Cerf, Kahn, and Engelbart

© Mark Ollig

In 1973, 30-year-old Vinton Cerf was working in a lab at Stanford University when 35-year-old Robert Kahn, employed by the US government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), came by to visit.

Kahn discussed DARPA's problem making all the computers on separate packet-switched networks act as if they were part of one shared network.

Five years earlier, both had seen and been impressed with a futuristic demonstration of a computing system presented by Douglas C. Englebart, who was 43 in 1968.

Engelbart revealed his concept of a future computer network using the NLS (oN-Line System).

In 1957, Engelbart worked at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA.

There, he developed a functional prototype of a futuristic computing system.

In 1968, Douglas Engelbart gave a remarkable computing presentation on “human-computer networking” during the Fall Computer Conference in San Francisco, CA.

Engelbart's computer demonstration came to be known as “The Mother of All Demos.”

“A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect” was the title of Engelbart's presentation.

A fully interactive NLS computer multiconsole display system was linked via telephone lines to a host computer located 30 miles away inside the Stanford Research Institute.

Engelbart wore a headset with a microphone and was seated at a desk in the middle of the stage.

On the desk sat a computer terminal console display or CRT (cathode ray tube) connected to a large video screen above the stage facing an audience of approximately 1,000.

Many computing specialists in attendance curiously watched Engelbart as he typed various commands on a keyboard, while explaining each demonstration application to be used over a multi-computing network.

One surprise of the 1968 demo was the handheld “pointing device” Engelbart regularly used to move the cursor dot on the CRT monitor. It looked like the hand mouse we commonly use to maneuver around the internet and computer programs.

Engelbart developed a working computing mouse in 1963.

When asked, “Why was it called a mouse?” Engelbart explained how someone suggested this name in 1963 because the cord connected to it looked like a tail, and the wooden handheld device was small, so they affectionately called it a mouse.

Douglas C. Engelbart obtained US Patent 3,541,541 for the “mouse,” Nov. 17, 1970, officially titled “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System.”

During this same time, Cerf and Kahn continued their research to develop the networking protocol layers that allow today's internet to operate as it does.

In 1974, Cerf and Kahn published “A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection,” which describes the details of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

By 1976, Cerf and Kahn completed the final TCP/IP code using Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4).

IPv4 is a four decimal, 32-bit binary code and provides a maximum of 4.3 billion unique IP numerical assignments or addresses for identifying individual computing devices – think telephone numbers.

Four decimal points separate each of the eight binary bits, which make up the 32 bits of the IPv4 code.

For example, a dotted, decimal format Internet Protocol (IP) address of 216.27.61.137 when written in binary code is this:11011000.00011011.00111101.10001001.

One needs to remember, it was 1976; given the small number of connection points linked across the existing network, Cerf and Kahn thought 4.3 billion IP addresses would be plenty to last.

Of course, they never envisioned billions of internet domains and the millions of future websites requiring IP addresses that would quickly exhaust the supply of IPv4 addresses.

In 1982, Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn's Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) was used as the official protocol suite over the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPA).

After 29 years, by 2011, the IPv4 network layer protocol addressing scheme had (for the most part) run out of new, assignable IP addresses.

Luckily, there is an internet standards body known as the Internet Engineering Task Force developed IPv6, which is currently being implemented across the internet to replace IPv4.

There are 128 bits of address space using IPv6.

IPv6 provides some 340 trillion, trillion, trillion uniquely assignable IP addresses.

Of course, this capacity will provide a nearly limitless pool of unique IP addresses.

Today, millions of domain names and many networks use IPv6 connectivity.

To check whether your domain supports IPv6 connectivity, use this testing tool at http://ipv6-test.com.

Douglas Engelbart's Dec. 9, 1968 demonstration video is preserved on the Internet Archive website at https://bit.ly/3ofmzD1.

The contributions to the internet and computing by Cerf, Kahn, and Engelbart will forever be engraved in the history of computing technology.

Douglas C. Englebart in later years holding the original computing mouse.

Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn in later years.

Bright red telephone boxes

© Mark Ollig

It has the appearance of a finely hand-crafted, well-made piece of antique furniture, and reminds me of early 20th-century artistry and innovation.

