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invented?
There is no easy answer to this question due to the many different
classifications of computers. The first mechanical computer, created
by Charles Babbage in 1822, doesn't really resemble what most
would consider a computer today. Therefore, this document has
been created with a listing of each of the computer firsts, starting
with the Difference Engine and leading up to the computers we use
today.
Note: Early inventions which helped lead up to the computer, such as the
abacus, calculator, and tablet machines, are not accounted for in this
document.
Around the same time, the Manchester Mark 1 was another computer
that could run stored programs. Built at the Victoria University of
Manchester, the first version of the Mark 1 computer became operational
in April 1949 and was used to run a program to search for Mersenne
primes for nine hours without error on June 16 and 17 that same year.
See the below other computer companies first for other IBM
compatible computers
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Click to Open Overlay GalleryFernando Corbat at MIT in the 1960s. Was MIT's
CTSS computer the first one to use passwords?
Photo: MIT Museum
If youre like most people, youre annoyed by passwords. Youve got dozens to remember
some of them tortuously complex and on any given day, as you read e-mails, send tweets,
and order groceries online, youre bound to forget one, or at least mistype it. You may even
be one of those unfortunate people whove had a password stolen, thanks to the dodgy
security on the machines that store them.
Twenty-five years after the fact, Allan Scherr, a Ph.D. researcher at MIT in the early 60s,
came clean about the earliest documented case of password theft.
In the spring of 1962, Scherr was looking for a way to bump up his usage time on CTSS. He
had been allotted four hours per week, but it wasnt nearly enough time to run the detailed
performance simulations hed designed for the new computer system. So he simply printed
out all of the passwords stored on the system.
There was a way to request files to be printed offline by submitting a punched card, he
remembered in a pamphlet written last year to commemorate the invention of the CTSS.
Late one Friday night, I submitted a request to print the password files and very early
Saturday morning went to the file cabinet where printouts were placed and took the listing.
To spread the guilt around, Scherr then handed the passwords over to other users. One of
them J.C.R. Licklieder promptly started logging into the account of the computer labs
director Robert Fano, and leaving taunting messages behind.
Scherr left MIT in May 1965 to take a job at IBM, but 25 years later he confessed to
Professor Fano in person. He assured me that my Ph.D. would not be revoked.