A lot happens in an ‘internet minute’

©Mark Ollig



Getting up from my office desk chair and walking into the kitchen, I can pour a cup of coffee and return to my desk in about one minute.

However, when we are talking about an internet minute, millions of individual online activities can be taking place.

Lori Lewis and Officially Chad provides content for Visual Capitalist, an online media site producing content focused on global trends, technology, investing, and the economy.

Their 2019 research reveals the number of activities or actions occurring every minute over the internet – and the numbers are mind-boggling.

In an internet minute, 3.8 million Google search queries take place.

Every 60 seconds, 4.5 million videos are watched on YouTube.

Netflix subscribers view 694,444 hours of video every minute.

Revenue generated by internet platforms is also incredible.

Consumers spend $996,956 every minute on the internet; if this amount of spending per minute continues, it will equal $524 billion in online sales being generated for all of 2019.

In 2018, Google (which owns YouTube) had $121 billion in total revenue, placing it second to Amazon, the online commerce giant, which ranked first, with $233 billion. Twitter’s total income stood at $3.3 billion.

But, I digress.

I use Twitter every day. In an internet minute, 87,500 people are sending a message or tweet.

Twitter statistics report 500 million tweets are created each day.

In the age of instant messaging, email is still being sent out in large numbers.

Some 188 million emails are sent every minute. How many of these are spam emails is debatable. If my inbox is any indication, there are still quite a lot of spam emails out there.

Every minute, there are 41.6 million messages sent using Facebook Messaging and WhatsApp.

All other messaging services account for 18.1 million texts sent per minute.

The latest Google Play and Apple AppStore statistics show there are a little more than 390,000 software apps being downloaded every minute.

In an internet minute, 1 million people will log into their Facebook account. In spite of their user privacy controversies, Facebook’s daily active user count continues to rise.

Many of us use a “smart speaker” device in our home. The one I use is called Google Home, which includes a display screen.

I’ll have my smart speaker tell me the time or temperature, or ask it to set a timer or a wakeup call.

Google Home is used to listen to and watch news, music, videos, check financial markets, set reminders, and watch YouTube TV by the use of verbal commands.

Google Home also comes in handy when writing my column, as I will occasionally ask it to provide a synonym or spell a word for me.

Statistics show companies such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, shipping out 180 smart speakers every minute, which amounts to 94,608,000 devices per year.

Sending photos and instant text and story messages using the online messaging app called Snapchat is very popular these days. Statistics show 2.1 million “snaps” are created every minute.

A GIF (pronounced “Jif,” like the brand of peanut butter) file is used within most social media platforms to express an emotion in a short video loop.

Every minute, nearly 5 million GIFs are presented, according to GIPHY, which is an internet database online that users search and share GIF files from.

Of course, the number of activities and actions occurring in an internet minute for 2020 will no doubt increase.

A lot happens in an internet minute. In our attempt to stay current, we scroll through mountains of online content at lightning speed. We stare at multiple display screens filled with activity from various social media platforms, text messages, downloaded photos, video, and Word documents.

Going offline regularly to rest and recharge our minds is not a bad idea. The internet never gets tired; however, we do.

Image permission-to-use rights paid by Mark Ollig :)

Videotelephony: sometimes technology gets it right

©Mark Ollig



Sunday, May 8, 2016, I, along with other family members, were visiting with my mom at St. Mary’s Care Center in Winsted.

It was Mothers Day.

One of my mom’s granddaughters lives out of state, on the west coast, and was unable to visit in person.

However, the distance apart did not prevent them from seeing and talking with each other.

My niece, who was also visiting, used technology known as videotelephony to bring them both together.

She placed a video phone call using a software app (application) on her cellphone.

My niece placed the video call more or less the same as making a voice call. She then held the cellphone in front of my mom.

When my mother first saw and heard her granddaughter on the cellphone, she smiled, they both began talking as if they were sitting across a table from each other.

