It's 7.30pm Christmas Eve 1969. Somewhere in the bowels of IBMs Thomas J Watson Research Centre, the office party is drawing to a close.
Software boffin, Milt Goldberg is locking up his office before heading home for the holiday, not to return until the new year.
Unfortunately, the mix of cheap red wine, Christmas cake and general 'joi-de-vie' that afternoon has precipitated Milt's fatal and world-changing coding error.
Crawling out from The shadows of Milt's System/360 Model 25, appears the creature that will over the decades ahead become a legend as it spreads and multiplies. With no one around to prevent its infestation the creature sets off on its software odyssey to take over the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the first : Computer Bug.
(I think his name is Edgar)
The ubiquitous 'Computer Bug' - 'Where did it come from?, When was it born?' etc.
A Late 1960's IBM research lab seemed like a nice idea as IBM are so iconic in early computing. Then I needed a situation or sequence of events that could allow for the 'birth/escape' of the little menace.
The office Christmas party with a few drinks, followed by a week's holiday when the bug could make good its escape fitted the bill, and the idea was up and running.
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