It reflects the dedication of those who brought telecommunications to the people living in large cities, small towns, and rural areas throughout the United Kingdom (UK).

The British call it a telephone box or kiosk.

Living in the US across the big pond from the UK, we call it a payphone booth.

Initially, all UK postal mail was under the sole control and operation of the UK’s General Postal Office or GPO, which Britain’s Charles II established in 1660.

When telegraph and telephone became available, they came under the GPO umbrella.

Those old British telephone boxes hold a particular fascination with me. So, over the last few years, I have been collecting photographs of them and visiting various UK websites to examine their history.

Some of the allure I have about them is due, in part, to the amount of time I spent installing and repairing the payphones in my hometown when I worked at the local telephone company.

The British highly regard their beloved red telephone boxes as landmarks and an essential part of their symbolic history.

Before Britain installed the first telephone box, they used an outdoor mail letterbox or “pillar box,” painted green; however, these mail letterboxes blended in too much with the green tree and grass landscape, and folks had difficulty finding them.

The UK post office decided in 1874, to repaint all the existing mail letterboxes a bright red, invoking the term “pillar box red.”

In 1921, the first public outdoor British telephone box (booth) was called Kiosk No. 1 (K1).

This kiosk telephone box used reinforced concrete and had a wooden entrance door with two sides of paneled glass held in place by wooden muntin or glazing bars.

One of the distinguishing features of this particular telephone kiosk was its spiraling, spear-like ornament atop its roof.

Rooftop signs with TELEPHONE were attached to some K1 models starting in 1924.

These earlier telephone boxes were usually painted red, although I have seen some with added colors accommodating the local surroundings.

In 1927, Britain installed brightly red-painted cast iron K2 telephone boxes with white enamel painted inside underneath the roof along the streets of London.

Along all four sides of the top of the kiosk, it showcased the royal crest of King George V.

Today, the K2 telephone boxes in London are preserved in the same manner we keep buildings as national historic landmarks.

In 1931, K1 telephone boxes were no longer being installed.

By 1936, the K2 had become obsolete, having already been replaced with the K3.

The K3, with a domed roof, was primarily made out of concrete and was first introduced in 1929. It was intended for use in the more rural and urban areas outside London.

The K3 was greyish, with the window frames painted red.

It was later learned concrete was not a very suitable material for an outdoor telephone kiosk, and thus, the K3 was the last telephone box to be made with it.

In 1935, to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the coronation of King George V (June 22, 1911), a K6 Jubilee Kiosk was commissioned, and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed it.

The K6 telephone box was made of cast iron, was installed in 1936, and contained a D 3001-type telephone made from black Bakelite plastic, an electric light, and an A/B pushbutton coin collection box which was bolted to the wallboard.

The outer portion of the K6 was decorated with crowned ornaments and panels, painted red, and topped off with a domed roof.

Before the end of the 1930s, more than 20,000 of these popular K6 telephone boxes were located throughout Great Britain.

Today, all telecommunications within the UK are the responsibilities of British Telecom.

Many of today’s British payphone boxes are used as Wi-Fi and smartphone recharging stations, and collectors are paying large sums of money for early 20th-century British telephone boxes.

Back in the US, in downtown Hartford, CT, a small blue sign is attached to the side of a brick building located on the corner of Main Street and Central Row, which reads, “World's First Pay Telephone. Invented by William Gray and Developed by George A. Long, was installed on this corner in 1889.”

In my hometown of Winsted, the first outdoor payphone booth was located on 1st St. N., directly north of the former Gene Paradis’ Red Owl and later G&K grocery store building (which no longer stands).

The property is currently the Security Bank & Trust Co. outdoor drive-thru ATM/teller lane entrance. The payphone booth was located about 15 feet south of the oak tree which is still there today.

Although the hometown payphone booth installed so many years ago is no longer there, for me, it still seems like yesterday when I drove up next to it in my telephone truck.

