Friday, September 20, 2002

Mary Cipriani from IBM sent me this link http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/09/19/offbeat.smiley.reut/index.html   Not sure how long they keep the content up but it tells how 20 years ago yesterday IBM Researcher Scott Fahlman typed the first smiley (or emoticon or whatever you like to call it).    He used the now familiar :-) to indicate a smiling face.   Fahlman worked on neural networks and helped develop Common Lisp but will probably be remembered most for turning his head to the side and adding emotion to online communications. 2:11:46 PM    comment []

Community of Minds was back in force after a summer hiatus.  It's a pretty cool gathering of techies and people involved in the tech world.  It meets at 1890, the bar on the 2nd floor of the Hyatt at the Arcade. It seems to draw a different crowd than the NEOSA NETT events so it makes sense to hit both during the month if you can. Occasionaly there will be a brief presentation at the Minds event - Jane Campbell and Tim Mueller spoke after the election, for example - but mostly it's a networking/social gig. Last Wednesday 9/18, Casey Porto, the associate vice president of Technology Transfer at Case Western Reserve University spoke for about 15 minutes.  She was stolen away from Carnegie Mellon and had some good things to say about Case's commitment to tech transfer - they are putting their money where their mouth is. 11:46:40 AM    comment []