On August 12, 1981, IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer. This wasn't the first PC, but it did create the standards that in many ways have dominated personal computing for most of the past 40 years, including an open architecture, an Intel architecture processor, and a Microsoft operating system.

Perhaps the most important decision IBM made about the PC was not producing it within its existing infrastructure but instead leaving it to a relatively small group of mavericks in Boca Raton, Florida.

That project started as the outgrowth of a presentation that William C. "Bill" Lowe, laboratory director of IBM's Entry Level Systems (ELS) unit in Boca Raton, made before IBM's Corporate Management Committee, including IBM President John Opel and Chairman Frank Cary, in July 1980. By this point, there were a number of popular personal computers on the market, including the Apple II and a raft of machines running the CP/M operating system.

William Lowe in 1988 (Photo: Ann E. Yow-Dyson/Getty Images)

Cary had apparently liked the idea of a personal computer for years, but IBM's famous bureaucracy couldn't be convinced. Instead, it created products that were too big, too expensive, and too corporate-focused to reach a mass market, like the Datamaster and the IBM 5100.

But Lowe convinced the committee that a small group focused on putting together pieces from the outside industry, rather than creating something new within IBM, could indeed create a new computer within a year. He got permission and recruited a group of 12 engineers as part of what would become known as "Project Chess."

In the next month, Lowe's task force had several meetings with other players in the young industry and made a number of key decisions. One was to sell IBM's personal computer through ComputerLand and Sears, Roebuck retail stores in addition to offering it through IBM's own commissioned sales staff.

Jack Sams, who would head software development, was contacting software companies, including Microsoft. The group chose to use an "open architecture," licensing the central processing unit (CPU) and most of the other hardware components from outside IBM.

The team apparently was pulled together very quickly, and on August 8, 1980, Lowe and two engineers, Bill Syndes and Lew Eggebrecht, demonstrated a prototype to the Corporate Management Committee. It approved the basic plan and gave Project Chess the go-ahead to create a personal computer, code-named Acorn.

According to the 1993 bookGates, by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, the plan for the prototype had 32K of read-only storage (ROS, which everyone else calls ROM), 16K of RAM, a six-slot open bus, and a variety of options, including RAM expandability up to 256K, a printer adapter, the choice of a color or monochrome display, 8-inch disk drives, an optional floating point processor, and an auxiliary user interface (joystick). The 8-inch drives would be replaced by 5--inch drives, and six slots would go down to five. Otherwise, the specs were nearly identical to what the final machine would offer.

Lowe, who would shortly leave Entry Systems Division to run IBM's larger facility in Rochester, Minnesota, picked Philip D. "Don" Estridge, another longtime IBM employee who worked at the Boca Raton labs, to run the project. Estridge would go on to be called the "father of the PC."

Estridge recruited a team that included Syndes, who headed engineering; Dan Wilkie, who was in charge of manufacturing; and H.L. "Sparky" Sparks, who headed sales and marketing. The next few months saw a whirlwind of activity, including signing Microsoft to provide the languages and the operating system (more about that shortly).

By the end of 1980, the team had 150 employees, and by January 1981, the machine was first demonstrated within the company. Later versions were distributed to other software companies, allowing for the creation of such initial packages as the VisiCalc spreadsheet, a series of accounting programs from Peachtree Software, and a word processor called EasyWriter from Information Unlimited Software (IUS).

On August 12, 1981, almost exactly a year after Project Chess was given the go-ahead, IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer 5150which was almost immediately dubbed the IBM PCat multiple press conferences, from New York to Chicago, where I saw it.

That original IBM PC had some great features and some clear limitations. It had a 4.77MHz Intel 8088 processor, trumpeted as a "high-speed 16-bit microprocessor," but the PC had only an 8-bit data bus. Initially, the machine came with 16K RAM on the motherboard standard, expandable to 64K, but its processor was capable of more, because its 20 address bits permitted the PC to address 1 megabyte of physical memory, which was a huge leap forward at that time. While the PC could display graphics, you had to buy an optional graphics card to do this, because the base machine had only a monochrome adapter. Of course, the advertised price didn't include a monitor or even a serial or parallel port.

Sold at ComputerLand outlets and Sears Business Centers, the initial PC had a base price of $1,565, including an 8088 CPU, 16K of RAM, and no floppy disk or monitor, but the ability to plug in your home TV and a cassette recorder. I'm not sure anyone ever bought one in that configuration. More typically, a system with 64K of RAM, and a single-sided, 160K floppy disk drive had a list price of $2,880.

Limitations aside, by the time it arrived on store shelves that October, the IBM PC was an immediate hit. It was helped by a brilliant marketing campaign featuring the Little Tramp, the character Charlie Chaplin popularized in movies such asModern Times.

The company originally estimated it would sell 250,000 units over a five-year period, but some members of the development team have reported that the company built and delivered that many systems in certain months.

