a in part because they would first message-sending program memorandum entitled “Digital require him to sign his name. for a time-shared computer – Computation for A.A. Directors”, In June 1954, Fortune magazine that was probably CTSS MAIL (“A.A.” stands for Anti Aircraft) ran an article featuring the [Dec 00] in 1964-65. which summed up the twenty most talented scientists advantages of using computers Tomlinson’s first email traveled under 40; Pitts was featured, for these tasks. a grand total of 100 yards – from next to Claude Shannon [April a computer known as BBN- In the process, Stibitz coined the 30] and James Watson. TENEXB to a router elsewhere in term “digital computer” as a counterpart to the better-known the building, and then onto BBN- TENEXA (i.e. from B to A). analog computers of the time. Nevertheless, it had used Stibitz preferred his phrase over ARPANET-based routing for its “pulse computer” which had 1 occasionally been used up until palette of eight colors. This George hears that the restaurant then. plethora of colors is why the is going out of business, and so machine was called the buys the machine, but now has Spectrum, and a feature that the problem of getting it home. helped kickstart the UK games Due to a strange turn of events, Open University industry which produced many fine games such as “Jet Set he's forced to move the arcade machine across a busy street in Founded Willy”, “Lords of Midnight”, and an imitation of the game. The “The Hobbit”. April 23. 1969 sound effects heard during the The Open University (OU) is a move are actual sounds from the distance learning and research game. university, and the largest According to the official Twin academic institution in the UK Galaxies’ [May 14] world by student numbers. It was rankings, Costanza’s fictional founded by the government as Frogger high score of 860,630 part of its commitment to would have been the top score modernizing British society. in the world at the time. The OU uses a variety of On Sept 24, 2005, Twin Galaxies methods for teaching, including offered a $1,000 prize to the first A Sinclair 48K ZX Spectrum. the Internet, disc-based player who could break that Photo by Bill Bertram. CC BY-SA software, and video score before the end of the year. 2.5. programming distributed by No one managed it within the DVD. TV broadcasts on the BBC One unpleasant feature of the time limit, but there are were also utilized for many device was its rubbery keys currently three higher scores; years, but were sadly which some critics referred to as the highest belongs to Pat discontinued in 2006. An ‘dead flesh’. Also, a bug in the Laffaye with 1,029,990 points, important part of the OU's ULA (Uncommitted Logic Array) set on Aug. 15, 2017, the first success is it's non-distance chip meant that the keyboard and only person ever to pass one teaching elements, such as didn't always scan correctly. million. tutors who are available face-to- This could be rectified by face and OU campus meetings. installing a “dead cockroach” (a In recent years the OU's distance small circuit board mounted First YouTube learning approach has been upside down). rebranded as the MOOC [Sept The Spectrum's audio-visual Video 15] by newcomers such as performance was inferior to its Coursera [April 18] and Udacity main competitor, the April 23, 2005 [Feb 20]. Commodore 64 [Jan 7], and their The first video was uploaded to The plot of the movie “Educating fight over market share led to YouTube [Feb 14] by co-founder Rita” (1993) has the working one of the first PC price wars in Jawed Karim at 8:27pm: “Me at class character studying English the UK. the zoo.” The 18-second video literature through the OU. The Spectrum included a version was shot by Yakov Lapitsky at of BASIC that could issue the the San Diego Zoo and shows error message: “Nonsense in Karim standing in front of ZX Spectrum BASIC.” several elephants, explaining how interesting he finds their April 23, 1982 “really, really, really long trunks.” It has been viewed The ZX Spectrum was launched Seinfeld’s “The almost 100 million times. by Sinclair [July 30] Research to As of Feb. 2021, 5 videos had build upon the success of the Frogger” exceeded 4 billion views, with ZX81, released a year before April 23, 1998 the number 1 position, at 8.1 [March 5]. It became one of the billion views, held by “Baby most popular European The 174th episode of Seinfeld, Shark Dance”. computers of the 1980’s, with “The Frogger,” aired on NBC. about 5 million sold worldwide. George Costanza, played by Jason Alexander, reminisces Inside a tiny box (23 x 14.4 x 3 about his days playing the cm), the Spectrum used a Zilog Frogger arcade game at the local Z80 chip [March 9], with 16K of pizza parlor where he achieved ROM and either 16K or 48K of the high score. (Frogger was RAM. Video output was designed released in the US on Oct 23, to go to a TV set at a resolution 1981.) of 256 x 192 pixels, with a 2 .