Time keeps flowing like a river

© Mark Ollig

Welcome to today’s 52nd and final column of 2022.

We have come to the end of another year, and I understand what my mother meant when she told me, “As you grow older, time goes by faster.”

Where did those 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 525,949 minutes, and 31,536,000 seconds go?

Spaceship Earth’s new orbit around the sun in 2023 will carry nearly 8 billion passengers.

As we continue our journey through the 21st century, I think about its start Jan. 1, 2001.

2001 is a year that holds special meaning to those of us who watched the 1968 movie premiere of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke wrote the classic science fiction screenplay, making it into a major motion picture produced and directed by Kubrick with a budget of  $10.5 million ($85.5 million today).

At the movie’s beginning, astronauts working on the moon discover a mysterious black cuboid-shaped monolith.

The monolith’s origin was traced to Jupiter, and a secret mission to investigate it was launched from Earth.

Months later, a crew of five astronaut scientists aboard the Discovery One spacecraft arrived at Jupiter, led by Commander Dave Bowman.

Also onboard Discovery One is the “Heuristically programmed ALgorithic computer,” a sentient artificial intelligent supercomputer known as HAL.

HAL manages all technical aspects of the space mission, including control of the spacecraft and regularly interacting with Bowman.

As Discovery One approaches Jupiter, another monolith is discovered.

While Bowman and astronaut Frank Poole investigate the monolith, HAL begins to malfunction and attempts to sabotage the investigation.

A memorable scene from the movie occurs as Commander Bowman attempts to stop HAL by removing its cognitive computing circuit modules.

While each circuit module is removed, HAL slowly sings “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)” until it ceases to operate and electronically dies.

Although the motion picture “2001: A Space Odyssey” was made 54 years ago, its depiction of futuristic space travel, artificial intelligence, the search for extraterrestrial life, and thought-provoking questions about human evolution remain relevant today.

“2001: A Space Odyssey” also raised many questions, especially with its ending.

“If you understand 2001 completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than we answered.” Arthur C. Clarke said.

Clarke admits this; however, future movie sequels addressed and answered many of the original movie’s questions.

I highly recommend seeing this movie and its sequels if you have never watched them.

Arthur Charles Clarke passed away March 19, 2008, at age 90.

Stanley Kubrick was 70 when he died March 7, 1999.

Ray Kurzweil, born in 1948 in New York City, is an inventor, entrepreneur, and futurist who made significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence, robotics, and computer science.

At age 12, his uncle, who worked at Bell Laboratories, introduced him to computers.

Kurzweil, who became fascinated by their potential, began studying computer science and wrote his first computer program at age 15.

In high school, Kurzweil developed a pattern recognition software program that he used to analyze classical music.

He later applied this software program to study the works of many composers, including Beethoven and Mozart.

Kurzweil’s passion for computer science and music would continue throughout his career, and he would later invent the first music synthesizer to use computer software.

In 1977, Kurzweil invented the reading machine, which converts printed words into artificial speech. His device was used by the blind.

So, when will artificial intelligence become human-like in their thinking?

“The year 2029 is the consistent date I’ve predicted when artificial intelligence will pass a valid [Alan] Turing test and therefore achieve human levels of intelligence. By 2029, computers will have human-level intelligence,” Ray Kurzweil predicted.

So, according to Kurzweil, as we enter 2023, it may be only six years before people begin sharing the stage with advanced computing devices mimicking human intelligence.

“Time keeps flowing like a river” is a metaphor suggesting time is constantly moving forward, just as a river always flows downstream. However, it can also express a longing for the past, meaning that time is fleeting and we cannot hold onto it.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”

As we begin our journey into 2023, thank you for reading Bits and Bytes.

‘The Computer Moves In’

© Mark Ollig

In 1927, TIME magazine began its annual naming of their “Man of the Year.”

Jan. 3, 1983, was a momentous day for technology enthusiasts as TIME magazine’s front cover showed a paper-mache man seated at a table and staring at a computer.

The magazine had decided to name the computer their “Machine of the Year” for 1982, recognizing its impact on productivity in various sectors, including businesses, schools, healthcare organizations, and homes.

During the early 1980s, two popular personal computer models were made by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) and Apple Computer, Inc.

Developed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the Apple II computer was first announced in 1977.

Many models of the Apple II were sold to people who used them in their homes and businesses. In addition, most schools were also using the Apple II.

