How are Unix pipes implemented?
Brian Kernighan gives credit to Doug McIlroy for coming up with the idea in 1964.  Quoting from _UNIX A History and a Memoir_, page 68:"To put my strongest concerns in a nutshell: 1. we should have some way of coupling programs like garden hose..."from a Bell Labs internal memo.Kernighan's book is a great read, BTW.  Highly recommend to all UNIX nerds.