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From: aii@tropix.UUCP (Alice I. Insley)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: why hal
Message-ID: <224@tropix.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-May-84 12:54:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: tropix.224
Posted: Fri May 11 12:54:00 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 13-May-84 08:47:18 EDT
Organization: Tropel Div., GCA, Rochester NY
Lines: 14

"Why HAL" seems to be one of the MOST favorite trivia questions around.

The "off the cuff" answer is the HAL-IBM relationship, but this was
actually accidental.

The computer (from what I heard) is named after its creater, the HAL
computer company in Urbana Illinois.  There really IS a company of this
name in Urbana, and it existed before the film or book.  It is also
(supposedly, I didn't catch this myself) a mention os this company and
it's location in the credits.

Alice Bentley
...rochester!ritcv!tropix!aii