Hacker News Reader

Comment by parker | Hacker News Reader

Can't help but thing of this song:

"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true; I'm half crazy over the love of you; It won't be a stylish marriage; I can't afford a carriage; But you look sweet, upon the seat; Of a bicycle built for two"

Trivia sidenote -- he called the supercomputer in 2001 HAL because he thought the company IBM would become increasingly dominant in a technical world. HAL's letters each are one below IBM's.

View on HN

    "Is it true, Dr. Chandra, that you chose the name HAL to be one step ahead of IBM?"

    "Utter nonsense! Half of us come from IBM and we've been trying to stamp out that story for years. I thought that by now every intelligent person knew that H-A-L is derived from Heuristic ALgorithmic."

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/faq/index.html#slot7

Though Clarke denied that, asserting it simply stood for "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer" and was just a coincidence. Obviously, the odds are against him...

Another one of his mysteries I suppose... but I DID learn that while watching a TBS 2001/2010 marathon in like 1996. Ted Turner has never steered me wrong before.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com