[Sept 9]. And C is Dennis with an became the first to be widely assist from Ken.” They distributed to universities. By Feb. 4th presented their first paper on that time, the OS consisted of UNIX on [Oct 15] 1973. about 9,000 lines of C and 700 lines of assembly for machine- Lotfi Aliasker specific operations like setting up registers, devices, and Zadeh memory mapping. Born: Feb. 4, 1921; UNIX wasn’t the first OS written Baku, Azerbaijan in a high-level language. The system software for the Died: Sept. 6, 2017 Burroughs B5000 [Feb 18], the Zadeh proposed using fuzzy sets MCP (Master Control Program), to manipulate concepts with was written in an variety of ambiguous boundaries, and it ALGOL 60 [Jan 11] called ESPOL. soon found favor in diverse fields such as pattern The home of UNIX during the recognition and database 1970's was the sixth floor of systems. The led to related ideas Building 2 at Bell Labs, in room 2C-644 to be exact. According to such as fuzzy numbers, fuzzy Ken Thompson (1973). Photo Brian Kernighan: “The sixth arithmetic, and fuzzy logic. from the Jargon File. floor was basically a service Not everyone liked the theory: corridor: dingy, dimly lit and the mathematician William Thompson and Ritchie were lined with storage areas holding Kahan dismissed it as “the members of the Bell Labs dusty abandoned equipment in cocaine of science,” but it proved Computing Sciences Research locked wire cages. … There were useful, and Zadeh’s first paper Center at Murray Hill. During the a handful of enclosed spaces, from 1965 accumulated nearly 1960's, the center was a one of which was the UNIX 100,000 citations. member of the Multics project room.” [Nov 30], but Bell pulled out of Zadeh described himself like so: the collaboration in April 1969. Thompson’s work day typically “Obstinacy and tenacity. Not Nevertheless, Thompson wanted began late – he’d arrive a minute being afraid to get embroiled in to continue doing OS research, or two before the lunch room controversy. That’s very much a but also wanted to avoid Multics' closed at 1:15 pm, and then Turkish tradition. That’s part of “big system mentality.” would work until 3 or 4 am. His my character, too. I can be very preferred programming stubborn. That’s probably been He originally implemented the environment was a Teletype beneficial for the development first components of UNIX as terminal [April 00] with no of fuzzy logic.” tools to help him port his “Space screen. Travel” game over to a PDP-7 Zadeh was a fine dancer and a [Dec 00]. The game simulated Thompson’s other contributions skilled tennis player. the motion of planets and included the B language, the moons, with the player cruising predecessor to Ritchie’s C, the through space and landing on first implementation of regular the planets. Thompson wrote expressions [Jan 5], the Belle Kenneth Lane three key tools: an assembler, an chess computer built by Joe Thompson editor (called ed [Aug 1969]), Condon and programmed by and a shell, in a single month, Thompson [Sept 25]. His Born: Feb. 4, 1943; August 1969, while his family interest in chess is reflected in his login password from the late New Orleans, Louisiana was away visiting relatives. 1970’s [Oct 9]. At Bell Labs [Jan 1], Thompson After the project moved to a developed the UNIX operating PDP-11 [Jan 5], Thompson, He was one of the creators of the system with Dennis Ritchie [Sept Ritchie, Doug McIlroy [April 3], Plan 9 OS [July 16], defined UTF- 9]. UNIX inspired BSD [March 9], and Rudd Canaday added a 8 [Sept 2] with Rob Pike [Nov Xenix [Aug 25], AIX, POSIX [?? hierarchical file system (an idea 10], and co-invented the Go 1988], Solaris [Sept 4], Linux borrowed from Multics), language at Google [Nov 10]. processes, pipes [Oct 11], device [Oct 26], Android [Nov 5], A/UX For many years, the bottom files, and numerous text utilities [Feb 8], NeXTSTEP [Oct 12], drawer of his filing cabinet [Nov 6]. MacOS [March 24], and many, contained an Enigma machine many others. Thompson wrote the first two or [Feb 23], which he'd inherited Brian Kernighan [Jan 1] three versions of UNIX in from Fred Grampp, a Bell Labs characterized the collaboration assembly, but rewrote it colleague. How Grampp between Thompson and Ritchie (mostly) in C in 1972 to make it obtained the machine is as: “UNIX is Ken Thompson with more portable. This became shrouded in mystery. an assist from Dennis Ritchie UNIX version 4, and version 6 1 Thompson was an avid pilot, and film strip could replace the John T. Molloy, author of the persuaded several other paper printouts. business fashion bible “Dress for members of the UNIX group to Success,” was against the When the research team was become aviators. When he was change. He said, “Part of the studying the results of "Casey" in 48, he paid $12,000 to fly a MiG- perception that gave them an the summer of 1952, they 29 fighter jet in Russia, where he edge was that corporate dress brought in Herbert Simon [June performed a variety of rolls, code. It said, ‘We are a step loops, and inverted stalls. He 15] as an expert on organization above. We are different. We are theory. Newell and Simon would described it as “equal parts G- not like the other guys.’ What later work together on some of force and adrenaline”. IBM has done is a colossal the earliest AI systems. blunder.” Some quotes: “One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code.” IBM Dresses Down “You can’t trust code that you Bill Gates did not totally create yourself.” its Staff Creampied Feb. 4, 1995 Feb. 4, 1998 Louis Gerstner, Jr. [March 1], Computer War Bill Gates [Oct 28] was cream- then chairman of IBM [Feb 14], pied (hit in the face by a pie announced that the company Gaming filled with cream) by Belgian would relax its formal dress Noël Godin. At the time, Gates Feb. 4, 1952 requirements for staff. was nonchalantly entering a The first computer-simulated IBMers traditionally wore pin- European Union building in war game, “Project Simulator,” striped dark suits, well-starched Brussels to give a speech about was conducted by John L. white button-down shirts, education. Kennedy, a psychologist at the seriously-minded ties, a fedora The prankster escaped, but an RAND Corporation [Oct 1], (mandatory until the 1960's), accomplice and cameraman working with the Air Defense and polished wing-tipped shoes were taken into custody. Godin Command. (and hence the nickname for the later appeared on television to IBM sales force: “wingtip It involved the building of a take full responsibility for the warriors”). However, there was mock-up of the Tacoma radar grievous attack. Gates, who at never an official dress code, and station in the back of a Santa the time was more worried the practice had just sprung up Monica billiard room (other about software piracy [Feb 3] naturally under the leaderships sources say it was a warehouse than soft pies, did not press of Thomas J. Watson Sr. [Feb 17] on 4th and Broadway). The aim charges. and Jr. [Jan 14]. was to study how individuals Godin's exploits have become so interacted when supplied with renowned in the French- simulated aircraft tracks as they speaking world that a word has might appear on radar scopes. been coined to describe the act The experiment, known as of being creampied: “entarter”. “Casey,” ran from Feb. 4 to June Godin himself is called 8, 1952, and consisted of 54 “L’entarteur,” or “the Pieman” . four-hour sessions. Twenty- His other targets have included eight UCLA students were filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard and recruited as test subjects. Brigitte Bardot, the French film star turned animal rights Allen Newell [March 19] activist. Godard noted that “this programmed RAND’s IBM 604 to is what happens when silent calculate sample aircraft tracks movies meet talking pictures”. and print their positions (as 1’s and 8’s) onto a series of sheets IBM 7090 [Nov 30] and A computer game was later printed by an IBM 407. A new personnel (1961). Photo by released in which Gates’ head page was generated every 30 NASA Ames Resarch Center. pops up around the screen and seconds corresponding to the the objective is to creampie him rate at which a radar screen On the first day back at work as many times as possible in an changed. after the pronouncement, allocated time [Aug 12]. The results persuaded the Air Gerstner wore a daring blue suit Force to deploy the system, and and shirt combination. However, fund a variety of improvements, IBM watchers had already including a high resolution predicted these seismic shifts camera and a CRT display so a when Gerstner had taken over two years before, and was seen wearing a striped shirt. 2 from PayPal [Feb 15] co-founder The Sims Released Facebook Born Peter Thiel. Feb. 4, 2000 Feb. 4, 2004 In Aug. 2005, the company dropped “the” from its name “The Sims” is a life simulation Mark Zuckerberg [May 14] and after purchasing the domain game, developed by a team at roommates Eduardo Saverin, facebook.com for $200,000. Maxis led by Will Wright [Jan Andrew McCollum, Dustin 20], and published by Electronic Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, In Dec. 2009, with 350 million Arts (EA). It's an open-ended launched “Thefacebook”, registered users and 132 million game in the same style as operating from their Harvard unique monthly users, Facebook Wright’s earlier mega-hit “Sim dorm room (H 33) at Kirkland became the most popular social City” [Feb 2].