Williams’ was known for his fine standard PC and add a decoder mustache and generously box, videotex’s moment had Oct. 30th coiffured hair, which made passed. several cameos in the company's Viewtron attracted just 20,000 games. For example, it can be subscribers, and it was cancelled seen attached to Chief Enigma Again on March 31, 1986, after costing Keneewauwau and on Williams, Oct. 30, 1942 the annoying joke teller, in Knight-Ridder an estimated $50 million. In 2008, PC World "Leisure Suit Larry". On Feb. 1, 1942, the Germans magazine named Viewtron one ordered that vessels operating Before starting Sierra, Williams of the biggest project failures in in the Atlantic and had worked at Groman IT history, which seems a bit Mediterranean should insert a Mortuaries and the lingerie harsh, since the very similar fourth rotor into their Enigma store, Fredericks of Hollywood Prestel [June 8] and Ceefax [Sept machines [Feb 23]. This meant (but not concurrently). 23] systems were a success in that the previously cracked the UK. In France, Minitel was an Enigma code [May 9] had to be even bigger hit [May 10]. cracked all over again [March 18], and in the meantime Viewtron hundreds of thousands of tons of Oct. 30, 1983 allied shipping was sunk. The Pentium FDIV Bug gloom lifted with the seizing of a AT&T and Knight-Ridder Oct. 30, 1994 U-boat, U-559, on this day. The launched the first US videotex German captain had ordered services, Viewtron, based in The FDIV bug affected the that the sub be scuttled, but its south Florida, in collaboration floating point unit (FPU) of early Enigma machine and codebooks with the Associated Press and Intel Pentium chips [March 22]. were recovered by a team from the Miami Herald newspaper. It was discovered by Thomas the HMS Petard. Nicely on Oct. 19, 1994 and The service offered banking, reported to Intel five days later. On being informed, Winston shopping, news, and ads On this day, Nicely sent an email Churchill wrote: “Congratulate delivered over a custom about the bug to a number of your splendid hens.” He liked to terminal, the AT&T Sceptre other people, and the ‘panic’ refer to codebreakers as “the which had color graphics began. hens who laid golden eggs and capabilities well beyond those of never cackled”. the typical PC of the time. The bug caused the FPU to occasionally made mistakes when dividing floating-point numbers within a specific range. Ken Williams For example, Born: Oct. 30, 1954; 4195835.0/3145727.0 yielded 1.33374 instead of 1.33382, an Evansville, Indiana error of some 0.006%. The Williams and his wife, Roberta, problem was caused by missing founded On-Line Systems, which entries in the lookup table used later became Sierra On-Line, and by the floating-point division then Sierra Entertainment. The circuitry. company produced many top- The problem was unlikely to quality games such as "King’s affect most ordinary users since Quest" [Aug 16], the Realm The Viewtron opening menu there was only a 1-in-360 billion Online [Dec 31], Ultima II [Aug screen. (c) Viewtron. chance that an error could reach 24], and "Leisure Suit Larry" as high as the fourth decimal [July 5]. The system employed a vector- place in a result. Also, the bug Williams helped code many of based graphical protocol called was fixed promptly in the next Sierra’s first products, and was the North American regular production revision of the sole programmer of Sierra’s Presentation Level Protocol the chip. Nevertheless, with an very first game "Mystery House" Syntax (NAPLPS), a product of estimated 5 million 'defective' ([May 5] 1980), which also the Teletext era, which was later chips in circulation, FDIV happened to be the first adopted by the Prodigy online became the first hardware adventure game to utilize service [Feb 13]. problem to make headlines graphics. Roberta wrote the Unfortunately, all this worldwide. script for the game. innovation meant that the Aside from newspaper fear- At its peak in mid 1990's, Sierra Sceptre was an expensive mongering, it didn't help that employed nearly 1000 people, machine -- $900, although the Intel’s initial response was and was the market leader in PC price was later dropped to $600. rather slow, which turned the games. By the time management had occasion into a public relations decided to port Viewtron to a

