From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,52a0bacbcdd2da17 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-08-21 13:37:42 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!cyclone.bc.net!snoopy.risq.qc.ca!nf3.bellglobal.com!nf1.bellglobal.com!nf2.bellglobal.com!news20.bellglobal.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Software Patent Concerns => New Black Markets? References: <33bfd395.0308190954.5b7e296c@posting.google.com> <6kA0b.5574$q9.318397@read1.cgocable.net> <3F43F1C3.2020806@attbi.com> In-Reply-To: <3F43F1C3.2020806@attbi.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <7S91b.628$9a2.32928@news20.bellglobal.com> Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 16:22:42 -0400 NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.96.223.163 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sympatico.ca X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 1061497347 198.96.223.163 (Thu, 21 Aug 2003 16:22:27 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 16:22:27 EDT Organization: Bell Sympatico Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:41768 Date: 2003-08-21T16:22:42-04:00 List-Id: Thanks Robert, for sharing that with us. I generally find pioneering work such as this, fascinating. Warren. Robert I. Eachus wrote: > Warren W. Gay VE3WWG wrote: > >> "They decreed that the stored-program idea rightfully >> belonged in the public domain." >> >> And that is how it was decided, and we enjoy its benefits today. > > I knew many of the people involved in this. (Pres Eckart was best man > at my parent's wedding, and my father at Pres's first wedding.) But > more than that I knew a number of people who actually worked on Eniac in > addition to the principle players. ... > Johnny von then wrote his infamous paper, recently declassified. The > reason for the omitted references became obvious when that happened. The > Johnny von paper was prepared with an annex that described some of the > details of the implementation and credited Pres and John Mauchley. But > the paper was distributed at a time when it was felt that the fact the > machine actually existed at present should be very closely held. But > still most people who saw the (classified) paper never saw the annex. > Why? Because the annex discussed how to use ENIAC to replace the bombes > used to decrypt Enigma messages. The Johnny Von paper was only Top > Secret. That annex was literally classified as Ultra Secret, and only > available to those in the know on Ultra. (And again, AFAIK, my father > did get to see the full paper, but Pres Eckert never did. However, I was > not able to discuss that with my father until much, much later when I > could show him an unclassified copy of the annex, so we are talking > memories thirty years later.) > -- > Robert I. Eachus -- Warren W. Gay VE3WWG http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg