David Lightman (Broderick) is a smart high school student and computer hacker that at first limits himself to changing his and a girl whom he likes a lot, Jennifer's (Sheedy) grades from failing to passing grades: Lightman being smart but not motivated at school. A little while later David uses his IMSAI 8080 computer to dial many phone numbers and finds a backdoor into a NORAD war games simulation computer called WOPR (nicknamed the "Whopper"). At first David is looking for new computer games to download and play and believes that the WOPR is actually the computer of a company that makes new computer games. After finding a list of games on the computer decides to play a game. WOPR (who is an Artificial Intelligence computer) asks David for a password and after doing some research on the computer's creator Professor Steven Falken he guesses that the password is named after the creator's dead son, Joshua. After logging in using the correct password, W.O.P.R. believes David to actually be Dr. Falken whom the computer had believed to be dead. The computer (which David now calls "Joshua") asks him if he would like to play a game. David selects the game "Global Thermonuclear War". Doing so starts off a series of events that will end up taking the World into World War III unless it is stopped.
The television news later reports that the USA went on high-alert due to a computer error leading David and Jennifer to wonder if they had caused the problem. David throws away the evidence of his calling Joshua but the computer calls David back. David then asks Joshua if the game it is playing is real or not, Joshua relies "what is the difference?" At this point David learns that Joshua is not a computer game companies' computer but a government one and is actually is playing the game for real. He hangs up but Joshua calls him back, leading David to remove the cord from the back of his telephone. David is then arrested by the FBI and taken to NORAD to answer charges of espionage. David tries to explain that he was not trying to be a spy, but he is not believed. Using things found in the medical office in which he is locked, David escapes from NORAD on a bus load of visitors to the facility. After David escapes he telephones Jennifer (using Phreaking skills) to ask her to buy him an airplane ticket so he can go and see Falken and get his help in stopping Joshua. Jennifer meets him and together then both go off to convince Falken to help them stop World War III.
Professor Falken has in fact resigned from NORAD because he believes war will happen no matter what any one does. Jennifer and David try to convince him to help them explain to NORAD that this is just a game that Joshua is playing. Falken tells them that it is not worth it as it may only buy them a few years but war will still happen. He explains that they are lucky because he lives only a few miles from a primary target and that they will die in a instant. David and Jennifer decide to try to stop the game anyway and try to leave the island. Finding no way off the island since the last ferry has left, Jennifer says that they should "swim for it". David admits he cannot swim. Professor Falken shows up with a helicopter and together they all go to NORAD.
Inside NORAD Falken tells them it is all a game and they decide to allow the missiles that the Soviet Union has reportedly fired to land to see if it is real or a game. The computer screens show the missiles landing but no missiles actually land. This convinces NORAD that the whole thing was not real. Joshua, however, decides to crack the launch codes and fire the USA's missiles for real. David and Falken try to get Joshua to stop the firing and eventually succeed when Jennifer mentions the word "games". After many tries they get Joshua to play tic-tac-toe against itself in an effort to teach it the meaning of (a word meaning that there is no point to doing something, or that doing so will not help). Joshua tries every game of tic-tac-toe possible and then tries the same thing with every scenario within the Global Thermonuclear War game. Joshua then learns that war can not be won, and stops the game ending the threat of World War III.
The movie was a hit. It was nominated for three Academy Awards. The movie had a production budget of $12 million and had gross revenues of over $120 million making it a high earning movie.
"WarGames" has a cult following amongst computer users and fans of the 1980s. The movie led to the development of the term war dialing (the calling of phone numbers looking for computers to connect to and hack).
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae
Disquisitiones Arithmeticae is a book about number theory written by the German mathematician and scientist Carl Friedrich Gauss.
IMSAI 8080
The IMSAI 8080 was an early microcomputer begun in late 1975, based on the Intel 8080 and later 8085 and the S-100 bus. It was compatible with its main competitor, the earlier MITS Altair 8800, by which it was inspired. The IMSAI is largely thought of as the first "clone" computer. The IMSAI machine used a highly modified version of the CP/M operating system called IMDOS. It was designed, made and sold by IMS Associates, Inc. (later renamed "IMSAI Manufacturing Corp"). In total, between 17,000 and 20,000 units were produced from 1975 until 1978.
In May 1972, William Millard began business as "IMS Associates" (IMS) in the area of computer consultancy and engineering, using his home as an office. By 1973, Millard began IMS Associates, Inc. Millard soon found capital for his business, and received several contracts, all for software.
In 1974, IMS was contacted by a client which wanted a "workstation system" that could do jobs for any General Motors new-car dealership. IMS planned a system including a terminal, small computer, printer, and special software. Five of these work stations were to have common access to a hard disk, which would be controlled by a small computer. Eventually product development was stopped. Millard and his chief engineer Joe Killian turned to the microprocessor. Intel had announced the 8080 chip, and compared to the 4004 to which IMS Associates had first used, the 8080 looked like a better idea. Full scale development of the IMSAI 8080 was begun, and by October 1975 an advertisement was placed in the magazine "Popular Electronics", receiving positive reactions.
IMS shipped the first IMSAI 8080 kits on December 16 1975. In 1976, IMS was renamed to "IMSAI Manufacturing Corporation" because by then they were a manufacturing company, not a consultancy one. By October 1979 the IMSAI corporation had gone bankrupt, and the 'IMSAI' trademark was acquired by Thomas "Todd" Fischer and Nancy Freitas (former early employees of IMS Associates), who continued manufacturing the computers under the IMSAI name as a division of Fischer-Freitas Co. Support for early IMSAI systems continues to this day.
The IMSAI 8080 was used for
An IMSAI 8080 and an acoustic coupler type modem were among the hacking tools used by the main character in the 1983 movie "WarGames". However, even by 1983 the acoustic coupler was out of date. It was selected over a more modern model so that the audience would immediately recognize it as the device that connected to the telephone.
2009 Romanian bus-train collision
The 2009 Romanian bus-train collision (), happened on 14 August 2009 at 14:10pm in Romania. A bus and train hit each other. Thirteen people died. It happened in Scânteia of Iaşi County in Romania on County Road 248C It was originally thought that only 10 people died in the accident. This was the worst accident in Romania in the past fifteen years.