Red Arrow shows location of the Winsted Telephone Company
 outdoor payphone booth.
 (Winsted, MN 1961)

Nothing runs like an autonomously driven 'Deere'

© Mark Ollig

During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas, in-person attendance was down 70% from the CES two years earlier, just before COVID-19 struck the world.

A predominantly online digital audience attended this year’s CES.

The Consumer Technology Association, which is the parent of CES, reported a little more than 40,000 people attended in-person during the multi-day event.

It was also noted many of the large tech, telecom, and automotive companies chose not to be represented this year in person, including AT&T, Amazon, T-Mobile, and General Motors.

Also, all attendees and showcase exhibitors were required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to go inside buildings during CES 2022 and to wear facemasks while on the showcase display floors.

Despite low company representation and attendance at Las Vegas, the usual gadgets and technology were seen.

Showfloor exhibits from more than 2,300 companies worldwide showcased technology and devices featuring advances in artificial intelligence, automotive technology, digital health, smart homes, and more.

For me, what stood out was the autonomously-driven John Deere tractor.

Well-known tractor manufacturer, John Deere showcased the first fully-autonomous tractor.

“Nothing Runs Like A Deere … Autonomously,” advertised the company about its self-driving tractor.

John Deere unveiled new technology added to its popular 8R 410 field tractors for full autonomy.

Special equipment, including two boxes containing 12 stereo cameras and an Nvidia GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), are connected inside the tractor cab. These are wirelessly connected to an app (software application) on the farmer's smartphone that allows remote control and monitoring of the tractor and its progress as it tills the field.

Doug Nimz, a fourth-generation farmer from Blue Earth, MN, appeared in a 3-minute, 30-second John Deere video saying he had never expected to see an autonomous tractor in his farming career.

Nimz stated he was initially a “little suspicious” of autonomous technology before using John Deere's machine on his farm.

“When I actually saw it drive ... I said, ‘Well, golly, this is really going to happen. This really will work.’”

Standing in his farmyard, he took out his smartphone, and using an app on his phone, he started the tractor with a swipe of his finger and watched as the tractor began moving to begin the tillage of his 2,000-acre field with no one at the wheel inside the tractor cab.

The video showed the 44,000-pound John Deere 8R 410 tractor tilling rows in Nimz’s cornfield and expertly turning around at the end of a completed tilled row to begin the next.

Nimz said the autonomous tractor “was doing the tillage just as well as I could do myself with no one in the cab.” He went on to say, “I can pull up the app, and I can monitor the tractor, see how much of the field has gotten tilled, I can check the fuel level, see how much of the field is left [to be tilled]. If there is something in the field the tractor isn’t sure about, it will stop and alert me.” This allows him to decide if the object in the field is something the tractor can go around, or if he needs to remove it personally.

“The app gives me all this information,” he said.

Nimz seemed impressed with how he was able to monitor everything very closely.

“The [tractor’s] auto-steer and technology has helped reduce our labor load, which makes my life a lot easier,” he pointed out.

Nimz said autonomy will help “because we will be able to put a tractor out in the field and let it run for 24 hours a day because it’s not manned.”

The video shows the tractor tilling a large field traveling at a reasonable rate of speed.

He noted having an autonomously-driven tractor “will allow me to run my business better because I can just pay closer attention to other tasks.”

The use of an autonomous, self-driving tractor is a “way to get the job done on time, every time, and do it at a high level of quality,” commented Jahmy Hindman, chief technology officer for John Deere.

Nimz is reportedly enthusiastic for autonomous technology to come to other parts of his farm operations.

You can watch the video by going to https://bit.ly/3K5IPZg and clicking on the “Discover What’s New” box.

For me, nothing runs like an autonomously-driven John Deere tractor.

The app shows the tractor's location in the field

The new roaring '20s

© Mark Ollig

In 1922, the US population was about 110 million people.

Today, 100 years later, it is around 330 million.

Those living in 1922 anticipated a bright future, as the US economy was booming, and the nation’s wealth began an unprecedented acceleration.

The 1920s were called the Roaring Twenties until 1929, and the crash on Wall Street.

In 1922, approximately 14 million telephones were being used in the US.

Those phones observed one minute of silence Aug. 4, 1922, to honor Alexander Graham Bell, who passed away at age 75.

