January 14, 2010
Have You Hugged Your Computer Today?
The computer bug lives on (figuratively) at American History
January may mean New Year’s and half-priced Christmas decorations to some, but for those who live and die by their keyboard shortcuts (like me, alas), January marks the anniversary of the computer. In 1984, Apple Inc. brought the world the Macintosh, heralding in its new brand of personal computing with the now infamous commercial, 1984. The original Mac had 128KB of RAM and a nine-inch monitor. It was the first computer to use ‘icons,’ which could launch programs with a click of a digital cursor, controlled by another Apple invention, the ‘mouse.’ Oh, how far we’ve come!
January is also ‘Clean up your computer’ month (don’t feel bad, I didn’t know either), so organize your desktop and clear your cache because it’s time for a clean slate, or at least a freshly dusted monitor. The most famous victims of a dirty computer, the 1947 Harvard Mark II engineering team, found that disruptions to their Aiken Relay Calculator could be traced to a rogue moth causing a ruckus in the hardware. The bug, trapped and taped in their logbook, is the first ever documented ‘computer bug.’ Lest you think this story couldn’t possibly be relevant in our hi-tech, larger than nine-inch monitor times, finding a family of ants living, quite comfortably, in my laptop’s keyboard has taught me otherwise.
As a super added bonus, click below to listen to amazing computer generated tracks from a 1983 Smithsonian Folkways album. Pay special attention to track 2, which I think will become my personal theme song.
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I was the joyous owner of one of those original 128K Macs ordered the same day they were announced. At the time, I was writing lots of lesson plans for Apple Computer for the Apple IIes, IIcs, etc. They sent me to Boston, Tampa, San Francisco, Hawaii, etc. with the Apple Computer Clubs ACC. My students and I were always winning their national contests for Integrating Computers Into the Curriculum. I had kids in 2nd grade doing funny data bases on imaginary dinosaur “pets” where they gave them names, stated the width and height, color, weight and special attributes and where it lived with them. Fun memories! The 4th graders had their own “stores” where they sold everything from Rock candies to hardware and everything in between. They figured out monthly bills for their lighting, heating & employees besides their inventories. One of my favorite memories is of when I took a whole group of kids outside and they measured their own number of feet it took to reach from the Administration Building to the last column of the school. The kids were all different sizes. Afterwards, they AVERAGED them, as a group, and then working in teams of 3 or 4. They did the Mean, Medians and Modes in a fun way. Then they took a drawing outline of their foot and had to turn it into something artistic. Fabulous creations. One that stands out was a baby whale underneath its Mother! Because we were studying Ancient Greece and Rome, the kids had imaginary Basketball scores between the Greek and Roman Gods/Goddesses, again using their Spreadsheet skills. We had Stock groups going, just everything imaginable and FUN, FUN, FUN! Thanks for the opportunity to share. I also had the Mac 512, and every other Mac since, including my latest MacBook Pro purchased several weeks ago! Happy Birthday, APPLE!
I remember going to Moscone Center and presenting what my kids did with their Apple IIe skills on Ancient Egypt! Wow!!!! John Scully raved about what we were doing. Woz came to my Retirement party 5.5 years ago to help celebrate. What a way to go out!