More IBM-tans

[Chocofreak13]

basic strategy. what better way to teach the concepts of war than with chess?

also, it seems that WOPR is only capable of learning futility if his brain explodes. and NEVER make him play tic-tac-toe.

[NejinOniwa]

Ruka is a good girl. :3


Well...
Mostly. ^^

[Chocofreak13]

and WOPR is a good boy, just overzealous. :3

[Aurora Borealis]

Did you see the IMSAI 8080 in War Games? The protagonist used one to connect to WOPR!

[Bella]

I knew the protagonist used an IMSAI! 'though I didn't see it on account of always watching that movie an hour or so into it. >>'

Sort of random, but - pretty sure I saw an IMSAI 8080 at the American History Museum this summer. Unless it was that other computer I always get the 8080 mixed up with...

[Chocofreak13]

ahh. his setup was pretty boss. -w- though i doubt that thing with the telephone is real. :\

[Bella]

The PDP-8, and by extension PDP-8-tan, just got fuckin' scary.

(Though she also did non-fuckin' scary things like controlling scoreboards at Fenway Park, and rolling with ladies in VW Bugs!)

Discuss.

[Bella]

Anyone up for -tanning some ancient computers? I've discovered some prime tannage material IMO.

The computer? Simon
The -tan? GENIAC's big brother, claims the title of First Personal Computer (snick).

The computer? TIFRAC
The -tan? Born 1955, she's India's first computer-tan.

The computer? FUJIC
The -tan? One of the earliest Japanese OS-tans, Fujic-san is a camera nut and optics genius.

The computer? Florida Automatic Computer
The -tan? Lost member of the von Neumann family. In the Air Force. Expert on various ballistic and cruise missiles.

The computer? Fieldata
The -tan? Proposed US Army Signal Corps system. Tried to be bigger than SAGE - that worked out about as well as you'd expect it to. Cause of death? Poor communication skills with the other members of her network. Either that or a fork to the eye. (It's hard to be sure sometimes.)

[Aurora Borealis]

Sounds interesting!

I did want to draw a Simon-kun (human name: Simon Berkeley), but wasn't sure how to fit him into GENIAC-tan's backstory aside from being her big brother. I'm not sure if he'd be alive or not, or how long he lived if deceased. I was thinking he died some time after GENIAC-tan ended up in a coma.
Appearance wise, he'd look about 8-10 years old, and wear late 18th-early 19th century attire like his sister does. He can hardly count since Simon can only store the numbers 0,1,2 and 3, but was able to make clever uses of his limitations. He was an experimenter, taught hobbyists, and his sister.

FUJIC-tan (human name: Fujiko Okazaki) would also be incredibly resourceful, and a bit of an overacheiver, having been built mainly by one person and achieving twice the expected performance. She might still be alive, with one of her hobbies being studying the history of science. Appearance: Long dark brown or black hair, with olive green eyes. Wears a silver kimono with olive green trim, wears bronze hair decorations. Wears glasses, and carries a camera with her.

FLAC-tan would get things accomplished quickly, since 1 MHz clock speed in 1953 was extremely fast, and she would also be very strong and able to quickly recover from injuries, but notoriously difficult to work with. She'd wear a uniform on duty, and wear crystal-studded dresses when off duty. She might also have her hair in three ponytails, or collect things in threes referencing the three FLAC units built.

Fieldata-tan would have known the Univac-tans, mainly EXEC. Do you think she'd also be SAGE's short-lived arch-nemesis?

TIFRAC-tan would be a nuclear physicist and computer scientist. She'd be very sociable, value comradeship and instill self-confidence and self-reliance with those she works with; she'd also be very ambitious, wanting to be as good as her contemporaries, even if that meant experiencing a lot of trial and error. The TIFRAC was built by a team that had no prior experience with computers; they learned everything on the spot developing it, results were achieved with a lot of innovation and trial-and-error. TIFRAC-tan would be efficient and great at clever solutions, but frail and prone to sudden injury; so many parts meant so many more connections that could break. Appearance: She would wear traditional dress with a lot of elaborate beaded jewelry and embroidery, symbolizing the stringing together of tens of thousands of small components.

[Bella]

This sounds great, Aurora! You seem to have hit the nail on the head personification-wise - the only comment I'll add is that I'm also a bit puzzled as to how Simon would fit into GENIAC-tan's backstory, but that it's probably not impossible to make it work somehow.

I'm going to make sketches of these guys ASAP! : D

Also, Stew and I are brainstorming ideas for Fieldata-tan. Expect more info on her (and MOBIDIC-tan, who represents a computer used in Fieldata and other projects) as soon as I compile some notes.

[Aurora Borealis]

Thanks! I'll be looking forward to seeing them!

[Bella]

I look forward to drawing them. ^^

Anyway, I did some (revised) IBM-tan concept sketches, so I figure this is the right thread to post them in.


