Increased reliance on internet and telecom services

©Mark Ollig


As many of us continue working from home during the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019, commonly known as COVID-19, our need for a consistent, reliable internet connection has become essential.

While working from home, I have experienced a few internet outages, which, of course, always come at the wrong time.

The last outage happened three weeks ago.

With my internet service out, feelings of frustration came into play, which I assume some of you probably have experienced after losing your internet connection.

After waiting 10 minutes to see if the service would restore (which it didn’t), I contacted the ISP (Internet Service Provider) to calmly voice my displeasure.

Using the ISP’s Status Center app on my smartphone, I could stay up-to-date on any changes regarding the outage as new information was released.

The app recognized my exact internet location and provided a coverage map showing how widespread the outage was, and the number of subscribers affected.

The ISP also sent updated text messages to keep me apprised of the outage, its cause, and when I could expect the service to be restored.

Information provided by the app could also be forwarded to a coworker or management.

Fortunately, the internet outage did not last too long, and I was able to continue with my online workday.

Recently, our good friends at Pew Research published results of a study on Americans working from home during COVID-19.

Part of the study focused on the concerns they have about experiencing an internet or cellphone outage.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the increased use of messaging and email has substituted for the face-to-face communications typically used at places of business outside the home.

Adults ages 18 to 49 who work from home use email and text messaging 80 percent of the time, while those aged 50 to 64 said, 71 percent. A surprise was the tech-savvy 65-and-older folks who reported in at 74 percent.

Of course, people working from home also communicate with others using video calling services, like Skype or Facetime, and online video conferencing programs, such as Zoom or WebEx.

Pew reports 32 percent of those 18 to 29 years old are communicating via video services, while 33 percent of folks age 30 to 39 are using these services. The percentage drops 11 percent for adults age 50 to 64, with 22 percent, and a reported 9 percent for adults over 65.

College graduates reported greater use of online video conferencing for work, with 46 percent saying they use it. Those with a high school education or less who use video conferencing numbered 11 percent.

The report also asked adults if they are sharing information about COVID-19 through various social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.

The highest percentage for sharing information belongs to adults age 18 to 29, where 44 percent responding said they do. Those 30 to 49 came in at 41 percent, while folks 50 to 64 polled at 34 percent. For adults 65 and over, 28 percent were sharing information

Our dependency on reliable internet, cellphone, and landline telecommunication services is paramount for those of us working from home.

When Pew asked how disruptive a long outage with their internet or cellphone service would be during the COVID-19 outbreak, 93 percent of adults of all ages answered by saying it would be a “very big” problem in their workday.

When broken down by ages, 53 percent of those 65 and less, see significant disruptions as a “very big problem,” as compared to 38 percent of folks 65 and older who said it would not be much of a disturbance for them.

When asked if during the COVID-19 outbreak, using online internet and phone communications would suffice for an extended period versus in-person face-to-face, 27 percent of all adults surveyed said yes.

Once they end working from home, 64 percent of all adults said phone calls, and online services would not remain their primary communication method.

Pew Research conducted its survey during the last two weeks of March. A total of 11,537 people participated.

I, personally, know of network technicians and others behind the scenes who are working hard to ensure our internet and telecommunications services remain operating at optimum efficiency, despite the dramatic increase in their use by those of us working from home.

Be safe out there.

(Right to Use Clip Art image paid for)

The internet and ‘home computing’ in the ‘70s

© Mark Ollig


If the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019, commonly known as COVID-19, had occurred during the 1970s, working from home would not have been an option for many of us.

Of course, we could have played a lot of Pong back in 1972.

In 1975, as far as one having a home computer, there was always the Altair 8800 microcomputer.

Computer hobbyists were putting Altair 8800’s kits together, ordered through Popular Electronics magazine.

The build-it-yourself kit sold for $439, while the fully assembled Altair 8800 sold for $621.

Ed Roberts created the Altair 8800 and worked at MIT.

The Altair 8800 used an Intel 8080 8-bit microprocessor, 4K of RAM operated using Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) programming language.

The software programs written for it were stored on a cassette tape.

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

The BASIC program for the Altair 8800 was written by Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft.

The internet of the 1970s was called the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET. This packet-switching network was used mostly by the military, research institutions, and universities.

The world’s first websites would not appear on the internet until 1991.

By 1993, there were 623 websites. Today, there are nearly 1.8 billion.

But, I digress.

In 1971, Ray Tomlinson wrote the first electronic mail program, which allowed ARPANET users to quickly, digitally communicate with each other.

Tomlinson also decided to use the @ symbol used in email addresses.

The first ARPANET email message was “QWERTYUIOP.”

In 1974, TCP (transmission control protocol) used with today’s IP (internet protocol) was created by Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf. Today’s internet uses TCP/IP.

By 1975, there were 61 nodes (mainframe computers and other devices, like teletype printers) connected to ARPANET. Today, the internet has some 50 billion nodes.

Aug. 3,1977, Radio Shack, a subsidiary of the Tandy Corporation, began selling the TRS-80 personal computer for the home.

