Page "Li'l Abner" Paragraph 252

*" ABNER " was the name given to the first codebreaking computer used by the National Security Agency.

According to longtime NSA computer expert Samuel Simon Snyder, " We chose the name from Li ' l Abner Yokum, the comic strip character who was a big brute, but not very smart, because we believed that computers, which can be big and do brute-force operations, aren't very bright either.

They can only follow simple instructions but can't think for themselves.

" ABNER was originally given only 15 simple programs, later doubled to 30.

Nevertheless, when it was secretly completed in April 1952 it was the " most sophisticated computer of its time.