The unveiling of the ENIAC, the world’s first electric digital computer, celebrated its 60th birthday yesterday. Computerworld posted a previously unpublished interview that sheds new light on the origins of the system and how pathetic the press is. I roll my eyes at the questions like “Did the military guys working on ENIAC salute the machine?” and “There’s a story that ENIAC dimmed the lights in Philadelphia when it was in use.” Studying the operations of a electro-mechanical machine developed by MIT’s Vannevar Bush, J. Presper Eckert got the idea to replace mechanical integrators with electrical ones. As a result Eckert came to believe that the entire system could function electronically. The first significant task for the ENIAC was the development of the hydrogen bomb.