The Lighter Side of IT History

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF IT HISTORY 1822 Charles Babbage proposes the Difference Engine. It runs over budget, timescale and fails to do what was intended, setting a cecedent for all IT projects. 1943 "I think there is a world market for about 5 computers Thomas J. Watson, CEO of IBM 1945 US Navy offioer Grace Hopper finds the first computer bug - a moth stuck between the relays of a Harvard Mark II. 1964 Doug Engelbart at SRI International inventa the first computer mouse Meanwhile, a nine-year-old Steve Jobs suffers a period of unexplained twitching. made of wood. 1976 Steve Wozniak sells his Hewlett Packard 65 scientific calculator for $500 to raise capital for Apple. 1977 "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. Ken Olsen, c0-founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) 1978 All Mail Spam (24) rash A marketer at DEC, feeling that the launch of the new DEC SYSTEM 2020 was relevant to people on the ARPANET, sent 600 people an announcement email. It was not well received. 1979 Kevin Mackenzie invents the first emoticon:). Nobody knows how many emoticons are in use today but some estimates exceed 100,00o. 1980s The first IT help desks are invented, ruining the lives of IT and business people alike. 1981 "640KD ought to be enough for anybody Bill Gates 1982 "Elk Cloner" was the first computer virus to appear "in the wild". It infected Apples DOS 3.3 and displayed poetry on screen. 1991 The first webcam is put to good use at the Cambridge University computer lab - to monitor a coffee maker and avoid wasted trips to an empty pot. 1991 ం Norton Antivirus released. Peter Norton once said that there was no such thing as a computer virus and considered the whole idea was "gome sort of hoax". 1992 The release of Windows 3.1 brings the world the blue screen of death. Global suicide rates increase by 8%. 1994 Joe MoCambley creates the first Internet banner ad for AT&T. 44% of people who saw it clioked it. 1997 Microsoft adds Mr Clippy to the MS orrice suite of applications, much to the annoyanoe of just about everybody. 1998 The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) defines HTTP status code 418 as "I'm a teapot" as an April Fools' joke. 2005 The first video is uploaded to YouTube, opening the floodgates for billions of wasted hours. It is entitled "Me at the zoo", lasts 18 seconds long, and is completely pointless - yet has over 90,000 comments. Collectively, humanity has spent almost 8 years watching it. 2007 Microsoft kills off the Mr Clippy office assistant relief. to worldwide 2014 It's estimated that 80% of images on the internet are of naked women and 81% of all emails are spam. Seemingly, the NSA is interested in all of them. ManageEngine) ServiceDesk Plus www.servicedeskplus.com