1 nightmare. Only on Dec. 20 did As the lights fell, the crowd Intel finally offer to replace the cheered as a short video began IBM 1401, A User’s affected chips, but only for playing, showing Doom’s consumers who could prove that familiar corridors. However, it Manual they needed high mathematical wasn't the usual soldier chasing Oct. 30, 2006 accuracy. This hair-splitting the demons, it was … Bill Gates didn’t go down too well, and [Oct 28]. Microsoft’s fearless Icelandic avant-garde musician eventually Intel threw in the leader was inserted into the Jóhann Jóhannsson released his towel, and offered to replace the game, wearing a long black fourth album, “IBM 1401, A chips of anyone who contacted trench coat and brandishing a User’s Manual.” It was so-named them. shotgun. because his composition used sounds produced from the The financial hit became clear on Gates addressed the crowd electromagnetic emissions of the Jan. 17, 1995, when Intel about the wonders of Windows machine. announced a pre-tax charge of 95 as a gaming platform, only $475 million against earnings. stopping once when a monster The first four tracks are named jumped out and asked for an after IBM components: The bug wasn’t all bad though – autograph. Gates responded by Intel turned some of the  Part 1 / IBM 1401 Processing raising his shotgun and blowing defective chips into key rings Unit [Oct 5]; the beast into gory chunks. and sold them as souvenirs. “Don’t interrupt me while I’m  Part 2 / IBM 1403 Printer [Oct Some jokes of the time: speaking,” he said. At the end, 5]; the familiar Microsoft logo Q: How many Pentium designers appeared, but with the tag line  Part 3 / IBM 1402 Card Read- does it take to screw in a light “Who Do You Want to Execute Punch; bulb? A: 1.99904274017, but Today?” that’s close enough for non-  Part 4 / IBM 729 II Magnetic technical people. Other displays in the Haunted Tape Unit (with vocals by Erna Mansion included one by Ómarsdóttir). Q: Why didn’t Intel call the Activision [April 25] promoting Jóhannsson’s father was an IBM Pentium the 586? A: Because an adventure game called Pitfall they added 486 and 100 on the engineer, and one of Iceland’s Harry with a jungle set where first programmers, who used to first Pentium and got people could swing on vines. In 585.999983605. compose melodies on computers another room, a company called during breaks at work. For more Intel bugs, see [Nov Zombie had a metal sphere that 14] and [Jan 3]. shot blue electric bolts through Jóhannsson was inspired by a 30 the air. Things were a bit more year old recording his father had risqué with the cosplaying staff, made just before the 1401 was including scantily clad, taken out of service in 1971. Microsoft bludgeon-wielding she-devils, and hooded monks guiding Judgement Day guests to a row of guillotines. Oct. 30, 1995 But the installation created by id Software [Feb 1] was perhaps "Microsoft Judgment Day” [July the real shocker: an eight-foot- 3; Aug 29] held in Seattle was a tall model of a vagina as a stage combination trade show and set for the heavy metal band kickoff party for 75 new games Gwar. It was lined with dozens and accessories for Windows 95 of dildos to look like teeth, and a [Aug 24]. fake severed head hung from the A circus tent offered beer and rafters. barbecue snacks, there was a The Microsoft impresario Ferris wheel, and a three-story- responsible for the Haunted Jóhann Jóhannsson. Photo tall artificial volcano bubbling Mansion was Alex St. John, one by SpectreVision Mgmt. CC with red lights. But the real of the co-inventors of DirectX BY 4.0. action was in an underground [Sept 30], who was roaming the garage that had been converted garage dressed as Satan. He was into a Haunted Mansion, where a fully expecting to be sacked after deathmatch Doom [Dec 10] the event, but a round of good First GovHack competition was about to start. press about the show (by 24 elite gamers had been flown journalists who didn't comment Oct. 30-31, 2009 in and the event was being on Gwar's contribution) meant GovHack is Australia’s largest televised on a giant screen so an that he remained at the open government data audience could watch. company until 1997. hackathon, attracting over 3000 participants who take part in

2 over 400 projects. It began as a small Canberra-based event, but quickly expanded into a national competition. New Zealand joined the event in 2015. The event encourages small teams to produce any kind of “hack” using government data. However, they only have from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon to complete the work. Participating government departments typically release special datasets for the competition, and fund prizes.

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