I had nearly forgotten that we’re approaching a major milestone this weekend – the 40th anniversary of the first BASIC program! Happy birthday, BASIC!

I only remembered the occasion because the AP Newswire did a story on the anniversary and they wanted to get a quote from someone at Microsoft about BASIC. They wanted Bill Gates, but they got me – too bad for them! Anyway, I had a very pleasant chat with the reporter about BASIC and Microsoft and such. Although I see where he’s coming from with the idea that BASIC is no longer with us – certainly not in the original, 1964 version, at least – I still like to think that the spirit of BASIC lives on strong in Visual Basic and all the other BASIC inheritors out there…

Thanks, John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz!