14- year old invents email!

I’ve written about the history of technology a number of times – from keyboards to the internet itself. One of the more interesting bits of information here is the invention of e-mail. It was invented by a 14-year old. V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai was enrolled in a programming course as a young teenager. Shortly after he finished, a coworker of his mother’s – Les Michelson - asked if he would like a job at the University of Medicine and Dentistry. Of course he agreed. For the next several days, Michaelson had Shiva observe the mail system in place and then told him to go forth and recreate it in electronic form.

Another interesting thing is how little email has changed since the summer Shiva began working on it. He was replicating a system that used to, from, cc, bcc, subject, date, and body on a campus-wide scale. Today’s email still uses the same fields. What Shiva created was entirely adequate, and it’s stability since the late 70s is indicative of his great success.

Jobs Brought Computers to the Classroom

Steve Jobs died last week.  Articles about this man's life and death have been written by the score across all forms of media.  Steve Jobs was a man who influenced history.  He designed and marketed one of the first successful personal computers.

Part of Apple's early marketing effort includes introducing the personal computer to the classroom.

Since the sixties, public and private schools have been utilizing computers.  However, for a long time, this usage was confined to universities.  What's more, they were not computers as we know them, but rather mainframes.  A mainframe at that time was a very large and powerful (for its time) computer that mostly did very basic computations with paper punch input still common even in the mid- to late-sixties.  Even when computers moved into K-12 level schools, they were rarely found in the actual classrooms.

When Apple began producing computers for individual use, they also had to create a market.  Jobs and Apple began donating computers to schools for instructional use by teachers in the mid seventies.  At that point, mainframe usage began to lose dominance in education.  Although there were stumbling blocks, computer usage is common in almost every classroom across America today.  Today, Microsoft machines have become predominate in most of the country's school districts due to their comparative affordability.   That being said, the market and even idea of computers in elementary and high school classrooms was not considered realistic until Jobs created the market.  No one thought that children were capable of using computers until then.

In large part, we have Jobs to thank not just for Apple computers, but also for the prevalence of computers in learning.

Web Evolution Infographic

Browsing the web today, I came across the coolest interactive infographic.

This infographic does a great job of creating a "funner" timeline of the internet than one might find elsewhere.  It hits all the major points, like developments in CSS and JavaScript.

Check it out.  Were you on the web when Netscape was the only option?  I have never gotten along with Netscape, even in the mid-nineties.  However, I have heard good things from other about the old Netscape.  Apparently it was once the fastest and most reliable browser for the Mac OS.  I believe it was purchased by AOL around the end of 1998.

How about the first version of Internet Explorer?  You can still download it, as a matter of fact.  Not that you would want to.  I imagine it would break the internet pretty hard (prevent pretty much everything from displaying or functioning correctly on the internet, that is).  I know IE 6 and 9 are already doing a pretty good job of that.  I'm a big fan of Opera and Chrome, myself.  Most of the best features of Mozilla/Firefox were available in Opera first.  Plus it is so easy to customize.  Chrome is amazing because it’s so fast.  It is a slim, sleek browser that gives you the option of using a ton of great add-ins.  Where it's different than other browsers in that respect is that all of the add-ins are opt in - you have to specifically request them.  The lack of bloatware is part of what makes Chrome so fast and reliable.

That's all… just my two cents.  Again, check out the infographic for details on the evolution of some of the things you use to access the internet.

Happy Birthday, Technology!

My first CD was the soundtrack to Titanic.  Interestingly enough, my fiancée’s first CD was also a soundtrack - the Matrix.  Do you remember your first CD? (or record, or cassette, or 8-track?)  Our first CD's were from 1997 and 1998, respectively.  Yup.  CD's that are now over 12 years old, which to me sounds old.  Have we really been using compact disks that long?  Whatever happened to cassettes and floppies?  I don't remember my first of either of those, but I definitely had them.  Matter of fact, I still have an old tower at home that reads floppies.  I think the system backups are on floppies for it. But even so, 12 years.  The first CD to ever roll off the line (of the factory, not just a test) was The Visitors album from ABBA.  That was in 1982, almost 29 years ago exactly.

Have we really been using compact disks for twenty-nine years?  What? And now, we have not just the USB port for data transfer, but the USB 2.0.  And the Thunderbolt, previously mentioned, which may eventually usurp the USB's throne.