Mom was thrilled being able to see and talk with her granddaughter on the cellphone.

They both acknowledged each other’s cheerful facial expressions and smiles on their cellphone screens.

The video call was placed using Apple’s FaceTime app.

During the 1940s, my mother was a telephone switchboard operator in Silver Lake; which is when she first talked with my father.

My dad was working the telephone switchboard in Winsted and contacted the Silver Lake switchboard operator to get a line into Hutchinson for placing a call.

Today, people commonly use video-calling apps for placing face-to-face phone calls.

Ten years ago, I made my first video call; however, it was not over a cellphone. I used Skype, which is a video-chat program I downloaded to my desktop computer.

I placed the video-call to my oldest son, who was out of the country. He was taking classes at the Academia de Bella Arte School in Florence, Italy.

The video call to Florence Italy, some 4,750 miles away from my location in Minnesota, was placed over the internet.

On my computer, I opened the Skype program and called my son’s Skype number.

A small screen appeared in the upper right-hand corner of my computer monitor. It displayed live video of my son as seen through his laptop camera.

I smiled while looking into the camera on my computer, and cheerfully said, “Hello, Mathew!”

He smiled back and returned the “Hello.” I was surprised by how good the quality of the color video was.

While we talked, he moved his laptop’s camera to give me a panoramic view of the café in Florence, Italy, where he was having coffee.

The café looked very inviting. Customers were seated at tables talking with each other while drinking coffee. Some of the people were eating Italian cantucci and biscotti biscuits.

Mathew’s laptop was connected to the café’s Wi-Fi connection to the internet.

During the 1964 New York World’s Fair, the Bell System’s (AT&T) highly-anticipated presentation of “the telephone of the future,” using a device called the Picturephone, took place.

The Picturephone used a video camera, display screen, audio speakers, power supply, and a push-button telephone.

The video camera inside the Picturephone used a Plumbicon tube, which was used in commercial television broadcasting cameras.

Recently, I watched an archived Picturephone demonstration video. The audio and black-and-white video quality of the person seen on the Picturephone monitor was excellent.

The two people using their Picturephone to talk and see each other appeared both amused and delighted.

In 1965, Picturephone video booths were installed in a few major city locations.

The high cost of placing a video call, along with the inconvenience of having to use the device away from one’s home or business proved unpopular with the public.

By 1968, most of the Picturephone booths had fallen out of favor and were no longer used.

A photograph of the first videophone call from April 20, 1964, can be seen at https://bit.ly/31UG7i3.

I fondly recall my mother’s smiles from not only hearing her granddaughter’s voice on the cellphone, but being able to see her on the display screen, as well.

“It was the first time I could see the person I was talking with over the phone,” my mom later told me.

I smiled and said, “Sometimes, technology gets it right.”

My mother would have been 89 years old Aug. 26.

This column was originally published May 16, 2016, and includes some revision by the writer.

The Hollerith Census Machine

©Mark Ollig



A census of the population is conducted once every 10 years, as required by the US Constitution.

The US Census Bureau informed the media Aug. 12 about the first major field operation for the upcoming 2020 Census.

This field operation is called address canvassing. It upgrades the Census Bureau’s nationwide household address list for delivering the 2020 census invitations.

The Census Bureau advised having an up-to-date address list “plays a vital role in ensuring a complete and accurate count of everyone living in the United States.”

Census data is used to determine the number of seats each state holds in Congress. It is used to decide how federal funds are distributed back to states and local cities every year for services and infrastructure.

Before we get to 2020, let’s look back.

Herman Hollerith worked at the US Census office tabulating (hand-counting) the 1880 census.

According to the US Census Bureau, the 1880 census took seven years to complete.

It was during this time that Hollerith decided on creating an improved method to tabulate the census results more quickly.

He consulted with his mentor, Dr. John Shaw Billings, a statistics supervisor for the US Census.

Billings suggested tabulating the census results mechanically using coded paper cards with punched holes.

