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June 1St Heath Robinson Operational similar vein to Rube Goldberg in The Mark 2 supported the US). conditional branching, just as Charles Babbage’s analytical June 1st The machine consisted of a engine had done [Dec 23], frame (called the bedspread) although there’s no evidence to which supported two long suggest that the Mark 2's Heath Robinson teleprinter paper tapes on a designer, Tommy Flowers [Dec network of reels, and two other 22], was aware of Babbage's Operational racks holding counters and logic design. June 1, 1943 circuits. Ten Colossi were operating by One tape could hold 2,000 The "Heath Robinson" was a the end of the war and an characters of cipher text, while code-breaking machine used at eleventh had been the other stored patterns that Bletchley Park [Aug 15] to help commissioned. They allowed the the codebreakers believed might decrypt the Lorenz (aka Tunny) Allies to extract a vast amount of represent the Lorenz cipher. intelligence from intercepted encryption. The second tape had radio messages sent from Lorenz was a much more to be precisely one character German High Command advanced cipher than the better longer than the first, and throughout Europe. known Enigma [Feb 23]. For keeping the tapes synchronized example, Enigma machines was a major challenge. A functioning reconstruction of a initially used just three rotors Mark 2 was completed in 2008 Max Newman [Feb 7] was during their encryption process, by Tony Sale and volunteers; it's while a Lorenz device employed responsible for the Robinson's on display at The National functional specification, but twelve. Although Alan Turing Museum of Computing at most of the engineering was [June 23] is feted for his work on Bletchley. breaking Enigma, Bill Tutte carried out by Frank Morrell at should also receive credit for the Post Office Research Station cracking Lorenz, especially since at Dollis Hill. Tommy Flowers he never actually got to examine [Dec 22] designed the Tim Paterson a Lorenz machine. “Combining Unit” – the logic circuits applied to the input Born: June 1, 1956; data. Seattle, Washington Construction began in Jan. 1943, Paterson is best known for and the prototype started implementing 86-DOS for Seattle running at Bletchley Park on this Computer Products (SCP), an OS day. It was installed in Hut 11 for the Intel 8086 [June 8] which which had formerly been home emulated the API of Gary to Turing’s Bombes [March 18], Kildall’s CP/M [June 22]. 86-DOS the machines used to break later formed the basis of MS- Enigma. Jack Good [Dec 9] and DOS [Aug 12]. Donald Michie [Nov 11] were Paterson involvement with assigned to the Robinson as Microsoft (while still at SCP) code breakers. began when he designed the Because the device proved to be hardware for Microsoft’s Z80 rather slow and unreliable, it SoftCard [April 2]. It contained a was replaced by the Colossus, Z80 chip [March 9] that made it Mark 1 [Jan 18] and Mark 2 possible for an Apple II [June 5] [next entry] in 1944. to run CP/M. The Multi-movement Bomb His OS work was originally Catcher. From "Inventions"by W. known as QDOS (Quick and Heath Robinson, p.103, The Colossus Dirty Operating System); Duckworth Pub., Feb. 1998 unsurprisingly, it was quickly Mark 2 Arrives renamed. Version 0.10 was The Robinson was an electro- complete by July 1980, and it mechanical device, containing June 1, 1944 had grown to 4,000 lines of several dozen vacuum tubes. It The first Colossus Mark 2 tightly woven assembly by was named by the Wrens v1.14. (female naval personnel) who entered service at Bletchley Park operated it after the British [Aug 15] just in time for the D- Microsoft first licensed the OS cartoonist William Heath Day Normandy landings on June on [Sept 22] 1980, cannily Robinson who was known for 6. It was five times faster than making sure to secure the rights drawing complicated the original Colossus [Dec 8] to sub-license the product to mechanical devices for principally because it had other manufacturers. Unknown performing simple tasks (in a switched to using shift registers. to SCP, this meant IBM. 1 Paterson bid farewell to SCP on has an entry in the Jargon File May 1 1981 to join Microsoft’s Jeff Hawkins [Oct 2]. highly secret “Project Chess” Born: June 1, 1957; A typical tech usage from "The [Oct 20] which went on to Huntington, New York Linux Bible" (2005) produce MS-DOS. characterizes the UNIX Hawkins created the GRiDPad in Microsoft also bought 86-DOS philosophy [Oct 15] as “one that 1989, now regarded as the first outright from SCP on [July 27], can make your life a lot simpler tablet computer for consumer just before the release of the once you grok the idea”.The use. It measured 9 x 12 x 1.4 IBM