How fast the world changes...

The World Wide Web turns 20

Last week was the web’s twentieth birthday. I’m a little sorry I missed it.  Now when I say the web, I don’t mean the internet.  Not today, I don’t.  While these terms are generally thought of as synonymous, this was not always the case.  The internet refers to a global system of connected networks, which generally follow a standard set of protocols.  When you are on the internet, you are surfing the web, right?  Technically yes, but they are not the same.  The web, or world wide web, refers to the way the data on these servers is organized.  On the internet as we know if, everything is linked by, well, links.  That is what defines the web.  It is literally a web of interconnected points, tied together with hypertext links.  This is where the “www” in web addresses comes from.  Without the advent of the web, the internet would have no real organization.  Search engines wouldn’t really be workable, as we understand them now.  Imagine trying to find a recipe or some such!  The way the web is all linked together is really the most impressive thing about it, defining of the entire internet, making it usable for passive information sharing, rather than just active communication.

While the internet predates the web (see wiki article here), dating back as far as the 1950′s, the world wide web counted its 20th birthday the first week of August.  The world’s first website is still available as an archived set of pages here.  I’m sure you can forgive their typos, as they were busy making the interwebs happen.

Computers

Computer is a very ancient term, which originally referred to individuals who performed calculations or computations.  It was not until the end of the 19th century that it started to obtain is modern connotations.  Computers today are capable of thousands of functions, all derived from a digital, binary code.  Interestingly, this code is remarkably like the code of DNA, which contains four variables instead of the two which computers use. 

 

The ENIAC is considered the first general use, programmable computer.  It was created in 1946 to calculate artillery firing tables, but was first put to use making calculations for the hydrogen bomb.  Referred to as the "Giant Brain," ENIAC reached speeds that have yet to be matched.  At  680 square feet, ENIAC was a hulking predecessor of modern technology.

 

Before the ENIAC, there was the advent of the Turing Machine, which "is a theoretical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules," according to wikipedia.  While not a practical computing device, all modern computers are descendants of the Turing machine. 

Earlier still, the first data to be read by computers was on punched paper cards.  This revolution in computer science was used to tabulate the 1890 census.  This technology was originally made to create automatic patterns in weaving.  Joseph Marie Jacquard developed the punched card system in 1801.  It was the first instance of programmable technology in action. 

Earlier yet, ancient mechanical computers included the abacus, the slide rule,and the astrolabe.  More impressive is the Antikythera mechanism, an early analog computer device that was probably used to calculate the position of sun, moon, and planets, predict lunar and solar eclipses, track the rise and set of major stars, and keep the  Metonic, Saros, and Exeligmos cycles, which are used in fixing calenders and range from 18-54 years.  The device is now known to have at least 37 gears, was small enough to be portable, and had  a built-in instruction manual.  It is thought to have been made based on designs of Archimedes, and probably was one of several similar devices, all dating back to approximately 100 BC.

Yes, the computer you are reading this on has come a long, long way.  Amazing how technology has made such leaps, and how it continues to stretch forward. 

About Us

"In the beginning, there was a Little Mouse™…" ...and one simple goal: to be a progressive and innovative company people rely on for colorful computer keyboards and mice for children, and for individuals with special needs. The company is located on the scenic shores of beautiful Lake Superior, just a stone's throw from Chester Creek, a picturesque creek surrounded by towering pines and hardwoods that turn brilliant shades of orange and red each Fall. It’s a peaceful place in Northern Minnesota where the hard edge of technology and the time-honored ideals of rural America converge. Chester Creek offers a high-tech lineup of functional, fun and affordable computer keyboards and mice for all ages and abilities, keyboards with big, oversized 1" keys, two-button and one-button tiny mice sized just right for little hands, color-coded and standard-sized keyboards, a color-coded typing tutorial, software and accessories. Above all, Chester Creek strives to meet our goals everyday, in the products we market and the service we provide. We know that to maintain a superior reputation, we must first earn it. To that end, Chester Creek designs and manufactures “the very best” products, contributes to minimizing environmental burden through the effective application of RoHS and CPSIA standards, and most importantly, makes every effort to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. Take a look around. Relax a bit at the Creek. We are sure you'll be happy you stopped by.