Fortran punch card: I remember punching out code on hundreds of these cards.
Fortran punch card: I remember punching out code on hundreds of these cards.
Courtesy Arnold Reinhold
Oct 15, 1956, John W. Backus published a manual explaining a new way to program computers.

“John Backus and his Fortran project members almost single-handedly invented the ideas of both programming languages and (optimizing) compilers as we know them today." Wired

Instead of compiling complex machine code which tooks weeks, Fortran code could be written in hours and was much easier.
I was even able to learn Fortran back in the late 60's. It even satisfied my foreign language requirement!

Smile for the camera!

by Amanda Luker on Jul. 05th, 2007
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Do surveillance cameras make you squirm? In our age of heightened IDPS
IDPS in action, photo courtesy Miquelmora.com
British artist Miquel Mora is sparking debate with the Identity Protection System -- a small sticker one can wear that causes their image to distort when recorded by a video camera (see photo.) Mora recently presented this project at Royal College of Art's Great Exhibition.

The prototype Mora built uses Processing, an open source programming language for interactive experiences, to detect and respond to the stickers. (Download Processing free here to try it out!) Mora sees this little device being incorporated into jewelry or clothing -- to give the wearer the security of knowing they can't be captured on video without their consent.

Of course, this item raises huge security concerns -- but, as Mora says, IDPS "is like any other technology ... what is bad is the way we use it."