PC [Aug 12]. This triggered introductory web page for cURL, inches, weighed 4.5 pounds, and a lawsuit from SCP, which an invaluable open source tool came equipped with a touch- eventually persuaded Microsoft for downloading network data, screen interface and a stylus. to fork out another $1 million to summarizes its function as the company on [Dec 16]. “cURL groks URLs”. Many years later (in 2005), Paterson sued the author Harold Evans over his characterization Pattie Maes of Paterson’s 86-DOS as a “rip- off” and “a slapdash clone” of Born: June 1, 1961; Kildall’s CP/M. Brussels, Belgium Paterson also used to race cars Maes is known for her work on in the SCCA Pro Rally series. human–computer interaction, intelligent interfaces, and ubiquitous computing. She Jeff Hawkins (2007). Photo by Jeff founded and directs the Media Kubina. CC BY-SA 2.0. Casio Founded Lab’s Fluid Interfaces research group, and previously June 1, 1957 It was manufactured by GRiD established and ran the Software Agents group. The company that eventually Systems Corp., and was became Casio was established in cautiously marketed at “workers Newsweek magazine named her April 1946 by Tadao Kashio. It's such as route delivery drivers one of the “100 Americans to first major product was the and claims adjusters, who Watch For” in 2000, which yubiwa pipe, a finger ring that typically record data on paper followed on from People could hold a cigarette, so forms.” Magazine dubbing her one of the allowing the wearer to smoke it Approximately $30 million were "50 Most Beautiful People" in down to its nub while leaving sold in its best year, and such a 1997. She was quoted as saying the person’s hands free. surge in demand quickly that MIT "is almost a wasteland in terms of beauty. It's not hard After seeing electric calculators encouraged other companies to to be the prettiest woman if at a Tokyo business show in invest in tablets. there aren't any other women. 1949, Kashio and his younger Hawkins went on to found Palm There's an expression that goes, brothers (Toshio, Kazuo, and Computing in 1992 where he In the land of the blind, the one- Yukio) decided to develop their applied the same stylus eyed man is king." The writeup own. technology to develop his most also reveals that she had been a Toshio possessed some commercially successful model in Belgium. knowledge of electronics, and product, the Palm Pilot [March Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired set out to make a calculator 10]. Later he formed magazine [Jan 2], formulated the using solenoids. The desk-sized Handspring, which released the Maes-Garreau law in 2007, device was finished in 1954, Treo [Jan 29]. named after Maes and Joel making it Japan’s first home- Garreau (author of "Radical grown electro-mechanical Evolution"). It highlights the calculator. Grokking intriguing fact that most AI In June 1957 Casio released the June 1, 1961 experts predict that life-saving Model 14-A, the world’s first all- Al will be developed in a year electric compact calculator, "Grok" was coined by US sci-fi which will prevent those same based on relay technology. The writer Robert A. Heinlein for his experts from dying of old age. name indicated that the machine 1961 novel "Stranger in a Maes is name-checked because operated with fourteen-digit Strange Land". of the list of her MIT colleagues numbers. that she created in 1993 who The Oxford English Dictionary had predicted mind uploading summarizes the meaning as “to (the replication of a human understand intuitively or by brain on a computer). She empathy, to establish rapport observed that this startling with”. More importantly, "Grok" innovation was generally slated 2 to occur approximately 70 years MacPaint [April 27] which Ballmer had left Microsoft, and after the birth of the predictor. meant it was capable of both taken up yoga. bitmap painting and vector For more Ballmer and Linux, see graphics. William Snider wrote [May 14]. the software entirely in Pascal OSTAR Winner on an Apple Lisa [Jan 19]. Uses Computer Silicon Beach also created Limits to Growth June 1, 1968 Digital Darkroom, a photo editor which debutted the Magic Wand, June 1, 2004 The OSTAR (Observer/Original a tool that became much better Single-handed Trans-Atlantic known in Photoshop [Feb 19]. “The Limits to Growth” was a Race) has acquired a reputation The company's SuperCard 1972 report about the World3 for encouraging the improved on HyperCard [Aug simulation model (coded in development of ocean sailing 11] by adding support for color, DYNAMO [March 21]) which technology; for instance, the multiple windows, and vector described the consequences of 1968 event featured the first use drawing.
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