After the success of the IBM PC, IBM eventually moved to bring the PC division back into the IBM fold. Estridge was placed into a corporate vice president role within IBM. Lowe, who left the PC project soon after its founding, returned to head the Entry Systems Division. Estridge died in a plane crash in August 1985. By that point, the PC architecture created by the Boca Raton team had already become the industry standard, resulting in thousands of applications, a huge variety of add-in boards, and PC-compatible machines from dozens of vendors.

For more information, check the best books on the early history:

For more, check out PCMag's full coverage of the 40th anniversary of the IBM PC:

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Project Chess: The Story Behind the Original IBM PC - PCMag

July 29-30, 2021

Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Sponsored by the US Chess Trust

http://www.USChessTrust.org

2021 Koltanowski Conference on Chess in Education to be Held Just Prior to U.S. Open Chess Championship

The 2021 Koltanowski Conference on Chess in Education will be held July 29-30, 2021, at the Cherry Hill, N.J., Crowne Plaza, where the U.S. Chess Open Championship will be held. The Conference will explore many practical topics. Presenters are eminent in their fields.

Presentations will discuss:

The 2021 Koltanowski Conference on Chess in Education is held in honor of Dr. Tim Redman, founder of the championship Chess Program at The University of Texas at Dallas. Dr.

Redman organized the first (2001) and second (2011) Koltanowski Conferences on Chess in Education.

The 2021 conference will be held in-person with a limited audience. It will be live-streamed online and available for later viewing.

2021 Koltanowski Conference on Chess in Education is sponsored by the U.S. Chess Trust.

For more information, contact:

Al Lawrence, al@uschesstrust.org or Beatriz Marinello, beatriz@uschesstrust.org

For more details go to: http://www.uschesstrust.org

COVID-19 policies apply: Face masks and social distancing will be in effect for the limited audience. If you wish to attend in-person, please fill out this form:

http://www.uschesstrust.org/3rd-international-koltanowski- conference-on-chess-in-education-registration/

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The 3rd International Koltanowski Conference on Chess in Education - uschess.org

The B-52s founding member and Athens native Cindy Wilson has been announced as the headlining act at a fundraising gala scheduled to take place on July 23 at Live Wire Athens. Proceeds from the ticketed eventwill benefit local nonprofits Chess & Community and The Wild Rumpus Spectacle.

Wilson will be joined by a backing band lead by her son Nolan Bennett, and the concert will also feature performances by award-winning Athens hip-hop artistCassie Chantel and Wild Rumpus founder Tim Conley.

Admission to the show includes a three-course meal with food and beverages provided by Creature Comforts Brewing Co., DePalma's, Epting Events, Farmers & Fisherman, The National, and Viva Argentine Cuisine.

More: Chess & Community combines robotics with chess to showcase student innovation

Local stage appearances by Wilson are a rarity, particularly at smaller venues like Live Wire. Last October, she appeared in a prerecorded video with Bennett performing The Who's "Boris The Spider" that was broadcast as part of the live streamed 2020 Rumpus event.

Wilson also performed at the Georgia Theatre during AthFest 2017 prior to the release of her debut solo album, "Change" later that year.

Visitwildrumpusfundraiser.eventbrite.comfor tickets and additional information.

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The B-52s' Cindy Wilson to headline gala benefitting Chess & Community, Wild Rumpus - Online Athens

President Recep Tayyip Erdoan held his first face-to-face meeting with United States President Joe Biden. The fact that the meeting which was supposed to take 45 minutes lasted 1.5 hours, showed the breadth of the topics the two presidents had to discuss.

Biden was in the United Kingdom for the G-7 meeting just before the NATO Summit. Unlike in former U.S. President Donald Trump's era, the G-7 declaration included comments against China's rising power.

In addition, those who followed Biden's press conference after the G-7 meeting clearly saw that the main agenda item for the U.S. president was to draw Europe to their side against China's influence.

Yes, it is inevitable that relations with Russia, which softened during the Trump period, will be strained again. However, it can be seen that this is more rhetorical than with China.

Biden's $7 billion "Build Back Better World (B3W)" project that has been offered as an alternative to Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the fact that Italy the first G-7 country to participate in the BRI in 2019 decided to withdraw from the project a week ago, are developments that cannot be understood separately from each other.

However, Erdoan is a chess master. Therefore, before the meeting with Biden, who is trying to increase American influence through economic development, he declared at the airport that Turkey and China had "concluded the agreement process" for a currency swap agreement between the two countries.

It is also necessary to look at the addresses that Erdoan pointed to before and after the NATO summit.

There are two important things that Turkish foreign policy has done in the international arena in the last year.

First, Turkey stabilized Libya despite the Russia-U.S.-France line, asserted its presence in the Blue Homeland and consolidated its influence into Africa.

The second is undoubtedly the end of Karabakh's 30 years in captivity with the support of Turkey. Both of these achievements have been achieved despite NATO giants such as the U.S. and France.

From this point of view, it is necessary to understand the two political messages Erdoan sent. The day before the NATO summit, he sent the state's highest-level security and diplomacy delegation to Libya. As soon as he returned from the NATO summit, he came to Azerbaijan and visited Shusha, one of the historical cities liberated from Armenia.

