Algorithm

Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī

We know that algorithm was originally a mathematical and linguistics term. It dates back to the 9th century AD and a mistake in interpreting Hindu to Latin – Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī wrote a piece on calculations with Hindu numerals in 825 AD, and when it was translated to Latin in the twelfth century, the translator used “Algoritmi” as the authors name, so the title was (approximate English translation) “Algoritmi on the numbers of the Indians”. So essentially the title was misunderstood, and “algoritmi” eventually “algorithm”. Here’s Muhammad on the right. He was a very serious looking fella with the bags under his eyes

ASP

The MS language started off at Aspect Software Engineering. They’d completed dbWeb, which was a commercial failure. Although Microsoft stepped in and bought ASE as they were creating i-Basic (dbWeb’s successor). MS then renamed it to ASP.

Boot

Baron Münchhausen

Short for bootstrap, it literally comes from the term ‘to pull one up by one’s bootstraps’. That particular term has been traced back to The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe, who lived in Germany during the 18th century. He was a librarian, but considered a rogue by his biographer, so supposedly a librarian you could sit next to at a dinner party. The reference to bootstraps stems from a story where the Baron escapes a swamp by pulling himself up by his bootstraps. The Baron was a real person, known for telling tall tales about his adventures (other feats include riding a cannonball and visiting the moon). The psychological disease Munchausen Syndrome is named after him, in which sufferers are driven to pretend to have an illness when they really don’t.

Bug/Debug

Thomas Edison first used the word ‘bug’ in a letter to Theodore Puskas in 1878.

“It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition–and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing gives out and then that–”Bugs”–as such little faults and difficulties are called–show themselves”.

The word ‘debug’ was first used in the Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1945, and wasn’t used in computing until the mid-1950s.

C

C is so-named because its design was influenced by B, a language that died out in the ’90s. A relatively new language called D was influenced by C (as well as C++ and C#).

C++

Originally called ‘C with Classes’ (it was first developed as an extension for C). When it became a commercial language (in about 1983) it was renamed to C++, as “the name signifies the evolutionary nature of the changes from C”. The ++ is a tongue-in-cheek reference to C’s ‘++’ used to increment the value of a variable.

C#

Originally called Project Cool (C like Object Orientated Language), Microsoft wanted to keep the name, but changed their mind to name it C#. The ‘#’ is musically inspired, ‘C sharp’ being a semi-tone above C.

ColdFusion

Initially called Cold Fusion before becoming ColdFusion (one word instead of two), possibly for trademark reasons. The first version was created by JJ Allaire of Allaire Corp. and couldn’t do much more than access a database. Allaire Corporation were bought by Macromedia in 2001 who were in turn bought by Adobe a few years later.

CSS

Originally called CHSS (Cascading HTML Style Sheets), the ‘H’ was soon dropped as stylesheets could be used by other markup languages other than HTML.

EMACS

Based on the simple WYSIWYG editor called ‘E’ used in the Stanford AI lab in the early ’70s, EMACS stands for E with MACroS.

Erlang

Agner Krarup Erlang

Developed by Ericsson, You might think that Erlang is short for ‘Ericsson Language’, although it’s actually a reference to A. K. Erlang, a Danish engineer, mathematician and all-round bright guy. Although the guys at Ericsson admit that the double-meaning wasn’t a coincidence.

Flash

Originally called FutureSplash, it was created by a small company called FutureWave, a four-man company in San Diego who wanted to compete with Macromedia’s bloated ShockWave plugin. Having none of that nonsense Macromedia bought out FutureWave and went on to develop it into Flash.

Hypertext (as in HTTP and HTML)

Ted Nelson

Hyper is a greek word that means to overcome the traditional constraints of written text. Ted Nelson came up with the word, as well as hypermedia. He got a bit pissed when people started saying ‘interactive multimedia’ instead of hypermedia, not able to understand why anyone would want to use so many more syllables.

Java

Originally called Oak (Java’s creator, James Gosling had an oak tree outside his office window and didn’t really have much imagination). It was renamed to Green (guess he was still staring at the tree) before finally being renamed to Java from a list of random words.

JavaScript

Originally called Mocha, then renamed to LiveScript before settling on the current name of JavaScript. As you’ll probably know it has nothing to do with Java. Some believe its name was a marketing ploy by Netscape to ride the coattails of Sun’s Java, which was gaining some serious popularity at the time (around 1995).

JPEG

Developed by and named after the Joint Photographic Experts Group.

MPEG

Stands for Moving Picture Expert Group, who are an ISO Working Group. You can check out the official MPEG website here, although I have to warn you – it’s not pretty.

