I Programmer's History section charts the origins of many famous computers - Colossus, SAGE, the IBM PC and HAL 9000, an entirely fictional 20th computer that still couldn't be realised even with today's artificial intelligence.

HAL 9000 is the anti-hero of Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the movie adaptation he reveals "I became operational at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, on January 12, 1997" making today his anniversary.

HAL is a product of fiction and computer graphics machine and yet it seems to stir something in the soul of the computer scientist.

Why?

Read HAL's "biography" to find out.