At the age of 12, Wendy Nather was living in Israel. Her father was a professor at the University of Tel Aviv, and when she complained to him one day that she was bored, his response launched her on the course that quickly became her life’s calling. They had an electronic console known as a “teletype” in their home – essentially a primordial fax machine – and it had a little bell inside it. Wendy’s father tossed her a BASIC programming manual and challenged her to figure out how to make the teletype bell ring on command. She did.
