devkuma – ETYM

Ajax Is a Flush Toilet?

kc@example.com (kc kim) — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:25:00 +0900

Ajax in IT

Ajax is an abbreviation for ‘Asynchronous JavaScript And XML’, and it is probably a familiar concept to developers who build web applications.

Ajax (programming)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(programming)

Another Meaning of Ajax

In fact, this was also the name of a flush toilet.
Around the 16th century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, a courtier named John Harington invented a flush toilet and named it “Ajax”.
There was originally slang for a toilet called “jakes”, and it seems the name imitated that word.

For reference, toilets are often abbreviated as “WC”, but writing about that would go far off topic, so it is omitted here.

John Harington (writer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harington_(writer)

Invention of the toilet Around this time, Harington also devised Britain’s first flushing toilet – called the Ajax (i.e., a “jakes”, which was an old slang word for toilet). It was installed at his manor in Kelston. In 1596, Harington wrote a book called A New Discourse upon a Stale Subject: The Metamorphosis of Ajax about his invention.

There are several stories about the etymology, but in fact it is not clear whether Ajax in web applications was named with the above meaning in mind.

Ajax is known to have first appeared in the article below, but that content cannot be found there.

Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications
https://immagic.com/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/GENERAL/ADTVPATH/A050218G.pdf

There is a detergent called “Ajax” in the United States, so perhaps the name was chosen with that in mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(cleaning_product)

At the time, SOAP also seems to have been used quite a lot for data communication with XML, so that may have been considered as well.

The blog above seems to have caused a big response after publication and updated its Q&A, but there does not seem to have been a question like “Does Ajax you meant to relate to a kind of cleaning product?”

Or perhaps it was judged to be an irrelevant question and ignored…

Tea https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/cleaning/article-10873265/What-does-AJAX-stand-Spray-wipe-brands-heritage-revealed.html

Apache Was Provided as an httpd Patch

kc@example.com (kc kim) — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 01:37:00 +0900

Apache

Apache is a famous HTTP server.

About the Apache HTTP Server Project - The Apache HTTP Server Project https://httpd.apache.org/ABOUT_APACHE.html

The origin is also explained in the official FAQ.

Why the name “Apache”?
https://wiki.apache.org/httpd/FAQ#Why_the_name_.22Apache.22.3F

The name ‘Apache’ was chosen from respect for the Native American Indian tribe of Apache (Indé), well-known for their superior skills in warfare strategy and their inexhaustible endurance. For more information on the Apache Nation, we suggest searching Google, or AllTheWeb.

Secondarily, and more popularly (though incorrectly) accepted, it’s a considered cute name which stuck. Apache is “A PAtCHy server”. It was based on some existing code and a series of “patch files”.

These days Apache as such means much more. It’s first and foremost the Apache Software Foundation, under which there are dozens of projects.

Officially, the name was chosen out of respect for the Apache people, a Native American tribe.

However, the more famous story is probably the second one, “a patchy server”. It is also written in “About the Apache HTTP Server Project”: Apache originally began as patches for NCSA httpd.
This is said to be why it came to be called patch files or a patchy server.

Although it is written as incorrect, it also feels as if the first explanation may have come later…

What Is the Real Meaning of Booting a Computer?

kc@example.com (kc kim) — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:25:00 +0900

Booting

When starting a computer, we say that it boots. This seems to come from bootstraps, the parts used to pull boots on more easily. Here, bootstraps are not shoelaces.

Bootstrapping - Computing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping#Computing

Then why, and through what process, did the computer boot process come to be called bootstrapping? It seems the exact facts are not known.

There are several theories. First, there is a famous paradoxical expression in English, “Pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”. At first glance it seems possible, but in reality it is impossible; it is used to mean an absurd and unrealizable method.

Later, this phrase began to be used with another meaning. Around 1922, it was reportedly used to mean a way to improve oneself independently without help from others.

Bootstrapping - Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping#Etymology

Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers or a boot hook tool to help pulling the boots on. The saying “to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”[3] was already in use during the 19th century as an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, when it appeared in the Workingman’s Advocate: “It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots."[4] In 1860 it appeared in a comment on philosophy of mind: “The attempt of the mind to analyze itself [is] an effort analogous to one who would lift himself by his own bootstraps."[5] Bootstrap as a metaphor, meaning to better oneself by one’s own unaided efforts, was in use in 1922.[6] This metaphor spawned additional metaphors for a series of self-sustaining processes that proceed without external help.[7]

The Real Meaning of Bootstrapping

In summary, it seems to have been used with two broad meanings.

