Oct. 4Th John Vincent Atanasoff
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However, the Z3 used relays rather than vacuum tubes, so Gregory Lawrence Oct. 4th wasn’t technically “electronic” but rather “electromechanical”. Chesson This kind of definitional hair- Born: Oct. 4, 1945; John Vincent splitting led to court cases. On Atlanta, Georgia Atanasoff [Oct 19] 1973, Judge Earl Larson Died: June 28, 2015 ruled that “Eckert and Mauchly Chesson has been called the Born: Oct. 4, 1903; did not themselves first invent godfather of networking. His Hamilton, New York the automatic electronic digital many contributions include: Died: June 15, 1995 computer, but instead derived multiplexing, flow-controlled that subject matter from one channels, the original uucp Atanasoff began designing the Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff.” packet driver [May 12], and the world's first electronic digital A working ABC replica was first kernel- and user-level computer in 1937-38, software for Datakit [June 8], a specifically to solve completed in 1997 by staff and volunteers at Iowa State. predecessor to today’s ATM simultaneous linear equations. It networks (Asynchronous utilized binary arithmetic, and Transfer Model, not Automatic rotating drum memory [Sept Teller Machines). He was the 00]. Maurice Karnaugh inventor of the Xpress Transfer In March 1939 he made a formal Protocol (XTP) for high-speed application for funding to Iowa Born: Oct. 4, 1924; networks, which was adopted as State College which approved a New York City a military standard for real-time grant of $650. Atanasoff began Karnaugh developing the networks. implementing his design with Karnaugh map (1954) as well Chesson was an accomplished the help of Clifford Berry [April being granted patents for Pulse- musician – primarily on drums 19], a graduate student, in the code modulation (PCM) and and piano. At various times, he basement of the college's magnetic logic circuits. toured with several jazz and Physics building, The Karnaugh map has become R&B groups, including Wayne By Oct. 1939 they had a simple a fundamental technique for Cochran and the C.C. Riders, and prototype which could add and simplifying Boolean algebra the Woody Herman jazz subtract, and utilized the drum expressions. It borrows ideas orchestra (aka The Thundering memory. They parlayed this into from Edward Veitch’s charts, Herd). funding from the Statistics lab to which were a rediscovery of build a full-sized model, the Allan Marquand’s [Dec 10] Atanasoff-Berry Computer logical diagrams of the 1880's. Sputnik (ABC). For these reasons, Veitch charts On [Aug 14] 1940, Atanasoff are sometimes known as Oct. 4, 1957 Marquand–Veitch diagrams, and finished a paper describing the The Soviet Union launched ABC’s design, and the device Karnaugh maps are called Karnaugh–Veitch maps. Sputnik I, the first man-made became public via a newspaper satellite. The US government report on [Jan 15] 1941. PCM is a method used to was badly shaken by the Soviet's However, Atanasoff stopped digitally represent sampled technological coup, and work on the machine in 1942 analog signals, and has become a responded by pouring billions due to more pressing WWII standard for digital audio. of dollars into research, duties. Karnaugh was one of many including support for ARPA [Feb In 1948 the new head of Physics, contributors to the technology, 7] and NASA [Aug 25]. believing that work on the ABC and it may be noted that the would never be resumed and National Inventors Hall of Fame needing the space in the honored Bernard M. Oliver and basement, had it dismantled. Claude Shannon [April 30] as PCM's inventors. Although the ABC appeared several years before the ENIAC [Feb 15], the ENIAC was a general purpose computing device, and became fully operational. The ABC also predates Konrad Zuse’s Z3 in Berlin [May 12] by almost a year, but for the same reasons Sputnik 1 Exhibit. National the Z3 is commonly deemed the Museum of the US Air Force. US first general purpose computer. Air Force photo. 1 FSF also took over the HP-41C management of Stallman’s GNU Oct. 4, 1979 project [Sept 27], and became HP 9100 the enforcer for the GNU General The HP-41C was the first Public License, the GPL [Dec 16]. Advertised handheld programmable The FSF also sponsors calculator with an alphanumeric Oct. 4, 1968 campaigns related to software display. It also included a freedom, including fighting The journal Science ran an HP ad programming language called against Digital Rights for the first programmable FOCAL (as in "Forty-One Management (DRM), which the scientific desktop calculator CAlculator Language") which FSF prefers to call “Digital which included the words “the became notorious for Restrictions Management”. new Hewlett-Packard 9100A supporting the computed GOTO personal computer.” [May 11]. Some historians cite this as the