The GNU pinky command homepage has a #history of the #finger utility, originally by #Les-Earnest, then at #SAIL. “Finger was named for the act of pointing. I recall that sometime after it became popular I received a message from a system administrator who thought that it should be renamed so that users would not have to use a ‘dirty’ word. I gave his request all the consideration that it deserved.” The pinky difference is that it doesn’t support the finger protocol.
100-minute #video on #SAGE #history from a Sun-sponsored #lecture at the #CHM in 01998. Relevant context is the USSR’s first atomic bomb test in 01949. Aircraft kill ratios in the Battle of Britain were 10%, so an effective air defense was unthinkable. At 30'00” Paul Edwards gives the cost as US$4–12B in 01960 dollars. At 30'40” Paul Edwards explains that IBM got paid US$500 million to build the planned 56 computers (28 duplexes). Western Electric film on it starts at 5'11”. 800 programmers (34'00”) which was 20% of the world’s programmers, all working at SDC, which spun off from RAND toward the end of 57, as James Wong explains (55'20”). Maguire went online in June of 01958. Stuart Air Force Base in September. Apparently MIT’s original proposal was to put the whole system underground, but the Pentagon decided that was too expensive. Invited speaker #Les-Earnest (?) says, “This gave rise to this whole industry of ‘L-systems’, so-called: 438L, 465L, all this stuff, that were competing for funds with other things. And for the most part, none of them worked worth a damn. Uh, there were a few exceptions. The satellite control system, I would say, and provided good intelligence, but most of these others, including the Strategic Defense Initiative, were basically boondoggles, and we ain’t through it yet. This stuff is still going on. It gave rise to a multi-billion-dollar industry that basically produces useless junk. And here we are 40 years later.” They tried doing SAGE in JOVIAL, but ended up doing it all in assembly. Mean time between failures of each half of the duplex was maybe days.
on 02025-12-11