[SIGCIS-Members] Jim Cortada's "Inside IBM"

[Brian E Carpenter]

On 21-Feb-24 09:21, Koblentz, Evan via Members wrote:
>  >> Where did it all begin?
> Do you mean, where did the non-serious names begin?

Turing, in his 1946 ACE design, described a stack with the
operators BURY and UNBURY, and several whimsical names were
used at Bletchley Park (the Newmanry, Heath Robinson and so on).

I'm also a bit suspicious that the Booths' HEC was, what the heck,
whimsical as well.

So, I think non-serious names started at the beginning :-).

    Brian

> 
> Apple, in 76, and Altair, in 75, both come to mind.
> 
> Engelbart called it the "mouse" in 1968.
> 
> RAND had the Johnniac in 1954.
> 
> Although, there was Edmund Berkeley's "Simon" in 1950.
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 3:11 PM Ceruzzi, Paul via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members at lists.sigcis.org>> wrote:
> 
>     I finally had a chance to look at the summary of Jim's book from CBI, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I always found IBM's control over nomenclature noteworthy: "Electronic Data Processing," not "Computer"; "Diskette"
>     I finally had a chance to look at the summary of Jim's book from CBI, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I always found IBM's control over nomenclature noteworthy: "Electronic Data Processing," not "Computer"; "Diskette" not "floppy"; "pointing Device" not "mouse." And others. I remember being shocked – shocked! when IBM called its OS2 operating system "Warp." So out of place, but the world, and IBM, moved on.
> 
>     Now we see the proliferation of what I consider inappropriate names for software and services that have a serious place in society: Google, Twitch, Slack, Yahoo! When Tom Haigh & I were writing our Third Edition, we had a discussion about whether to include the exclamation point in Yahoo. We left it off. And when I suggested to my office mates at the Smithsonian that we adopt Slack, they thought I was joking. I'm glad we didn't adopt it, regardless of how useful it isd or isn't.  Could you imagine President Eisenhower issuing a Tweet? (General Eisenhower once said, in response to a RAND Corporation report, "There will be no software in this man's army!"
> 
>     Where did it all begin? Maybe from a programmer named Tom Pittman, author of Tiny Basic. He called his service "Itty Bitty Computers." This was around 1976 or so. Anyone have better information?
> 
>     Paul Ceruzzi
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> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> *Evan Koblentz***
> 
> 
> - Senior Writer, Office of Communications and Marketing
> 
> - Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing
> 
> - Advisor, NJIT Lego Club
> 
> 
> evank at njit.edu <mailto:evan.a.koblentz at njit.edu>
> 
> (973) 596-3065 <tel:9735963065>
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> https://web.njit.edu/~evank/ <https://web.njit.edu/~evank/>
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