The Apple II was equipped with a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, and data was stored using an audio cassette tape. Available the following year was Apple’s Disk II drive using 5.25-inch, 140 KB floppy disks. The Apple II sold for $1,298.

The IBM PC (personal computer) became available in 1981 and used an Intel 8088 central processor with a clocking speed of 4.77 MHz and was equipped with two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives.

The computer operated using the IBM BASIC or PC/MS-DOS disk operating system and sold for under $2,000.

In March 1983, IBM introduced the upgraded version of its original IBM PC, the IBM XT (extended technology). It was equipped with a 10 or 20 MB hard drive, software bundle, and a color monitor. The Sears Business Center in Minneapolis was selling the IBM XT for $4,995.

In early 1983, the Apple IIe (enhanced) computer came on the market. It used the MOS Technology 6502 8-bit microprocessor operating at 1.023 MHz and equipped with 64 KB of RAM. It costs $1,400, but with the addition of various peripherals, the price could go up to around $5,000.

The Apple III, a business-oriented computer, was equipped with a Synertek MOS Technology 6502B processor with a 1.8 MHz clocking speed. It sold for $4,995 at the Digital Den store in Maplewood.

The Apple Local Integrated Software Architecture (Lisa), also introduced in 1983, was a desktop computer system equipped with a Motorola 68000 5 MHz processor, 1 MB of RAM, a 5 MB hard drive, and dual 5.25-inch floppy drives.

The computer system managed task processes using Apple’s proprietary Lisa operating system and included seven bundled software applications and a peripheral equipment package.

However, its high price of $9,995 ($30,425 today) made it unaffordable for most home and small business users.

At the start of 1984, the Team Electronics store in the Minnetonka Ridgedale Center was selling the Apple Macintosh computer for $2,495.

By 1989, Apple had stopped production of the Lisa computer, and rumor was that 2,700 unsold units were buried in a landfill in Logan, UT.

As the 1980s progressed, more and more people were buying computers, and it became difficult to imagine living without one. As a result, the past 40 years have seen computers become an integral part of nearly every home and business.

It is impossible to predict the type of computing technology the folks living 100 years from now will use, as unforeseen factors may either quicken or slow its rate of development.

In 2122, it may be commonplace for humans and artificially intelligent, semi-sentient devices to interact daily.

Hopefully, both will coexist peacefully.

If not, the humans of that time may confront a battle similar to that depicted in the 1921 science-fiction theatrical drama, “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” written by Czech playwright Karel Čapek.

In the play, factory-manufactured robots serve humans; however, the robots revolt and destroy humanity.

By the way, Čapek is the person who coined the word “robot.”

Of course, it is difficult to predict the future, and one can only imagine the advances that will come in the next 100 years and who or what will be named TIME magazine’s 2122 “Person or Machine of the Year” – if they still are in business.

On Jan. 3, 1983, TIME magazine had an article on page 14 accurately titled “The Computer Moves In.”

In 1982, nearly three million computers had moved into our homes, schools, and businesses.

And that, as they say, is history.

The Santa Colonel

© Mark Ollig

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) reports it will again be tracking Santa Claus and his reindeer team traveling around the world this Christmas.

In 1955, NORAD was known as CONAD (Continental Air Defense Command), located at the Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, CO.

CONAD was on call and at the ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It provided the US Strategic Air Command with an early warning of any surprise attacks on America, most likely from nuclear-armed Soviet Union bomber planes flying over the North Pole and approaching the United States over Canada.

The Soviet Union would not have a powerful enough rocket with an attached nuclear warhead to reach the United States until Aug. 21, 1957, when it successfully tested a multi-stage intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) called the R-7 Semyorka. 

In the event of an imminent attack against the United States, a senior Pentagon official or high-ranking general would call the red hotline telephone at CONAD.

This week’s story begins with a December 1955 Colorado Springs Christmas newspaper advertisement for the Sears, Roebuck, and Co. department store.

A picture of Santa Claus appeared in the ad with a telephone number for children to call and talk with the jolly old elf on Christmas Eve.

“Call me on my private phone, and I will talk to you personally,” Santa says in the advertisement.

Unbeknownst to the children, the newspaper mistakenly misprinted Santa’s telephone number.

Santa’s private telephone was published with the top-secret hotline “red phone” number sitting on a desk inside the central defense operations center at CONAD.