Perl

Originally it was called Pearl, after the Parable of the Pearl in the Gospel of Matthew. Although it was renamed when its creator, Larry Wall, realised a language called PEARL already existed.

PhotoShop

Thomas Knoll's 'Display'

Originally named ‘Display’ when it was a small project for the Macintosh Plus back at the University of Michigan in ‘87. A PhD student called Thomas Knoll was the developer behind the project. When his brother saw the potential in Display, they put six months aside to create ‘ImagePro’. They then changed their minds on the name again and renamed it PhotoShop when it was packaged along with a slide scanner.

PHP

Stood for ‘Personal Homepage’ in its inception in 1993, until version 3 in 1997 when it became known as a recursive initialism, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

PuTTy

There’s no actual reason for the name, although TTy is the common Unix abbreviation for a terminal.

Python

Nothing to do with the snake, it’s actually named after Monty Python’s Flying Circus. There aren’t any similarities between Python and the BBC comedy, it just so happens that Guido van Rossum was reading the scripts from Monty Python when he was creating this language.

Ruby

In Ruby’s case the name was chosen before any code was written. In a choice between the names Ruby and Coral, Yukihiro Matsumoto opted for Ruby because it was the birthstone of one of his colleagues.

Spam

Another Monty Python reference. Some suggest it’s an acronym for ‘Shit Posing As Mail’ or ‘Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages’, although the accepted version is that the name is based on a Monty Python sketch about SPAM being the main ingredient in every dish offered in a cafe. Here’s that clip:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE

The luncheon meat called SPAM is always spelt in uppercase. The makers of SPAM have never complained about the potential infringement on their trademark, as long as unsolicited emails are refered to as ’spam’ in lowercase only.

Wiki

A popular misconception is that wiki is an acronym for ‘What I Know Is’. Although I’ve since learnt that’s a backronym. It’s actually based on the Hawaiian word for ‘fast’.

XML

The eXtensible Markup Language could have been named MAGMA (Minimal Architecture for Generalized Markup Applications), MGML (Minimal Generalized Markup Language) or SLIM (Structured Language for Internet Markup). XML was designed by a W3C Working Group of eleven members who never actually met face-to-face.

2008: Quantum of Solace

Daniel Craig’s current James Bond outing with Olga Kurylenko. Discovered when she was 13, she began modelling before moving into films. Her last action movie was in Hitman, where she had a face tattoo and got it on with a bald bloke with guns.

2006: Casino Royale

Daniel Craig’s first outing in his tux with Eva Green. Another model-turned-actress, Eva was in Kingdom of Heaven (a Ridley Scott epic) before getting Casino Royale. After her Bond film she appeared in The Golden Compass and is soon to be seen in Franklyn playing a woman with multiple personalities.

2001: Die Another Day

Halle Berry sold the movie on her Ursula Andress beach scene re-enactment (here’s a comparison), although this was the last of the Bond franchise for Pierce Brosnan, who in spite of vying for another shot as the secret agent got dumped as part of the re-imagining of the series with Daniel Craig onboard instead. They were talking about a spin-off with Berry as Jinx. Thankfully the Hollywood bigwigs seem to have forgotten about that after seeing her as Catwoman.

1999: The World Is Not Enough

Denise Richards was the other Bond girl in this title, but I discount her on the grounds that she couldn’t act if her life depended on it, and hopefully some day it will. Sophie Marceau was the one true Bond girl here. She’s massive in France, with a movie out next year called Percussions where she stars opposite Christopher Lambert, who apparently still gets work also.

1997: Tomorrow Never Dies

Teri Hatcher makes an appearance as the Bond Girl ‘Paris Carver’ soon after her days as Lois Lane. In TND she plays a desperate wife married to a power hungry sociopath and seduced by Bond. Her career picked up again with Desperate Housewives. Michelle Yeoh of Crouching Tiger plays the other Bond Girl in this outing.

1995: Goldeneye

After a six year break, the franchise came back with Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Goldeneye was probably Brosnan’s best Bond movie. Izabella Scorupco didn’t really get the career break she was looking for, and like so many Bond Girls before her has faded into obscurity – only making a brief appearance on Alias and dragon movie Reign of Fire since her Bond days.

1989: Licence To Kill

Timothy Dalton’s last go in the tuxedo, and Carey Lowell as another Bond girl who really hasn’t done much of note since her flirtations with the Bond.

1987: The Living Daylights

Going for the bob-cut like its going out of fashion or something, Maryam d’Abo played the cello, not the sexiest of instruments – but with its case easily converted to a sled for a quick and daring escape down a snowy mountain, they’d have been screwed if she’d played the violin. Maryam still pops up every now and again in TV movies.

