<div dir="ltr">>> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:16px">Where did it all begin?</span><div>Do you mean, where did the non-serious names begin?</div><div><br></div><div>Apple, in 76, and Altair, in 75, both come to mind.</div><div><br></div><div>Engelbart called it the "mouse" in 1968.</div><div><br></div><div>RAND had the Johnniac in 1954.</div><div><br></div><div>Although, there was Edmund Berkeley's "Simon" in 1950.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 3:11 PM Ceruzzi, Paul via Members <<a href="mailto:members@lists.sigcis.org">members@lists.sigcis.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-2207074110780275712">
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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"
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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.</div>
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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!"</div>
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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?</div>
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Paul Ceruzzi</div>
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</div></blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:12pt"><b><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(111,111,111)">Evan Koblentz</span></b><b><span style="font-size:9pt;color:rgb(111,111,111)"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:12pt"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(111,111,111)"><br>- Senior Writer, Office of Communications and Marketing</span><span style="font-size:11pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:12pt"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(111,111,111)">- Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:12pt"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(111,111,111)">- Advisor, NJIT Lego Club</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:12pt"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(111,111,111)"><br><a href="mailto:evan.a.koblentz@njit.edu" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(204,0,0)">evank@njit.edu</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:12pt"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(111,111,111)"><a href="tel:9735963065" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(204,0,0)">(973) 596-3065</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:12pt"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(111,111,111)"><a href="https://web.njit.edu/~evank/" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">https://web.njit.edu/~evank/</span></a></span></p></div></div>