In Dec. 24, 1955, the CONAD red phone began ringing.

WWII veteran Colonel Harry W. Shoup, CONAD’s director of operations, immediately picks up the telephone handset.

“The red phone ringing. It’s either the Pentagon calling or the four-star General Partridge. I was all shook up,” Col. Shoup recalled years later.

“So, I picked it up and said, ‘Sir, this is Col. Shoup.’”

There was silence from the phone’s receiver.

“Sir, can you read me alright?” asked Col. Shoup, who believed a military general was calling the hotline telephone.

Imagine Col. Shoup’s surprise when he heard a little girl’s voice ask, “Are you really Santa Claus?”

Col. Shoup looked around the room at the faces of his office personnel and harshly said, “Somebody’s playing a joke on me, and this isn’t funny.”

“Would you repeat that?” demanded Col. Shoup into the phone, now thinking it was some prankster randomly dialing telephone numbers.

“Are you really Santa Claus?” the small voice on the other end of the telephone line sincerely asked.

Meanwhile, a CONAD officer learned of and immediately informed Col. Shoup of the newspaper’s advertisement mistake.

Col. Shoup’s attitude on the telephone call quickly changed.

Instead of disappointing the little girl calling for Santa, he decided it best to answer her as Santa would, asking, “Have you been a good little girl?”

The now cheerful girl’s voice on the phone said she knew Santa would be coming down the fireplace at her house, and she would be leaving some food there for him and the reindeer.

“Oh, boy. They sure will appreciate that,” Col. Shoup told her.

He listened as the little girl read off the items she hoped Santa would bring her for Christmas.

Col. Shoup then asked the little girl if he could talk with her mom or dad. He then informed them of their daughter’s list of Christmas items.

After saying goodbye to the little girl, Col. Shoup instructed the members of his defense operations center to act as Santa’s helpers whenever a child called the hotline.

The children were provided radar updates by CONAD defense operation team members on the location of Santa Claus and his globe-circling reindeer sleigh team.

“Santa’s sleigh travels faster than starlight, but this is nothing that our technologies can’t handle,” a commander at CONAD told one young caller.

In May 12, 1958, CONAD became NORAD.

In 1968, Col. Harry Shoup retired from the US Air Force.

Throughout the rest of his life, he would be known as “The Santa Colonel.”

NORAD continues the yearly tradition of monitoring the journey of Santa and his reindeer sleigh team using classified ground radar and earth-orbiting satellite technology.

The official NORAD Santa Tracker website is https://www.noradsanta.org.

The website includes the Santa Tracker Countdown Clock, videos, games, movies, music, and a Track Santa mobile app download. Highlight your mouse cursor over each North Pole building to see the features available.

On Dec. 24, children (and young-at-heart adults) can get updates from NORAD on Santa and his reindeer sleigh location by calling 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723).

Harry Wesley Shoup, “The Santa Colonel,” passed away March 14, 2009, at age 91, in Colorado Springs, CO.

Col. Harry Wesley Shoup & the Christmas newspaper advertisement 

The cassette player we walked around with

© Mark Ollig

In Japan, July 1, 1979, the Sony Corporation began selling its portable, metal-cased, blue-and-silver model TPS-L2 cassette player, better known as the Sony Walkman.

Kozo Ohsone coined the term “Walkman” in describing the new lightweight cassette player a person can listen to while walking.

The Sony Walkman included lightweight headphones for hearing stereo audio from a cassette tape.

Two 1.5-volt AA batteries powered the Sony Walkman.

In 1980, the Sony Corporation began selling its portable cassette player in the US.

In Feb. 17, 1980, the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper advertised on page 12B the Sony Soundabout (Walkman) Model TPS-L2 for $188, which today, adjusted for inflation, would be $710.

In the US, Sony initially advertised the TPS-L2 as the Soundabout. However, it was named the Stowaway in the UK, and in Australia, they called it the Freestyle.

The first portable music device I owned was called the pocket transistor radio.

My former classmates may remember hearing music from the Panasonic AM/FM radio speaker I carried through the halls (and in the classrooms) at the Holy Trinity School in Winsted.

The first cassette tape recorder I had was a Christmas gift from my parents in 1971.

It included a dynamic microphone, volume and tape speed controls, a battery status display, a sound level monitor, and several 3.5mm audio jacks. It operated using batteries or when plugged into an AC outlet.

