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Sperry Univac
I visited my dad's Univac work station one night and saw the new teletype interface that rendered punch cards obsolete, at least for him. It was a major breakthrough. The machine compiled it's own code. -
field trip to UCLA computer lab
We got to play a GAME against a computer! -
Mall Rat Moment at Radio Shack
At the mall I spent hours watching the salesman demo the "desktop home computer." I think it cost as much as a car. It printed with plotter, including drawing images with a pen on an x/y grid. There was a "3D" water droplet. -
The new computer has a DISK DRIVE!
Our school purchased an Apple IIe and it had a disk drive. We mostly used it to play ARTILLERY. -
PLATO via telephone with a TOUCHSCREEN
The computer is in Illinois. I am in Missouri, and my terminal has a touch screen. I can play dungeons and dragons with people in Hawaii. -
Cool Compaq computer
My friend came to college with a computer in a SUITCASE. His dad gave him the choice between the computer and a car. He chose the car. I used the Apple IIe computers in the lab to code my own copy of "brick out" in BASIC. It was like the arcade game Breakout, but the code was mine (copied from a book.) -
This new Macintosh accesses "remote servers" with something called "usenet"
My office computer at the U of U has "remote access" to servers all over the country. I text chat with students in far away places. We place imaginary bets on imaginary bird races, and play artillery. -
A Home Modem
it lets me get on the BBS services, and remote to the Usenet through the University of Utah, and at 2400 bps, it's four times as fast as my brother's modem. I download Tetris. It takes all night. -
Not Mosaic
Called the University of Utah computer lab to ask about Mosaic. They set me up with Netscape. To use it I had to run a suite that required FIVE floppy disks. But I was on the new HTML sites. -
I can "scribble" into a calculator
I use my legislative allocation to buy a Palm Pilot. It organizes my life and helps me be a more effective teacher. -
a website for our school
I build a website for our school. I get permission and use the BYU school of music website as a template. The system architecture is sound (because it's a copy) and the UI works great. I become the first school webmaster in the district and through Kerri Naylor help write the district webmaster job description when the position is created. The format of the West Hills Website endures until the district moves to Wordpress in 2015. -
I learn to reverse engineer search algorhythms
The birth of our fourth child makes it necessary for me to take a second job. I work as an HTML editor for an MLM in American Fork, but I'm really manipulating search engine results. The term "black hat" isn't invented yet, but this was definitely black hat stuff. I bring my concerns to the owner and get fired . . . BUT . . . I figure out how to do a suite of "white hat" search engine tricks that bring pages to the top of most search engines. I work as a freelance search engine optimizer. -
bandtek is born
I create a web site for my marching band design business. I name it "bandtek" because that puts the word "band" in the URL and is only seven characters. There is a pump company in Shanghai named Bandtek Ltd. We agree to not interfere with each other. I use the "search engine trick" to bring my new site to the top of the major search engines: yahoo, altavista, lycos, etc. My out of state marching band business grows from two to eight schools. I now write around forty shows a year. -
Gotta keep track of those kids
I don't allow my 15 year old daughter to post on myspace, so she convinces me to get on facebook and to let her on too. It's one of the best decisions I ever made. I reconnect with old friends, far flung relatives, and make new acquaintances. I get in contact with ACTUAL experts in my field. It's personally satisfying and professionally edifying. -
A Smart Phone
I am a late adopter, because I have my palm pilot and land line, but the allure of a hand held computer is strong. I buy an Apple 3GS for $1 on clearance. I can now carry my grade book in my pocket. I can access my email from my phone. I can carry samples of my growing mp3 collection with me. It has a 3 MEGAPIXEL camera! I will eventually switch to Android, but iPhone was my first love. -
memes for mormons
My daughter leaves on a mission. I send her funny mormon memes that I have collected each week. She asks me to include other missionaries. I eventually post the archive on facebook. The page now has more than 37,000 subscribers and gets between one and two hundred thousand views each week. -
Fake Points on the Interwebs
My son-in-law introduces me to IMGUR. It's like facebook, but more image driven, anonymous, and viewers can "upvote" or "downvote" posts. My 9th post earns enough fake internet points to reach "most viral" status. Imgurites call that "the front page." Points bring "medals." The medals show a giraffe in various colors. Within six months I earn the top medal available, "Imgurite Glorious" (shared image). I lose interest in the game and become a "lurker." -
A New Forest To Explore
Mr. Moore was right. Things get faster and less expensive. The changes I've seen so far were impossible to imagine all those years ago. More changes are yet to come. So I'm taking the technology education certification to see where it will lead. Much of our classwork is done on the Canvas system. My son points out that the Canvas logo is remarkably similar to the First Order logo from Star Wars. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.
