Internet nostalgia

©Mark Ollig


It was 1990. While sitting in front of my computer, I clicked the Prodigy icon.

I hear a dial-tone, and then the dual-tone multi-frequency digits of the phone number being sent over my computer modem’s telephone line.

A smile came across my face upon hearing the reassuring buzzing and screeching audio coming from the modem speakers.

That modem sound lets me know I was connecting to my online service provider, which also provided a gateway to where I could access the internet.

Some of you undoubtedly accessed the internet through a dial-up online service provider such as CompuServ, America Online, or Prodigy.

Back in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, I used Prodigy, which was more or less a nationwide dial-up computer bulletin board service or BBS.

In addition to having a colorful user interface with point and click, there was a portal or gateway icon for accessing the internet.

Having an internet portal from an online dial-up service was a feature which caused many online services, such as Prodigy, to have a large number of paying subscribers.

Prodigy also offered games, weather reports, shopping, news, Dow Jones stock ticker, and a variety of specialty-themed, interactive messaging forums, such as politics and sports.

In fact, I still have my Prodigy coffee cup from 1987.

Going back to 1981, only 2,000 people were using the internet; however, when TCP/IP became the official communications protocol, many more computer networks became accessible over the ever-growing internet.

There were no World Wide Web or web browsers in 1981. We wouldn’t see these publically used on the internet until 1991.

Being curious, I searched Minnesota newspaper archives for the first mention of the word “Internet” and found a July 17, 1982 “Save Your Crops” ad headline by a company called INTERNET, Inc. out of New Hope.

It turns out this internet company made “durable plastic netting” used to cover berries and other crops from “hungry birds.”

A Feb. 3, 1986 “help wanted” ad for a programmer/SR analyst for a Sperry (UNIVAC) 1100 system was placed by a company called Internet Systems Corp. out of Sunrise, FL.

The first mention of the “Internet” we know today, was a front-page article of the Nov. 4, 1988 Star Tribune newspaper under the lead, “Computer mayhem.”

A nationwide computer virus disrupted a US government defense research data network.

The article said the virus had “reproduced itself through a research network called Internet.”

I noted how the word “Internet” was capitalized and used as a proper noun throughout the article.

“The big issue is that a relatively benign software program can virtually bring our computing community to its knees,” said Chuck Cole, deputy computer manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Computers affected by the 1988 virus included MIT, Harvard, Cornell, Purdue, Maryland, the University of California Berkeley, Wisconsin, and others.

The computers used at the University of Minnesota, as well as at Honey Corporation, were not exposed to the virus.

“Millions logging on to the Internet” was the headline of an article in the June 1993 Minneapolis Star Tribune.

This 25-year-old article foresaw the limited numbers of internet addresses – IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) available by mentioning the fact, so many computers were connecting to the Internet, that it would run out of individual computer addresses by 2003.

IPv6 came along to save the day, and now we have plenty of computer and smartdevice internet address capacity.

“Having an Internet address on one’s business card has become a badge of honor,” The 25-year-old article stated.

I noted the forewarning in this 1993 article, as it mentioned concern about company data not being secure “while whizzing around the net from computer to computer.”

Twenty-five years ago, 15 million people throughout the world were accessing an internet (mostly via telephone dial-up) which consisted of about 11,000 computers connected to a shared network.

In 1993, approximately 60 Minnesota organizations connected to the internet, including 3M, Pillsbury, Burlington Northern Railroad, and Honeywell.

The 2017 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) “Measuring the Information Society Report 2017” said 53.6 percent of the world’s households have internet access from their homes.

The number of young people between 15 and 24 using the internet throughout the world is 70.6 percent, per the ITU report, and this percentage will keep increasing.

In 2017, there were 3.5 billion internet users on the planet, which is 48 percent of the world’s population, according to the ITU.

It is not too much of a surprise to learn China is the largest internet population user, with 750 million. India is second, with 390 million.

The US has 250 million internet users; which is about 76 percent of our country’s population.