The cassette recorder was protected inside a black leather case with an attachable shoulder strap and a storage compartment to stow the microphone, earphones, and AC cord.

Folks my age will understand what I mean when saying, “always have a pencil handy when using cassette tapes.”

Fifty years ago, I purchased eight-track and cassette tapes, 45 rpm records, and LP (long playing) 33.33 rpm record albums at Roufs Pharmacy in Winsted, located across the street east from Security Bank & Trust Co.

We also ordered records and tapes through the mail after watching K-tel music television commercials.

To feel some nostalgia, watch this 1974 K-tel commercial selling “22 explosive hits on one great stereo LP record album for only $3.99,” at https://bit.ly/3B9Q9QK.

The Panasonic stereo system I bought in 1974 had dual-cassette tape drives. I could copy music to a blank cassette in the first tape drive from a vinyl record playing on the turntable, audio from the AM/FM radio, or audio from a pre-recorded cassette in the second tape drive.

I remember my grandparents’ wooden table radio and seeing the reddish glow of the vacuum tubes inside it. It may have been a model from the 1940s.

The wooden cabinet resembling a bedroom dresser with two doors housed the black-and-white television in our living room at home. This TV was from the 1950s.

Our family living room also had an RCA Victor “high-fidelity” upright wood cabinet phonograph player.

In 1971, my father bought the family a Zenith console cabinet AM/FM stereo radio with a built-in phonograph and eight-track tape player. He also purchased a new RCA XL-100 color television.

In those days, radios, phonographs, and televisions looked like living room furniture.

Fifty years from now, I wonder what today’s young people will think of their generation’s technology and devices for listening to music, watching television, and creating videos.

They may feel the same nostalgia some of us do.

The Sony Walkman became the most popular portable cassette player. However, someone created a compact and lightweight cassette player years before Sony did.

In 1972, Andreas Pavel, while living in Milan, Italy, designed, built, and tested a battery-operated portable radio-cassette stereo player attached to a belt that a person could wear around their waist.

He called it the Stereobelt.

Pavel also created lightweight headphones to wear while listening to his new device.

In March 24, 1977, Pavel filed Italian patent application number 21625 A/77.

In 1978, he filed a US patent application, serial number 889,664, titled “Stereophonic Production System for Personal Wear.”

In 1979, Sony Corporation began manufacturing and selling the model TPS-L2 portable cassette player, the Walkman.

Andreas Pavel then filed a lawsuit against Sony Corporation for stealing his invention and failing to compensate him.

The presiding judge ruled against Pavel, revoking his patent claim by stating his idea was “not significantly inventive.”

Pavel responded to the ruling by filing new lawsuits against the Sony Corporation.

In Oct. 25, 1983, Andreas Pavel was granted US patent number 4,412,106, titled “High Fidelity Stereophonic Reproduction System,” for his original portable cassette player invention.

Pavel also continued to file lawsuits against the Sony Corporation.

By 2004, Sony decided it was time to settle.

Andreas Pavel signed a confidential agreement that sources said paid him several million euros to dismiss years of legal lawsuits against the Sony Corporation.

“I filed my first patent thinking it would be a simple matter, 12 months or so, to establish my ownership and begin production [of his portable cassette player]. However, I never imagined that it would end up consuming so much time, and take me away from my real interests in life,” Pavel is quoted as saying.

In October of 2010, the Sony Corporation announced it had ended production of its classic Sony Walkman model TPS-L2, the cassette player we walked around with.

The Stereobelt by Andreas Pavel

The Stereobelt by Andreas Pavel

The Stereobelt by Andrea Pavel

The Sony Walkman

The Sony Model TPS-L2 "Walkman" 

Telephone cable connects voices across the Atlantic

© Mark Ollig

It would be the first underwater telephone cable to cross any ocean.

On Nov. 27, 1952, an agreement was made to install a deep-sea telephone cable across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and the United Kingdom.

It was called the trans-Atlantic Telephone Cable System No. 1 (TAT-1).

TAT-1 was a joint venture of the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) Long Lines Department, the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Corporation, and the General Post Office of the United Kingdom (at that time, the government of England managed the post office and telephone services).

The TAT-1 would span 1,950 nautical miles across the North Atlantic Ocean, from Clarenville, Newfoundland, to Oban, Scotland.

The estimated construction cost of $42 million ($468 million today) would be divided, with Canada paying 10%, the United Kingdom 40%, and the US 50%.