The British Broadcasting Company, better known as the BBC, began its radio operations 100 years ago in 1922, out of its London studio owned by wireless radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.

Two years earlier, KDKA out of Pittsburgh, PA, became the first commercial radio station to begin transmitting its amplitude modulated over-the-air signal on 1020 kHz.

People in Pittsburgh purchased “Amateur Wireless Sets,” or ready-to-use radio receiver boxes with wired headphones from the Joseph Horne department store in Pittsburgh to listen to the local KDKA radio station broadcast.

Live election results of the Harding-Cox US presidential election were broadcast over KDKA Nov. 2, 1920. It was a significant event, as people learned the results from the radio broadcast before the newspapers went to press.

The election-night radio broadcast originated inside a small shack atop one of the Westinghouse Electric buildings in East Pittsburgh.

In this historic first-of-its-kind live radio broadcast to the public of the US presidential voting results, four people were in the studio that night: engineer William Thomas; telephone line operator John Frazier; R.S. McClelland; a standby, and the first radio announcer, Leo Rosenberg.

At the start of the radio broadcast 102 years ago, Leo Rosenberg said, “This is KDKA of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We shall now broadcast the election returns. We are receiving these returns through the cooperation and by special arrangement with the Pittsburgh Post and Sun. We’d appreciate it if anyone hearing this broadcast would communicate with us, as we are very anxious to know how far the broadcast is reaching and how it is being received.”

I learned the word “broadcasting” is credited to Frank Conrad, an engineer with the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh.

He was immersed in new technology and built an experimental radio transmitter on the second floor of his garage in Wilkinsburg, PA.

Conrad used broadcasting to describe radio transmissions as analogous with the agricultural term, broadcast seeding, meaning spreading seeds far and wide.

So, it made sense to call radio’s transmission “voice broadcasting” to the people far and wide.

A Detroit radio station aired the first regularly-scheduled news program 100 years ago.

In 1922, “The Detroit News Radiophone” station WWJ, owned by The Detroit News newspaper, began a nightly news broadcast running from 8 to 10 p.m.

With commercial electricity becoming available to more homes and businesses during the 1920s, the importance of radio broadcasting to the public began to be realized.

During 1922, the folks in the US spent $60 million ($992.6 million in 2022 dollars) purchasing thousands of radios for listening to some 500 licensed radio stations.

By the mid to late 1920s, 700 radio stations, including NBC Radio, beginning in 1926, and CBS radio, in 1928, had coverage throughout much of the US.

Radio was now competing with the printed pages of the local newspaper to provide the public with news and information.

The late 1920s witnessed nationwide radio networks being heard all across the country, and the birth of radio becoming part of the “mass media” began.

Radio experimenter Reginald Fessenden reportedly transmitted the first radio program of him speaking, music playing from a phonograph, and a violin solo over radio waves Dec. 24, 1906, from Brant Rock, MA (just south of Boston).

He made the hour-long evening talk and music broadcast to any radio amateurs who might be listening.

Fessenden reportedly transmitted audible speech over magnetic radio waves Dec. 23, 1906, using a spark-gap transmitter. His words heard and understood one mile away on a wireless radio receiver were, “One, two, three, four, is it snowing where you are, Mr. Thiessen? If it is, would you telegraph back to me?”

The state archives of North Carolina hold an extensive collection of papers from Reginald Aubrey Fessenden at https://bit.ly/3eT5ZU1.

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was born Oct. 6, 1866, and passed away July 22, 1932.

US automobiles produced in 1922 include the Bay State six-cylinder models manufactured in Framingham, MA, by a company founded by Richard H. Long, called R.H. Long Motors Company.

In 1922, R. H. Long Motors Company listed the Bay State Coupe at $2,400, the Bay State Sedan was $2,500.

The 1922 Bay State Touring automobile sold for $1,800, equivalent to $29,780 in 2022.

I hope everyone has a safe and prosperous 2022.

Welcome to the new Roaring Twenties of the 21st century.

 The Joseph Horne department store in Pittsburgh
 advertises ready-made radio receivers that can pick up
 a local broadcast station.