US households having internet access stands at 84 percent, according to a January 2018 study by the Leichtman Research Group.

In 30 years, what will newspaper columnists write about today’s internet? Stay tuned.

Stop by my online “badge of honor” internet address at https://www.bitscolumn.blogspot.com. 

Nov. 4, 1988 Star Tribune newspaper

Looking back at lifecasting and the internet

©Mark Ollig


This week, we’re reaching back into the Bits & Bytes archives with a column I originally wrote May 19, 2008.

My readers should note, today’s column is updated where needed.

The newest internet sensation of 2008 is real-time “lifecasting.”

Lifecasting is more or less a person who broadcasts moments of their life on the internet.

The first “lifecaster” was said to be Steve Mann.

In 1994, Mann began wearing a bulky wireless head-camera and started real-time, continuous video transmission of his daily life activities – broadcasting them over his website for the online world to see.

Mann, wearing his 1994 lifecasting head-gear, can be seen at http://wearcam.org/steve.html.

March 19, 2007, Justin Kan began real-time, over-the-internet lifecasting of his daily doings using a web camera and a microphone.

He wanted others to have a venue for their lifecasting, so July 21, 2007, Kan’s “Justin TV” (JTV) live-streaming, video hosting website went online.

JTV began with some 60 independent lifecasting, video-streaming, broadcast channels focusing on numerous themes.

By 2009, thousands of folks were broadcasting live over hundreds of internet live-streaming websites.

They ranged from musicians, those promoting individual lifestyle channels, political channels, to retired folks chatting about “the good old days” with their online guests using text and voice.

I recall some JTV channels featuring the lifecasting of cats, dogs, turtles, and fish.

Today, Facebook users and other social media venues can instantly broadcast live with each other at any time.

Vinton G. Cerf is one of the original internet pioneers, and is known as the “Father of the Internet.”

From 1976 to 1982, Cerf played a crucial role in the defense department’s development of what became the internet.

Cerf, along with Robert Kahn, developed the TCP/IP (Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) software.

TCP/IP are the internet transmission rules which frame the underlying architecture of the internet.

During 2008, Cerf attended a Technology Alliance annual luncheon and talked about the early days of the internet and his thoughts about its future.

When asked the question of whether or not the term “surfing the internet” originated from his last name, he replied, “It did not.”

Cerf told the attendees at the luncheon, he recently purchased two terabytes of hard drive storage for $600 (remember, this is in 2008).

He calculated how much 1TB (terabyte) of disk memory would have cost in 1979; a mind-blowing $100 million.

Today, one can purchase a 1TB fixed hard drive for $130, or a 1TB External USB 3.0 portable hard drive for $60.

When asked in 2008, to “look ahead 10 years,” Cerf said there would be many more mobile devices connecting to the internet; predicting nearly 10 billion.

He wasn’t too far off on his prediction.

This year (2018) there will be approximately 7.19 billion mobile devices in use on the planet, according to gsmaintelligence.com.

In 2006, Vinton Cerf spoke before the US Senate committee hearing on network neutrality and said he was “. . . fortunate to be involved in the earliest days of the ‘network of networks.’”

He stated network neutrality is essential to the internet’s success.

When asked how the internet will operate in the distant future, Cerf answered, “Over a period of a hundred or a thousand years, the probability of maintaining continuity of the software to interpret the old stuff is probably close to zero. Where would you find a projector for an 8-mm film these days? If the new software can’t understand, we’ve lost the information. It’s a serious problem.”

For me, it is equivalent to asking, “What modern computers are built with a drive to read the data encoded on a 5-1⁄4-inch floppy disk?”

On the other hand, paper books seem to have worked out well, insofar as being a stable medium, where past, present, and future generations can easily read its contents without needing technological intervention.

Indeed. Paper books, newspapers, and magazines require no batteries, software programs, or hardware to read their contents or see the photos they contain.

A book printed 500 years ago is still easily readable.

Can we say the same for information contained within current data storage mediums?

