BTSS
 | This article is a work in progress. …well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editors’ notes. |
| BTSS | |
| |
| Character Information | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | BTSS |
| Other Names | Berkeley Timesharing System; SDS 940 Time-Sharing System |
| Faction | Unaffiliated; possibly a part of a yet-unidentified West Coast faction. |
| Lineage | "BTSS", founder |
| Rival(s) | None |
| Appearance | |
| Height | 5'3 |
| Hair Color | Indigo |
| Eye Color | Lavender |
| Design | |
| First Appearance | 2008 (preconcept)/2012 (finished) |
| Technical Information | |
| System Personified | Berkeley Timesharing System |
| Developer(s) | UC Berkeley |
| Debut | Circa 1964 |
| Latest release | Unknown |
Technical details
BTSS was a timesharing system for the SDS 940 small mainframe computer. It was developed at UC Berkeley as a part of Project Genie, a DARPA-funded computer research project comparable to MIT's project MAC (at least in concept - MAC was much larger in scope). It was later sold with the SDS 940 as a commercial product.
While BTSS is largely forgotten today, its heritage lives on in the TOPS-20 operating system. It is also speculated that BTSS may have influenced Unix somewhat, due to Ken Thompson's involvement with the system.
Character details
General
BTSS-tan is depicted as a woman with blue-purple hair, dark, sienna-tinted skintone and light purple eyes which often described as lively-looking but intimidating as well. She is quite small and lightly-built, but her graceful demeanor and commanding mannerisms tend to make her come off as "larger than life" to those she interacts with. She generally dresses simply and elegantly and concept art puts her in a floor-length, art nouveau-style gown with an embroidered collar, long, kimono-like sleeves, strapped sandals and jewelry.
BTSS-tan's personality is sharp, intuitive and intelligent and she has a natural inclination toward leadership and working with others. Similar to Multics-tan, she eschews social elitism and enjoys interacting with people of all stripes, even those who are unfamiliar with or reticent toward computer-tans. Indeed, she played an integral role in the Community Memory Project, an experimental project involving human-computer interaction on a community level. As a part of her duty, she often socialized with people around Berkeley, going to cafes, book shops and other casual gathering places, a favorite hangout of hers being a little record shop. She would also collect and post all matter of messages, and using her computer-tan magic would match queries with answers and requests with replies.
Many early timesharing system-tans have code-produced supernatural powers, and BTSS-tan is no different. Her specialized form of sorcery involves telepathy and clairvoyance. While useful (particularly in aiding her understanding of others), these abilities were also quite intrusive to the point of annoyance at times. As well, she was skilled with an aptitude toward "general-purpose" programming / sorcery, allegedly being one of the first OS-tans to have this broad set of skills.
While BTSS-tan was originally only an academic system, her talents were later put to use in the corporate realm. Under the name SDS 940 Time-Sharing System-tan, she worked for BBN, played a large role in the Tymshare network and came to know a number of high-profile computer-tans of the era.
Family and Relationships
BTSS-tan is the ultimate ancestor of Tenex-tan and considers herself to be Tenex-tan's "mother", although she had little involvement in Tenex's birth or upbringing. Tenex seems to at least partially reciprocate these feelings of familial connection, although she doesn't seem particularly open about it.
BTSS-tan assisted in the creation of NLS-tan and later worked as a close associate of hers. As well, she is said to have played a small role in the design of UNIX-tan, although this connection remains somewhat apocryphal in nature.
She was friends with most of the native Bay Area computer-tans, WAITS-tan being an dear friend of hers'.
QED-kun originated as her assistant.
Theories and Notes
- Originally, BTSS-tan was depicted as a tan-skinned woman with long, wavy hair, dressed in belly-dancer-like attire, a rather shallow reference to Project Genie.