In addition to all these, Erdoan continued to employ rhetoric and display an attitude that drew attention to the importance of NATO for both Turkey and world peace. As both NATO's second-largest army and the only Muslim-majority member, the leader of Turkey's policy follows a delicately woven pattern.

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Erdoan's chess game in the international arena | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

"Then 2020 hit and the universe says, 'Hey, I got something for you,'" she told CNN.

Like millions of Americans, Lawson has been mostly locked down at home since last March with her 87-year-old mother, who she cares for, and her active social schedule came to a screeching halt.

The 57-year-old conflict analyst has been able to do most of her work from her Atlanta-area home. On the rare occasions she did have to go to the office during the peak of the pandemic, she would get up at four or five in the morning, so she could get her work done and leave before other people came in.

That's creating new anxiety for Lawson, who has been slow to return to her old life.

"I'm vaccinated. I'm fully vaccinated, but I guess I'm just pandemic shy right now," she said. "I want to go to the movies so bad, but I'm just like 'eww, no not yet.'"

Lawson said her office is still trying to decide when employees will return full time, but she is going into the office more often.

That takes extra coordination with her coworkers, Lawson said, because only one member of her team can come in at a time.

"I feel like I'm playing chess, human chess," she said. "And it's always a moving chessboard."

Lawson said her team has to file daily reports, so she knows her bosses know they're getting their work done, but it still feels weird to be at home when other colleagues are working at the office more regularly.

"You're trying to gauge the temperature in the office too," she said. "So it's a constant, like juggling, a constant balancing act."

"There's just a lot that we know is going to look different, like the workplace, like health care, like schools, but we don't know exactly what they're going to look like," she said. So I think it's that sort of unknown that's still causing people to feel distressed."

She said an APA survey conducted earlier this year found that about half of adults -- both vaccinated and unvaccinated -- reported feeling anxiety or discomfort about returning to their pre-pandemic lifestyle.

The suddenness of the reopening can also be a source of stress, even for people who are excited for life to get back to normal."We've been told for the last year that you have to wear a mask to protect yourself, and now we're being told you don't," she said. "And so even though that might follow the science and it might seem logical, it might not feel very comfortable right away, and for some, it might never feel comfortable."

Some of the most mundane pre-pandemic activities can feel weird or uncomfortable.

Bret Adams, 59, of Austin, Texas, hadn't been around many people other than his dad since the pandemic began.

Adams said they recently met up with one of his buddies from college after they'd all been fully vaccinated.

"We shook hands and it felt really awkward," Adams told CNN. "It sounds strange to say that, but I haven't shaken hands for over a year with anybody, you know, and that's a normal thing for us to do."

He works for the state of Texas and said his coworkers just started returning to the office at 75% capacity, or a maximum of 10 people per department, at the beginning of June. They're planning to be back in the office full time in September.

Adams said he felt anxious about the change because he'd gotten used to working at home.

"I'm fully vaccinated, so I feel at ease more. So is my dad, he's 84 and I feel more at ease the fact that he's fully vaccinated," Adams said. "But it's just that anxiety of trying to find that middle ground being respectful of other people and hoping that they'll be the same way back."He said he doesn't know if things will ever get back to normal because this pandemic has been a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

"I hope we can get as close as possible," he said.

Lisa Reid said her anxieties have eased and she's feeling more confident as the vaccination rates go up and the number of Covid-19 cases drop in Annapolis, Maryland, where she lives with her husband and two of their three adult children.

Reid, 55, describes herself as an extrovert and says she loves entertaining. She was excited to throw her first post-vaccination gathering last month with a few friends and neighbors.

She and her husband Steve celebrated their 30th anniversary recently by going out for a real, sit-down dinner at a restaurant.

"The pandemic has just been the lens through which we have seen our lives for a whole year or more," she said. "I recall feeling just like a normal person having a nice meal, so that was a welcome relief."

She said she was a little unsure, at first, about whether she should wear a mask until she got to the table.

"I have to admit, I ended up quickly putting it out of my head and feeling like a normal human being, and that was really awesome," she said.

Reid said she's reasonably confident that most of the people she encounters are vaccinated, but she still keeps a mask with her at all times.

She said she's getting ready to fly to Florida for a beach weekend with her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law -- something she wouldn't have considered not too long ago.

Wright recommended that people who are feeling uncomfortable as things reopen should take small steps like going to the grocery store or having dinner with a small group of friends to help prepare.

She said people will adjust at their own pace, so they shouldn't be too hard on themselves or others.

"I think we've seen a lot of judgment over the last year, a lot of criticism of how people are living their lives and approaching the pandemic and I don't think that that's very effective," she said.

Lawson said she's tried to focus on being grateful for the good things in life and is taking a lot of small steps, by getting out and exercising.

"I'm a FitBit user. I pride myself on (taking) a minimum of 10,000 steps each day -- usually more than that -- and then the pandemic came and all of that just stopped," she said. "Now I'm back. The days I hit 10,000 steps I'm like 'Yay me! Go me!'"

Link:
'It's a moving chess board': Covid reopening creates new anxieties - CNN