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 microprocessor had an original clock speed of 1.78 MHz.

The TRS-80 was a home computer system that included a keyboard and a display monitor.

The computer processing and associated electronic components are inside of the keyboard housing.

In August 1977, I stopped at the Radio Shack store in Brainerd to purchase a new stereo player.

I recall seeing the TRS-80 on display and seriously considered buying it.

When I learned it cost $600 ($2,561 in 2020 dollars), I decided to hold off on purchasing it.

“There was limited software on it, you could play a few games, but word processing was rudimentary and had a lot of codes that you had to learn,” said David Allison, technology curator at the National Museum of American History.


The National Museum of American History collection contains an original TRS-80 computer.

In 1977, 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.

Instead, I bought a new Panasonic PLL Multiplex Circuit stereo with cassette, AM/FM radio, and record player. It included a pair of “Thruster Speakers,” which provided a great sound. I miss that stereo.

During the ‘70s, a growing band of computer hobbyists were building their own home computers and sharing information through computing clubs and other grass-roots organizations.

In June 1977, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak introduced the world to the Apple computer.

A major blizzard hit Chicago in January 1978. Ward Christianson and Randy Suess, members of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists’ Exchange, better known as CACHE, wanted to exchange computer software disk files and were unable to because of the snowstorm.

Not to be deterred, they came up with a way to directly exchange software files from one computer to another.

Both developed a new software program and configured the hardware needed to exchange computer data files using a file transfer protocol from one home computer to another computer over a phone line.

The software program they wrote was named CBBS (Computerized Bulletin Board System).

A computer using CBBS software later became commonly known as a BBS.

They used a North Star Horizon computer with a Zilog Z80A microprocessor, and a CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) operating system.

A computer would need to have installed a client software and have a modem to access the BBS.

The person operating a multi-user BBS came to be called the computer System Operator or SysOp.

To connect to a BBS, you needed your username and password (which the operator of the BBS mailed to you).

Once accessing the BBS, you could engage in various text-chat forums, play simple graphical games, use email, and upload or download utility and gaming files shared among users within the BBS.

It was the start of the virtual online community; nearly 20 years before there was Twitter, Facebook, or even MySpace (for those of you who remember that).

As some of you may know, I once operated a dialup BBS back in the day called WBBS: OnLine! (Winsted Bulletin Board Service).

Yup, those were the good old days.Stay safe out there.

Altair 8800

TRS-80 

TRS-80 

Apple II

APPLE II

Brochure from WBBS:OnLine

Computing tablet envisioned long ago

© Mark Ollig


Over the years, there has been an ongoing debate about who originally came up with the concept of an electronic computing tablet.

The most popular tablet is Apple Computer’s iPad, which became available in April 2010.

Recently, I discovered 48-year-old diagrams and descriptions of an electronic device that strongly resembles today’s modern computing tablet.

In 1972, Alan C. Kay envisioned a futuristic computing tablet. He called it the DynaBook.

During August 1972, while working at the Xerox research center in Palo Alto, CA, Kay completed an 11-page description of the DynaBook.

Kay envisioned the DynaBook being used primarily as an educational tool for children.

In addition to his detailed explanation of the many educational features on the DynaBook, Kay attempted to explain how to build one using the electronic components and software technology available in 1972.

I noted on page 4, LSI (large-scale integration) microprocessors are mentioned. There, he handwrote, “Intel 4004,” which was a 4-bit central processor unit (CPU) initially available in March 1971.

The Intel 4004 was the first electronic CPU on a single component chip.

Kay explained how the DynaBook’s keyboard should be “as thin as possible . . . it may have no moving parts at all – but be sensitive to pressure. . .” in other words, a touchscreen.

“Once one has gotten used to the idea of no moving parts, he is ready for the idea of no keyboard at all,” Kay described in his document on the DynaBook.

Alan C. Kay’s document, “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages,” can be seen in PDF form using this link: https://bit.ly/2yEQbCK.

The television series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” showed crew members using a handheld computing interface device with a touch screen called a PADD, or Personal Access Display Device.

The PADD closely resembled a slightly larger smartphone. It could be used in a variety of applications as defined by its software.

In 1994, Roger Fidler, a journalist, newspaper designer, and director of new media for Knight-Ridder Inc., created a video called “The Tablet Newspaper: A Vision for the Future.”

He recorded this video demonstrating how a person would use a portable computing device to read, interact with, and share news and information from a digital tablet newspaper’s video display.

The video showed the newspaper contents artificially added over a non-working model.

The prototype tablet was a rectangular, 3⁄4-inch-thick, black-bordered case (about the size of a magazine), with a large flat-screen and no physical keyboard. It looked very much like today’s Apple iPad.

Two people in the video demonstrated how to use the “futuristic” digital tablet newspaper.

“Tablets will be a whole new class of computers. They will weigh under 2 pounds. They will be totally portable. They will have a clarity of screen display comparable to ink on paper. They will be able to blend text, video, audio, and graphics together, and they will be part of our daily lives around the turn of the century. We may still use computers to create information, but we will use the tablet to interact with information,” the narrator in the 1994 video accurately predicted.