I suppose, 500 years from now, they’ll use an optical scanner with a holographic light beam to read the information contained within “ancient” storage devices.

“I was fortunate to be involved in the earliest days of the network of networks. From that experience, I can attest to how the actual design of the internet – the way its digital hardware and software protocols, including the TCP/IP suite, were put together,” Cerf said in 2006.

The complete 2006 statement presented by Cerf before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is available at http://commerce.senate.gov/pdf/cerf-020706.pdf.

Justin TV, http://www.justin.tv ceased its live-streaming website Aug. 5, 2014, and became a gaming channel called Twitch TV, https://www.twitch.tv.

There is only one original lifecaster from JTV who is now broadcasting on Twitch; FranktaylorsLifecast. You can visit his live-streaming, lifecasting channel at https://www.twitch.tv/franktaylorslifecast.

Looking inside Facebook’s ‘Pandora Box’

©Mark Ollig


I was amazed to learn the amount of data Facebook has about me, and with whom they share this information.

To say your humble columnist was “surprised” by the amount of data accumulated would be an understatement.

Facebook knows a lot about me – more than I realized.

I reviewed specific information about me Facebook has collected, stored, and shared.

Under Facebook’s General Account Settings, a link named Download a Copy can be clicked to view some of your Facebook information.

Personal information can be seen in 25 categories Facebook tracks.

Here are 10 of them:

• Posts you’ve shared;

• Photos uploaded and shared;

• Videos uploaded and shared;

• Comments made on your own and others’ postings;

• Likes and emoticon reactions to others’ comments;

• Advertisers who have collected information from you;

• Profile information;

• Friends you connect with;

• Messages exchanged with others using Messenger,

• Information on networks used to access Facebook.

Within the Download a Copy setting, we can view our Facebook information without actually downloading it.

To see your information, first, log into your Facebook account. Then go to this link: https://www.facebook.com/your_information. The link takes you to the “Access Your Information” page.

There, you can select and view the contents of any information category which has collected your Facebook information.

There are 23 categories under the Access Your Information page, with each group containing subcategories.

Under the Information About You category, I clicked the arrow next to the Location History.

Location History is what it says. A physical map displays the locations from the computer or smartdevice where I accessed Facebook; including the name of the city.

Neatly displayed on the left side of my computer screen was every city where I have used Facebook since Sept. 24, 2017.

The Location History map is sprinkled with red dots across the Minneapolis metropolitan area and western Minnesota, representing my Facebook location history.

Our location is being tracked while using Facebook on our computer, or on our smartphone’s app.

This location history file is supposedly private; I noted there is an option to delete its contents.

You can also turn off/deactivate the Location History in the Location Settings.

When Location History is turned off, Facebook will stop adding new information to the Location History file.

Facebook had also saved a two-year file log which recorded not only when I’ve used the service, but from which particular device and web browser.

Facebook also tracked my advertiser’s preferences and listed the ads I had clicked on for more information.

Those advertisers (and others who think I might be interested in their product or service) would send me ads while I was using Facebook.

Facebook can distribute my ad preference information to third parties directly, or through apps on my smartphone.

The Ad Settings Screen allows me to select and hide pop-up ads from advertisers who target me.

To download a copy of your Facebook information, go to Facebook’s homepage top banner, click the question mark. Beneath the question mark, click Help Center; Managing Your Account, and then click the Accessing and Downloading Your Information link.

Under Tools & Resources, you can download a copy of your Facebook information, or view the information online from your computer.

To see your Facebook information from your computer, go to the top right of the Facebook homepage and click the upside-down triangle. Click Settings, and then click Your Facebook Information.

There, you will see various information subjects; click one to learn more.

The privacy of user’s data is a question asked of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his recent visit before the US Congress.

Zuckerberg revealed a Facebook tool which “allows people to see and take out all the information they’ve put into Facebook.”

Here is a shortened web link to the Facebook tool Zuckerberg mentioned: https://bit.ly/1sLMxh8.

Explore the options for safeguarding and controlling your data, deactivating, or even deleting your Facebook account.