An impossible or foolish method
A method of improving oneself independently

Now consider the boot process of early computers.

In a computer with only CPU/RAM/IO
- Immediately after power is turned on, RAM contains no program data.
- A loading program is needed to load a program from external storage.
- Another loading program is needed to load the loading program into memory.

Because this situation occurs, the computer cannot operate satisfactorily by itself at all. This situation recalls the first meaning of “Pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”.

In practice, code was written one byte at a time using built-in toggle switches and then executed after input was complete. There were probably also cases where code was written to read data from external storage such as punch cards or tape, load it into RAM, and then execute the loaded content.

If there is a mechanism that automatically loads a program into RAM from external storage, then when power is turned on and a basic button is pressed, a dedicated circuit reads data from the external storage. After loading the program from external storage into RAM, the CPU is initialized and processing starts from the default memory address. If necessary, another program is loaded from another input device to perform more complex processing. This recalls the second meaning of “Pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”.

Wikipedia also explains it in this sense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping#Computing

All of the above is speculation, but in the early days of computers there were probably many situations like this. People working in the field at the time may have felt, “This really is a pull itself up by its bootstraps situation.”
Perhaps that is why the word bootstrapping started to be used casually and gradually took root.

References

The Origins of the Phrase “Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps” - Useless Etymology

What Is a Timestamp in IT?

kc@example.com (kc kim) — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:06:00 +0900

What Is a Timestamp?

A timestamp literally means a time mark. It refers to the date and time stamped on a document, and in IT it refers to date and time information assigned and stored as one of the properties of a file or data.

Origin of the Timestamp

The timestamp is said to have originated from rubber stamps once used in the West to indicate the time when documents such as mail were sent or received. The date was placed in the center, and a triangle at the top pointed to a specific time around a circle representing 24 hours.

Stamping this mark on paper to indicate a specific time has become, in today’s IT systems, a way of representing elapsed time based on the epoch.

Image source: wikimedia

Timestamps in File Systems

In an operating system’s file system, creation time, last modification time, and last access time are recorded as kinds of properties for files or directories (folders). These are called timestamps.

The file system automatically assigns and updates them when files or directories are created, written, or read. Based on this information, files can be sorted by creation order or update order, and you can check which of the same files in different locations was updated most recently.

Time Certification for Electronic Documents

A mechanism that proves an electronic document existed at a specific date and time in the past and has not been tampered with up to the present is called time certification. The date and time information assigned at that point is called a timestamp.

Like digital signatures, it uses a trusted third party called a Time-Stamping Authority (TSA). The document creator sends the hash value of the document data, which is short data representing its characteristics, to the certification authority. The certification authority then generates another hash value from the received date and time and the document hash value.

Later, a person who wants to verify the document calculates a hash value from the document they have and the date and time claimed by the creator. If it matches the hash value from the time of issuance, the person can confirm that the document actually existed when the timestamp was issued and has not been tampered with since.

Pac-Man Came from the Hockey Puck

kc@example.com (kc kim) — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:06:00 +0900

Pac-Man

Pac-Man is a famous game from the Japanese game company Namco. In English-speaking countries, it is a game character known by even more people than Mario, and it is also one of the most recognizable games and characters. Of course, in Korea as well, almost everyone knows roughly what Pac-Man gameplay looks like.

The original English notation is said to have been intended as Puck-Man because the character resembled a hockey puck. However, the name became Pac-Man rather than Puck Man because there was concern that the letter “P” could be changed to “F” when written.

Pac-Man - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org

The result was a game he named Puck Man[48] as a reference to the main character’s hockey puck shape.[49] Later in 1980, the game was picked up for manufacture in the United States by Bally division Midway,[45] which changed the game’s name from Puck Man to Pac-Man in an effort to avoid vandalism from people changing the letter ‘P’ into an ‘F’ to form the word fuck.

Bluetooth Came from King Harald Bluetooth of Norway

kc@example.com (kc kim) — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 00:26:00 +0900

The term “Bluetooth” comes from the name of Harald Bluetooth, king of Norway. Harald Bluetooth was a 10th-century king who unified Denmark and Norway, and his name was pronounced “Blaten” or “Blaton” in Norwegian.

Bluetooth technology took its name from this, carrying the meaning of a technology that enables communication between different peoples centered around Norway at that time. Accordingly, Bluetooth technology developed into a technology used to improve wireless communication between various devices.

Today, Bluetooth technology is widely used to wirelessly transfer data and communicate between various electronic devices such as mobile phones, speakers, headsets, and car systems. Like its namesake Harald Bluetooth, it serves to promote communication between different devices and connect them into one.