1985: A View To A Kill

Obviously things aren’t going so well for Tanya Roberts these days, reduced to wearing just a couple of old paisley ties she found in her granddad’s loft. She does look like the archetypical 80’s babe in her part as Stacy Sutton. Roger Moore’s last go at saying ‘Bond, James Bond’, before he lost his licence to kill. He was really old anyway (he was 58 at the time). She was most recently a regular as Donna’s mum/mom, Midge on That ’70s Show.

1983:  Octopussy

Fact: there will never be a Bond with a title as awesome as Octopussy. Maud Adams plays the title role of Octopussy herself, which must have been delightful for her given that her real name’s ‘Maud’. These days she does a bit of work in her homeland, Sweden. Her English-speaking work tends to be bit parts in various TV series and low-budget Indie movies. She’s the only Bond Girl to make a repeat on-screen appearance, since she also had a role in The Man With The Golden Gun.

1981: For Your Eyes Only

Melina Havelock was the name of Carole Bouquet’s character, with Roger Moore in full swing as the geriatric Bond. She’s French, and still keeps herself pretty busy in her home country in various French TV shows, movies and other things the rest of the world won’t ever see (other than Quebec, eh?).

1979: Moonraker

Lois Chiles has chosen to keep her haircut from when she played Dr Holly Goodhead, only 30 short years ago. Less consistant is her career, these days limited to guest appearances on TV shows.

1977: The Spy Who Loved Me

Where the list starts looking at the real wrinklies. Barbara Bach played Major Anya Amasova opposite Roger Moore. One of the better-reviewed Bond movies, this outing saw three Oscar nominations. She’s now married to Ringo Starr and hasn’t done any acting work since 1986.

1974: The Man With The Golden Gun

Roger Moore’s first movie playing Bond. Britt Ekland was stunning. She now looks like she’s permanently pressed her lips up against a car window. Her only listed work since 1992 was a small part in Lexx.

1973: Live And Let Die

Jane Seymour starred opposite Roger Moore as Solitaire. Despite the name, Jane doesn’t seem to prefer playing with herself – she’s now on her fourth marriage. She keeps busy with TV work and lives in the UK.

1971: Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds are forever, but Lazemby definitely wasn’t. Sean Connery comes back for one final shot as Bond. Did you know he wore a wig in every Bond movie? Jill St. John has the honour of acting alongside the great Scotsman playing the great Englishman wearing the great wig. The last thing she did of note was Seinfield in 1997.

1969: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

George Lazemby appears as the only actor to play Bond just once in a movie (Bob Holness once played him in a radio play, and Barry Nelson played him in a TV adaptation of Casino Royale). Diana Rigg appears as the woman who Bond marries. The whole movie has a dark sense of doom about it. Still, Diana Rigg was pretty hot stuff back in her day – Emma Peel being her best known character, kicking ass through the late-sixties in The Avengers.

1967: You Only Live Twice

Japanese actress Akiko Wakabayashi was one of the first Asian Bond girls, and also a nightmare name for the guys doing the opening credits. Wakabayashi played Aki, which is the least imaginative Bond girl name I’ve come across. Akiko left acting after Japanese filmakers started cutting budgets when the economy started looking shaky, and she didn’t bother getting back into it after things were back on the up. In one interview with G-FAN Magazine she said she didn’t get back into acting because of injuries she sustained during the making of a movie (it’s not clear which movie this is, but apparently it’s not You Only Live Twice).

1965: Thunderball

Claudine Auger plays Domino opposite Sean Connery’s Bond. Her accent was too thick for English audiences so her voice was dubbed by the same woman who did the dubbing for Ursula Andress – Nikki Van der Zyl. Although she only played voices, it technically makes Van der Zyl the only actress beside Maud Adams to play a Bond girl more than once (thanks to Brandt for the correction here).

1964: Goldfinger

Honor Blackman is a bit of an English institution. I remember her when I was growing up playing the granny in ‘The Upper Hand‘, the British remake of the US series ‘Who’s The Boss?‘. She also preceded Diana Rigg in The Avengers. Still, in the world of Bond she’s remembered for playing Pussy Galore. She’s now in her 80s and still working on various TV shows in the UK.

1963: From Russia With Love

Daniela Bianchi was another actress to get dubbed because of her thick Italian accent (she had to speak her lines phonetically as she didn’t speak English). Daniela married into money a couple of years later and didn’t need to work ever again.

1962:  Dr No

The Bond movie to feature Ursula Andress, who’s scene where she walks onto the beach from the sea is the most well-renowned scene out of every Bond movie. As mentioned above, her voice was dubbed over because her English wasn’t clear enough. The rest of her performance is all Ursula. She still works occasionally (as in once every few years) and lives in Europe (possibly Switzerland or Rome) with her long-term partner, Lorenzo Rispoli.