Left-to-right: CP/CMS-tan, MUSIC/SP-tan and TSS/360-tan

EDIT:
Imma throw this up here too, since it's a good body-reference for some of the PDP-tans:

Top row, L-to-R:
-PDP-10-tan. She's the tallest PDP-tan (probably ~6', if not taller), very strong, has a somewhat flat figure.
-PDP-1-tan. Tiny (around 4'6'' I reckon) and maybe 10 or so in apparent age.
-PDP-8-tan. No idea why (since the PDP-8 was such a small/simple computer) but I think she'd be the curviest of the group ... she's the second-smallest PDP-tan here (at around 5' tall).
-PDP-11-tan ... another one with a fairly flat figure. And kinda thin too, probably the stereotypical geek who gets wrapped up in her work and forgets to eat for long stretches of time. I think she'd be around 5'5'' - 6'' tall.
Bottom:
-LINC-tan, who's mostly here because you can hardly have a page of PDP-tans without a LINC in there - I imagine she'd be taller than PDP-8-tan, but perhaps a bit smaller than PDP-11, so maybe the lower-mid 5' range?

[Bella]

Colored version of the above IBM-tan sketch.

Still gotta make those sketches of TIFRAC, FUJIC, FLAC and Simon ... also, here's some info that I've complied on FIELDATA-tan.

For starters, Stew and I have decided it would be best to split Fieldata (the network) and MOBIDIC (the computer) into two characters, instead of combining the network and computer, as was done with SAGE-tan (who represents both the SAGE network and the AN/FSQ-7 computers).

Not much is known about Fieldata-tan. She's youngish-looking (incomplete system), fond of SAGE-tan, and died in a training accident.

What's been mapped out for MOBIDIC-tan, so far: She worked as Fieldata-tan's aide and was permanently scarred by her death. Later on she worked as an artillery radar control operator and supply clerk in Germany. She's strong and possesses good aim, average height with short hair, appears to be in her late teens. Does a lot of writing and keeps a pencil behind her ear at all times. She may have evolved into the system BMEWS and is a direct ancestor of IBM 7090-kun.

[stewartsage]

Oh look, I'm actually still doing stuff!  I bring to you first today, the Cray time sharing family:

Livermore Time Sharing System-tan, AKA LTSS (1969-1988)
-Department of Energy physicist, mother of two four
-Has a healthy relationship with both of her children, but thinks CTSS should get out more and NLTSS less.
-Expert on weapons effects and designs (used extensively to simulate nuclear weapons)
-A bit of a mad scientist, often involving the destruction of Cray-1 in her 'private simulations'
-Despised Cray-1 for replacing her and 'stealing' her eldest daughter
-Something of an ill girl, she was prone to long periods of bed-rest (CDC 7600 that LTSS ran on was prone to crashes)
-Medically retired in the mid-1970s, but continued to work part time
-Status: Deceased
-Appearance: Wears a lot of dark blue, has blue eyes, light brown hair, average height for a mainframe OS, usually wears a white sweater

Cray Time Sharing System-tan, AKA The CTSSS, CrTSS (1976-late-1980s?)
-Indirect descendent of the IAS physicists
-Actually isn't insane, also didn't do much work on nuclear weapons
-Like most Cray/CDC-tans tends to be quiet and hard working
-Rarely left the lab
-Did extensive work for the Department of Energy, was highly thought of by her coworkers for her reliability.
-Embarrassed by her shortcomings (design flaws prevented her from fully utilizing the Cray-1)
-Receives 'preferential treatment' from Cray-1, which only makes her feel worse.
-Despite that she spent a lot of time with Cray-1, with the supercomputer being practically her only contact with the outside OS world.
-Traveled extensively for work, though her home was at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with her family
-Elder sister of NLTSS-tan, often confused for one another for cosmetic reasons
-Daughter of LTSS-san, never realized how much her mother hated Cray-1
-Status: Deceased
-Appearance: Shorter then both her mother and Cray-1, blue eyes, light blue hair, wears a lab coat most of the time

Network Livermore Time Sharing System-tan, AKA New Livermore Time Sharing System-tan, NLTSS-tan, LINOS (LIncs Network Operating System) (1979-1994)
-Younger sister of CrTSS-tan
-Direct successor to her mother, eventually attempted to usurp her sister
-Is the one that really holds the family together; also sees Cray-1 as an interloper
-Talks a lot. (For both, was the first LLNL OS that could actually communicate well)
-Tries to get them both to socialize more.
-Often goes unused by her fellow researchers or scientists, most going straight to her sister
-Often confused with CrTSS to her consternation (users often couldn't tell they were using a different OS for cosmetic reasons)
-Is terrible with secrets (Any password could access data in her memory)
-Has trouble remembering who her users are, which can be a problem (see above)
-Ended her career working on lower end computers as a clerk
-Status: Deceased
-Appearance: Identical to CTSS but with brown hair.  Typically better dressed.

[Aurora Borealis]

No wonder why Cray-1-tan was a emotionally-cold jerkass for quite some time; if LTSS-tan's hatred of her was mutual, then I think Cray-1-tan would have been such out of necessity, and could finally be a lot nicer after her rival(s) died. I'd also like to envision Cray-1-tan seeing CrTSS-tan as an adoptive daughter; or maybe they were colleagues, but either way, at least she didn't push CrTSS-tan too far (unlike she did with Cray-2).