“It may be difficult to conceptualize the idea of digital paper, but, in fact, we believe that’s what’s going to happen,” Fidler said 26 years ago.

In 1994, there was no Wi-Fi, and using a web-browser type of graphical user interface when accessing information from the internet was still in its infancy.

Fidler’s video was uploaded to YouTube in May 2007.

Apple Computer released its iPad three years later.

The debate of whether Apple got the idea for its iPad from Roger Fidler’s prototype tablet continues to this day.

Watch the 13-minute 1994, “The Tablet Newspaper: A Vision for the Future,” on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2RdmCyj and judge for yourself.

Have a good week, and be safe out there.

Why is he talking into a brick?

© Mark Ollig


The faces of many New Yorkers displayed puzzlement and curiosity April 3, 1973, while watching an unusual activity.

Martin Cooper, Motorola’s Communications System Division general manager, was walking down a sidewalk in New York City, talking into what looked like a brick held against his head.

The “brick” was a 2-pound cellular telephone handset with 20 minutes of battery talk time.

Cooper and his fellow co-creators had built the first portable cellular phone.

Cooper placed a call to Joel Engel, who was head of AT&T’s Bell Labs program, and who was working on building a cellular phone.

AT&T was also the company responsible for developing the cellular technology being used inside Cooper’s newly-created, never-before-seen portable cellphone.

“Joel, I’m calling you from a cellular phone, a real cellular phone, a handheld, portable, real cellular phone,” Cooper recalled saying.

Cooper said there was no immediate reply, and assumed Engel was speechless.

As stated by Cooper, Engel abruptly ended the phone call [hung up, I assume] after speaking only a few words.

Cooper said the call from the first portable handheld cellphone made by Motorola – not AT&T – must have really angered Engel.

For his part, Engel reportedly said he does not recall the conversation ever taking place.

Cooper had another cellular telephone conversation with a New York radio reporter that day, 47 years ago.

Before 1973, Motorola had been manufacturing bulky, mobile radio phones used in police and civilian automobiles.

Cooper hoped to see the day when people would have a portable communications device they could carry with them.

“People are inherently, naturally, mobile. They want to be able to move around freely and not be inhibited,” he said.

Cooper was influenced by the 1960s TV series “Star Trek,” and the handheld wireless communicator used by Captain James T. Kirk.

He was intrigued by how easily Kirk communicated with his fellow Starfleet officers using the small device he carried with him.

I learned the original Star Trek communicator was designed and built by prop maker, Wah Ming Chang.

The first (non-cellular) wireless, mobile phone call using a telephone handset was placed June 17, 1946, from a car in St. Louis, MO, according to AT&T’s corporate website.

This type of mobile telephone limited the driver’s phone call through a single radio tower with no “hand-off” to another radio tower. When a driver traveled out of range of the tower, the telephone call was lost, and the driver would need to come into the range of another radio tower and place a new call.

In 1947, AT&T’s Bell Laboratories revealed a new networking model being studied for wireless telephone networks, using cellular technology that would “hand-off” a telephone call from tower to tower.

During the 1960s, AT&T’s research into cellular telecommunication technology began in earnest.

It wouldn’t be until 1977 that AT&T, using its research and development division, Bell Labs, would build the first prototype cellular networking system for widespread public use.

By 1978, AT&T began testing its new analog cellular telecommunications system in Chicago, IL and Newark, NJ.

In 1982, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officially authorized the use of commercial cellular networking services in the US.

In the early 1980s, Robert Galvin, chairperson of Motorola, showed one of Motorola’s new cell phones to President Ronald Reagan.

When shown the new portable cellular phone, Reagan was amazed and remarked, “What’s keeping us from having this?”

In 1983, Motorola’s 16-ounce (1 pound) DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) portable cellular phone was successfully used over an analog mobile cellular network in Chicago, IL.

The first authentic 2G (second generation) digital cellular networks were launched in 1991. 3G appeared in 2001, and 4G in 2009.

In 2019, the major wireless carriers began installing 5G digital cellular technology and antennas.

The distinction of being the first 5G smartphone on the market belongs to Sony’s Xperia 1 II, which was announced Feb. 24.

Samsung has five models of 5G phones, including the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, released March 6.

Apple is expected to announce its 5G iPhone this fall.

When will we see 6G cellular networks? My guess is in 2029, and, no, I don’t know its bandwidth or how fast it will be.

“The father of the cellular phone,” Martin Cooper, is 91 years old and holds 11 US patents in the field of wireless communications.

His famous US Patent 3906166, titled Radio Telephone System, includes his cellular phone and the radio tower network to connect it.

Descriptions and drawings of this patent can be seen at https://bit.ly/3awle1p.

In 1983, Motorola’s 8000X DynaTAC “brick” cellular phone sold for $4,000, which today, is equivalent to $10,400.

Have a good week, and be safe, everyone.