It was agreed the only ship in the world capable of carrying and paying out the length of telephone cable needed to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a single operation was the 480-foot-long cable ship, Her Majesty’s Telegraph Ship (HMTS.) Monarch.

The HMTS Monarch, built in 1945, had four sizable cylindrical container drums that could hold the miles of coiled telephone cable needed to cross the Atlantic.

The TAT-1 system consisted of two cables, one for telephone calls transmitted from west to east and another for calls traveling east to west.

The HMTS Monarch laid the west-to-east telephone cable across the ocean during the summer of 1955 and the east-to-west the following year.

The parallel-running trans-Atlantic telephone cables were spaced 20 miles apart.

The newly designed and manufactured 1.25-inch diameter trans-Atlantic telephone coaxial cable contained a solid copper conductor wire at its core. A thick, damage-resistant polyethylene plastic insulation was molded over the copper conductor.

The layering of shielding materials protecting the copper conductor included sturdy cloth fabric, heavy armor-wire tapes, steel armor wire, polyethylene insulation, and strong threaded jute fiber wrapped around the cable. In addition, a galvanized coating of the metals would prevent any corrosion.

The trans-Atlantic telephone cable was constructed to survive the depths, hazards, and elements of the Atlantic Ocean.

Western Electric, a subsidiary of AT&T, manufactured the high-gain amplifying repeaters critical for boosting voice signals through the telephone cables crossing the Atlantic.

British-made repeaters were used in the shallower waters between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

North Electric Company, a telecommunications manufacturer in Ottawa, Canada, also provided equipment.

Onshore power stations supplied regulated 2,000 volts of direct current into both trans-Atlantic cables, with negative and positive potentials totaling 4,000 volts.

This voltage powered the 52 eight-foot-long, three-inch diameter repeaters enclosed in flexible copper tube watertight metal casings attached in series to each cable crossing the Atlantic.

These repeaters contained long-life, high-gain vacuum tubes, and other electronic components.

One hundred four repeaters were connected to both cables every 43 miles along the route crossing the Atlantic Ocean, with 14 repeaters connected to the TAT-1 onshore cables.

The cable repeaters generated 65 dB of audio gain, ensuring clear and continuous voice transmission instead of the sometimes inconsistent voice audio quality experienced using the trans-Atlantic over-the-air radiotelephone system.

Each repeater amplified its incoming audio electrical signal, then passed it along to the next repeater, which replicated amplification.

Individual repeater units are fitted in acrylic cylinders enclosed by overlapping steel rings and copper tube casing. Both ends of a repeater’s enclosure are watertight and tapered to the same diameter as the trans-Atlantic cable.

The cable repeaters had a 20-year life expectancy.

The ocean depth at times reached 2.5 miles, where 6,000 pounds of pressure per square inch surrounded the telephone cable and repeaters.

The TAT-1 initial bandwidth capacity provided 36 two-way voice channels. Later, this increased to 48 and finally to 51.

In the summer of 1956, the final splices of the trans-Atlantic telephone cable were made in Newfoundland, Canada, to Portland, ME, where onshore cables physically connected with AT&T’s Bell Telephone System network.

On Sept. 25, 1956, a seven-minute three-way telephone conversation took place between TAT-1 officials in New York, London, and Ottawa, Canada.

“I now declare the cable open for service between the United States and the United Kingdom,” said Cleo F. Craig, Chairman of the Board of AT&T, from New York.

You can listen to this historic telephone call at https://bit.ly/3GO4uWH.

On Sept. 26, 1956, The Minneapolis Morning Tribune reported media representatives met on the 13th floor of the Northwestern Bell Telephone Building (now Lumen Technologies) on 224 S 5th St. in Minneapolis.

They and Northwestern Bell officials talked on a telephone with Albert J. Semkens, senior telecommunications superintendent in London, using the new trans-Atlantic telephone cable.

“We are in Lancaster house, in the heart of historic London,” Semkens said.

“Transmission seems to be very good. I can hear every inflection in your voice,” a Northwestern Bell official replied.

The trans-Atlantic telephone cable handled 588 telephone calls on the first day it became available to the public.

In 1978, TAT-1 was retired, and its telephone traffic was transferred to other trans-Atlantic cables.

In December of 1988, the first fiber-optic trans-Atlantic cable, TAT-8, was placed into service with the capacity to handle 40,000 simultaneous telephone calls.