21 November 23

This week marks 38 years since Microsoft introduced Windows 1.0 (on 20 November 1985), the first graphical user interface designed for IBM personal computers. It offered a way to select files and programs using a mouse or the cursor keys, but it would take four more years and the release of Windows 3.0 for the display of icons and clickable images. My tie shows the IBM PC/AT with a corded mouse and keyboard, first common around 1987. Today is one of my last days for "telework" -- it's been great to "stay home from school" so much since May.

26 June 22

On this date 738 years ago (1284), the "Pied Piper" lured 130 children out of Hamelin, Germany, because the town refused to pay him for his pest removal services in ridding the town of rats (or mice) during a plague. I'm wearing one of my computer mice ties! I have never attempted to use a flute (or cheese) to control either mice or children. The historical facts from the period of the Pied Piper legend are filled with mystery and conjecture.

26-27 April 21

Today (26 April) is National Richter Scale Day, on the birthday of Charles F. Richter (1900-1985) who developed the standard measurement for seismic events. Tomorrow (27 April) is the last of our "Spring Break" days scattered across the semester, so I'm not working! But I want to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the computer mouse, so I'm wearing my tie showing cartoon mice chasing cheese across a monitor screen, with a background full of desktop computers with wired mice. In 1981, Xerox became the first producer of personal computers with mice as standard equipment. Steve Jobs saw the enormous potential of combining mice with graphical displays, and that's how Apple computers got started.

29 October 19

Fifty years ago today, the incident reported below became the first successful transmission between two computer systems. ARPANET was among the earliest paths to connect or "network."

“The first successful message on the ARPANET was sent by UCLA student programmer Charley Kline, at 10:30 pm PST on 29 October 1969 (6:30 UTC on 30 October 1969), from Boelter Hall 3420. Kline transmitted from the university's SDS Sigma 7 Host computer to the Stanford Research Institute's SDS 940 Host computer. The message text was the word login; on an earlier attempt the l and the o letters were transmitted, but the system then crashed. Hence, the literal first message over the ARPANET was lo. About an hour later, after the programmers repaired the code that caused the crash, the SDS Sigma 7 computer effected a full login.” (Wikipedia, article on ARPANET)

22 August 18

Happy Birthday, public World Wide Web! On 23 August (tomorrow) 1991, (Sir) Tim Berners-Lee released the first "browser" for the World Wide Web. This was a program that allowed users to retrieve files over the newly expanding "Internet," using links called Uniform Resource Locators. At first, users had to know which URL would give them the starting point for their "surfing," but soon there were search tools like "Archie" and then "Veronica" to help us find Web sites more efficiently. The first graphical browser (displaying images and decorated pages) came out in 1993. My tie shows mice chasing cheese on an old, clunky desktop monitor, similar to the standard personal computers of the early 1990s.

27 April 17

My calendar shows 27 April 1981 as the date for the introduction of the computer mouse. What's true is that Xerox PARC marketed a personal computer in 1981 with the novelty of a cable-connected mouse. It's difficult to click on a precise date for the invention of the computer mouse, because the historical tale involves several different approaches and mechanisms. Today's tie shows some cartoonish biological mice chasing Swiss cheese on a computer monitor; the background is full of IBM AT-style computers with cabled mice and keyboards.

27 April 16

On this date in 1981, Xerox PARC introduced the computer "mouse," a handheld device cabled to a personal computer, whose movements on a horizontal surface could be translated into input data for the computer. Thirty-five years later we take most of that wonderment for granted. This tie's design includes a repeating image of IBM "AT"-style computers, with cabled keyboards and mice, but the central image shows some "real" mice chasing some Swiss cheese across a computer display.

7 May 15

Needed a reason to wear this tie again (last worn in October 2012): Today is EKU's Employee Recognition Luncheon, showing the university's deep appreciation for the wonderful work of our supremely excellent staff. When I started my full time job at EKU 19 years ago, one of my first tasks was installing Windows 95 on many "AT"-model IBM desktop computers, as pictured on this tie.

29 October 12

43 years ago today . . . I was in 10th grade at Liberty High School, Richard Nixon was POTUS, and the very first computer-to-computer communication took place. The first message transmitted over what would become the Internet was "lo," the first two characters of "login." It went from a computer at UCLA to one at Stanford. The letters "l" and "o" were successfully received, and then one of the systems crashed. See my entry from 2008 for the full story!

10 August 10

It is now VERY traditional for us to upgrade the EKU Blackboard system on the second Tuesday in August every year. Reason? Summer classes end the previous week, and instructors must have the system on Monday to finish all their grading. On Tuesday morning we take the system down for as few hours as possible, but we always know that some people keep trying to connect the whole time, hoping that the next click to Submit their passwords will be the magic moment. We gave those people great joy at about noon today.

11 August 09

This was our day to lead current Model Lab teachers and EKU new faculty into the mysteries of Blackboard . . . four workshops in all!

14 August 08

Today the IT people get their chance to "orient" new faculty at EKU. So I'm looking very official with my name badge. The tie is a little cheesy but it connects nicely with my job.









Two wild and crazy guys were born on August 14: Steve Martin (1945) and Gary Larson (1950).