My data has, and continues to be, collected, organized, and filed under many categories inside Facebook’s Pandora Box.

Should I be concerned about this? Stay tuned.

Details of my Location History

Screen-Grab of my Facebook Location History (Zoomed Out)

‘Lightning messages’ helped Lincoln win the Civil War

©Mark Ollig

Abraham Lincoln was the first US president who used a communication technology similar to today’s email.

During the Civil War, Lincoln transmitted and received secretly-coded messages using telegraphy.

One book author referenced Lincoln’s use of telegraphy as Telegraph Mail or T-Mail.

Today, we email and text using smartphones and computers over broadband connections; Lincoln communicated using a mechanical telegraph switching key mounted to a wooden block connected to battery-electrified telegraph wires.

We are using the internet; 156 years ago, President Lincoln used the telegraph network.

Lincoln’s first experience with the telegraph was in 1857, while he was at the Tazewell House in Pekin, IL.

There, he watched a young telegraph operator, Charles Tinker, send and receive telegraph messages using the Morse keying device.

Lincoln became very interested and asked Tinker to explain how the telegraph worked.

Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in 1860.

In 1861, the US War Department’s telegraph office was named Office US Military Telegraph. It was also known as the wire room.

During the Civil War, President Lincoln spent much of his time there.

The wire room is where he received telegram status reports, sent messages, correspondences, and telegraphed encouragement to his generals and commanders in the field.

“Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War,” is a book written by former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

The book reveals Lincoln personally sent more than 1,000 “lightning messages,” or telegrams, during the time of the Civil War.

Wheeler explains how Lincoln, wanting to be able to send rapid responses to his generals out in the field, would spend most nights in the war department’s telegraph office.

Lincoln used the telegraph to supplement his preferred forms of communication; face-to-face meetings, and handwritten letters.

The telegraph gave the Union states an advantage; communications transmitted over telegraph wires were received much faster, compared to any other transport available at the time.

President’s Lincoln’s messages, converted into electrically transmitted dots and dashes, sped over the telegraph wires to their destinations much quicker than the fastest horse rider could deliver official papers.

Lincoln communicated with the generals on the battlefield in nearly real-time via “mobile telegraph stations.”

Telegraphy was the modern communications technology of the period; Lincoln embraced and capitalized upon it.

His use of the telegraph directly from the White House helped push its development and growth westward across the country.

I learned President Abraham Lincoln was no stranger to engineering and technology.

He received a US patent for his invention to lift boats over shallow waters using an expandable floating chamber device under air pressure.

Lincoln’s patent is titled, “Buoying Vessels Over Shoals.”

He filed his invention idea March 10, 1849, shortly after his 40th birthday, and was granted US Patent No. 6,469 May 22.

Abraham Lincoln is the only US president to hold a patent.

It was back in 1838, when a battery-operated, electromagnet telegraph device was successfully demonstrated by Samuel F.B. Morse.

Following the demonstration, funds were approved for the construction of a telegraph pole line between Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD.

May 24, 1844, Morse, before members of Congress, keyed this telegraph message, “What hath God wrought?” from the US Capitol in Washington. His communication was received nearly 40 miles away at the B&O Railroad station in Baltimore.

An 1853 map detailing the geographic routes of telegraph lines and station depot locations along the eastern United States, is viewable on The Library of Congress’s website: https://bit.ly/2jl1sgI.

By October 1861, the west and east coast telegraph networks of the US became connected with each other.

Tom Wheeler talks about President Lincoln’s use of the telegraph on this C-Span.org video link: https://cs.pn/2rdOaG5.

An Aug. 14, 1864, telegraph message President Lincoln sent to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is viewable here: https://bit.ly/2jozd0B.

Other telegraph messages sent and received by President Lincoln are stored and viewable on the National Archives website: https://bit.ly/2rcnSVo.

Telegram from Abraham Lincoln to Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant

 (Aug. 14, 1864)

1853 map detailing the geographic routes of telegraph lines and station depot locations along the eastern United States.