Nevertheless, a large first published use of the phrase programming community grew Microsoft Home “personal computer,” although up around the device, creating Oct. 4, 1993 John Mauchly [Aug 30] arguably various expansion modules (and got there first on [Nov 3] 1962. a version of "Hunt the Wumpus" Software titles put out under the Also, HP usually called the [April 00]). Hackers also "Microsoft Home" banner 9100A a calculator because, as discovered a way to exploit a brought multimedia to Windows Bill Hewlett [May 12] said, “If we bug to create new programming (and the Mac). They included had called it a computer, it instructions, which was "Microsoft Flight Simulator" would have been rejected by our employed to create sounds, new [Nov 1] and various customers’ computer gurus characters, and animations. Entertainment Packs [May 22], because it didn’t look like an Most of these activities were reference titles such as IBM.” coordinated by the PPC "Microsoft Encarta" [March 22], (Personal Programming Center) Bookshelf, and Cinemania, and club and its president, Richard J. home productivity champs such Nelson. The group published the as "Microsoft Bob" [March 31]. PPC Journal, and created More than 60 products were software for several early HP available by 1994. programmable calculators, including the HP-67 and HP-65 [Jan 19]. 3DO Released In its Dec. 1980 issue, BYTE [Sept 3] described the HP-41C as Oct. 4, 1993 “the most versatile machine The 3DO was the idea of Trip ever”. Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts [May 27] and The HP 9100A. Photo by Rama. Several space shuttle mission were equipped with HP-41C's as designed by Dave Needle and R.J. CC BY-SA 2.0 fr. backups for performing Mical (who were responsible for calculations during an the Commodore Amiga [June 23] The 9100A marked the emergency. For shuttle stories, and the Atari Lynx [Sept 1]). The beginning of HP’s long history of see [Jan 22], [Feb 24], [March 3DO wasn’t a physical console, using Reverse Polish Notation 11], [Apr 00], [Apr 10], [Aug 9]. but rather a series of video (RPN), which allows complex game/entertainment standards. math to be written without the use of parentheses. However, Panasonic was the first company the Friden EC-130 [June 00] was FSF to produce an actual 3DO the first to use RPN. system, and despite a highly Oct. 4, 1985 promoted launch (including The 9100A also borrowed ideas being named Time magazine’s from Thomas E Osborne’s Richard Stallman [March 16] “1993 Product of the Year”) and “Green Machine” [Dec 24] who started a non-profit corporation possessing a host of cutting-edge was employed as a consultant. called the "Free Software technologies, its high price and Also, after some legal wrangling, Foundation" (FSF) to promote an oversaturated console HP ended up having to pay the freedom to create, distribute market limited its success. $900,000 in royalties to Olivetti, and modify software. More after adopting some features succinctly, it explains the Also, the 3DO’s claim to being from its Programma 101 [April concept of “free software” with the most advanced console was 21]. the line, “think of free as in free quickly lost with the launches of the Sony PlayStation [Dec 3] and speech, not as in free beer.” Sega Saturn [Nov 22], and it was discontinued in late 1996. 2 key to an encrypted “insurance” new Android phones. That deal file will be released [July 29]. was quickly dissolved after the acquisition, and Siri became For more online activism, see Samy Worm exclusive to Apple devices. [Jan 18], [April 10], [Nov 5]. Oct. 4, 2005 Siri may produce surprising answers on occasion. For The Samy (aka JS.Spacehero) example, when asked “What is worm attacked MySpace [Aug 1], Telephony Outage the meaning of life?”, it can reply and within just twenty hours of “All evidence to date suggests its release, over one million Oct. 4, 2006 it’s chocolate”. Asked “Why am I users had been infected. It still A bug in telecom phone number here?” it may respond, “I don’t holds the title for the fastest blacklisting software caused know. Frankly, I’ve wondered spreading virus in history. possibly the largest telephony that myself”, A request such as, When a user viewed someone's outage in US history. Between “Will you marry me?” will illicit infected profile, the worm would 10:06 and 11:30am Eastern “My End User Licensing replicate and plant itself in that Daylight Time around 111 Agreement does not cover person’s profile. It then million phone calls were marriage. My apologies”. displayed the string “but most of blocked. Siri’s main competitors, as of all, samy is my hero”. The outage began when an 2020, are Amazon’s Alexa ([Nov MySpace would later file suit employee decided to block a few 6] 2014), Microsoft’s Cortana against the virus’ creator (who's numbers suspected of malicious (2014), and Google’s Assistant first name was Samy).