His suggestion is similar to the cards used on a Jacquard handloom during textile processing.

Hollerith decided to go with a punched card system.

He recalled observing railroad officials identifying seated passenger characteristics using a punched card.

Hollerith defined the presence or absence of a hole-punch in a card to indicate a specific type of census information.

His electrically-operated tabulator machine processed data indexing points located on the punched-hole of a census card.

These locations contained individual statistical information, cross-tabulations, and number totals.

After the successful testing of his tabulating machine, Hollerith applied for and was awarded US Patent number 395,782 Jan. 8, 1889.

He named his tabulating device, the Hollerith Census Machine.

Hollerith’s electric tabulating device was put to the test during the 1890 US census.

Hollerith was paid $750,000 for the lease of his tabulating machines for the 1890 census, an amount equaling nearly $20.7 million in today’s dollars.

For the first time, US census results would not be solely hand-counted.

The Hollerith electric tabulating machine sorted and processed the 1890 census returns.

The keyboard punch card template was a type of mechanical pantographic design. It quickly transferred data from the human census taker’s paper sheet to punched holes precisely located on a card.

Hollerith’s tabulating machine sorted through the census cards. Whenever a punched-hole was located on a card, it would read and register its data by completing an electrical circuit.

The human operator would place each card in a tabulating machine reader, pull down a lever, and remove the card after each punched-hole was counted.

These results were displayed on the clock-like dials above the tabulating operator’s desk, where a clerk worked.

The tabulating desk looked like an antique telephone operator switchboard (minus the cords).

Hollerith’s tabulating machine processed 10 times the amount of data versus hand counting, which quickly completed the 1890 census and saved the US government an estimated $5 million.

The US population in 1890 was 62,622,250. Minnesota’s portion totaled 1,310,283.

In 1896, Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company. This company provided the tabulating machines used during the 1900 US census.

Soon after, James L. Powers, a technician, along with other employees within the US Census Bureau, built an electric tabulating machine used during the 1910 US Census.

Powers obtained the patent for the machine in 1911, and started the Powers Tabulating Machine Company.

During the same year, Hollerith merged his company with four other companies, and renamed it the Computer Tabulating Recording Company.

Hollerith continued working as a consulting engineer until his retirement in 1921.

In 1924, the Computer Tabulating Recording Company changed its name to the International Business Machines Corporation, or what is commonly known today as IBM.

Powers’ company was obtained by Remington Rand, Inc. in 1927.

James L. Powers died Nov. 8, 1927, at age 57.

Hollerith was 69 when he passed away Nov. 17, 1929.

Portions of the technology from Hollerith’s tabulating machine would continue to be used by the US Census Bureau through the 1940 census.

The UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) electronic digital computer began tabulating portions of the 1950 US Census, and was used exclusively to process the 1960 US Census.

Most US households will begin receiving census invitations in March 2020.

Statista predicts the 2020 population of the US will be 334.5 million.

Stay tuned.

A drawing of US Census tallying clerks using Hollerith’s machine 

 

Photograph of the Hollerith Census Machine

Remembering the TRS-80 and the Altair 8800

©Mark Ollig

In 1977, Radio Shack, a subsidiary of the Tandy Corporation, announced it would begin selling the TRS-80 personal computer.

T-R-S stands for Tandy Radio Shack.

The 80 at the end of TRS-80 stands for the Z80 microprocessor used in the computer.

The Z80 was made by a company called ZiLOG, which, in 1974, became a corporation based out of California.

The Z80 microprocessor had an original clock speed of 1.78 MHz.

The TRS-80 was a home computer containing the keyboard and display monitor. The computer processing and associated electronic components are inside of the keyboard housing.

In August of 1977, I was in the Brainerd Radio Shack store to purchase a new radio. I recall seeing the TRS-80 on display and thought about buying it. When I learned the TRS-80 cost $600 ($2,536 in 2019 dollars), I decided to hold off on purchasing it.

Looking back 42 years ago, I considered computers as being used by the military, weather forecasters, NASA, and for predicting and processing election results, or tabulating the US Census. I did not see the immediate advantages of owning one.

The magazine, Popular Electronics, features articles on how to build your own electronic devices.

During the 1970s, one of the regularly seen advertisements in the magazine included Heathkits.

Heathkits contained the electronic components and instructions needed to make a variety of useful electronic gadgets. Many electronic hobbyists ordered and worked on Heathkits.

The January 1975 front cover of Popular Electronics featured a photograph of the build-it-yourself “World’s First Minicomputer” called the Altair 8800, designed by H. Edward Roberts of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS).

The Altair 8800 kit containing the components cost $439, while the fully-assembled Altair 8800 computer sold for $621.

“If you can handle a soldering iron and follow simple instructions, you can build a computer,” read the Altair 8800 advertisement.

The Altair 8800 computer’s input/output interface consisted of toggle switches and binary lights.

During its first year, over 5,000 Altair 8800 computers were sold.

Many feel the development of the personal computer among computer hobbyists, was due to the popularity of the Altair 8800.

I once read how Paul Allen showed the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, featuring the Altair 8800 microcomputer on the front cover, to Bill Gates.

Allen and Gates would later sit down and write the code for a BASIC program which executed software programs on the Altair computer.

Four months later, Allen and Gates started a microcomputer software company called Microsoft.

There have been computer hobbyists around since the mid-1960s.

Building a digital minicomputer in 1965 could cost $20,000, which is equivalent to $162,600 in today’s dollars.

The TRS-80 Model I computer came equipped with 4KB (4,000 bytes) of RAM (Random Access Memory) and Level I BASIC ROM (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code – Read-Only Memory).

The TRS-80’s display screen was a 12-inch video monitor. Loading and saving of the software and programming data were accomplished using a Realistic CTR-41 cassette tape recorder. A TRS-80 peripheral printer could be added for a pricey $1,200.

During the ‘70s, we recorded and stored music off the radio onto cassette tapes, and computer hobbyists used cassettes to load and store data and software programs.

Some of the software titles used on the TRS-80 included:

Home Recipe;

Personal Finance;

Math I;

Algebra I;

Backgammon/Blackjack;

Payroll; and

Level-I BASIC Course.

Floppy disk drives in personal computers were commonly used a few years later.

In 1980, the TRS-80 floppy drive unit sold for about $425.

The same year, Radio Shack introduced their TRS-80 Model III, a pocket computer, and an interface for using a color display monitor.

During August 1977, the first month the TRS-80 computer was publicly available, Radio Shack sold 10,000 computers at an average price of $600 each.

I was reading on the Radio Shack historical home pages about how their stores were flooded with orders and soon sold out their stock of TRS-80s. They were backordered for months.

Radio Shack sold 55,000 TRS-80 computers during 1977.

The TRS-80 became famous for being one of the first affordable fully-assembled home computers; plus, it was a “computer” – which, in the late ‘70s, gave one bragging rights when mentioned during a conversation.

Was the TRS-80 a portable computer? Well, not really, but you could purchase carrying cases for it from the Radio Shack store.

Radio Shack was founded in 1921 by two brothers, Milton and Theodore Deutschmann from Boston, MA.

The term “radio shack” is a reference to the location for a small cabin housing a naval ship’s radio equipment.

The primary reason the two brothers started this company was to provide electronic radio equipment for police radio officers and amateur ham radio operators. That’s why they called their company, “Radio Shack.”

A full-page color advertisement for the 1977 TRS-80 computer can be seen at https://bit.ly/2KurUBD.

Radio Shack ended production of the TRS-80 in 1981.

To learn more about the Radio Shack TRS-80, visit https://bit.ly/2MExNPn.

More information about the Altair 8800 can be found at https://s.si.edu/2WrTOH9.