Tech Symbols – Origin and Meaning

Dr Sanjoy SanyalSanjoy.sanyal@bath.edu

The background watermark symbol signifies world peace. It has been created from the picture of the same statue in Omaha Beach that was erected after WW-II

Power Supply

• Since WW-II: Engineers used the Binary System to label Power Buttons, Toggle Switches and Rotary Switches

• Binary System: ‘1’ means ‘On’ and ‘0’ means ‘Off’ • International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC),

1973: Designed a symbol (‘0’ broken at the top with a ‘1’) to denote a ‘Standby’ power state, indicating an intermediate state between ‘On’ and ‘Off’

• Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE): Considered the symbol and its definition confusing (see next slide); They redefined this symbol to simply mean ‘Power’ supply

• This is the currently accepted international standard symbol for Power supply

See next slide for why IEEE considered the term ‘Standby’ confusing and not only replaced the term ‘Standby’ but also redesigned the symbol

Sleep• ‘Standby’ power state: As defined by the IEC, was confusing and counter-intuitive (previous slide)

• How can an electronic device be neither ‘On’ or ‘Off’, and be in an intermediate state between ‘On’ and ‘Off’?

• IEEE: Replaced the term ‘Standby’ with ‘Sleep’, when the PC stays on but uses low power (2nd and 3rd pictures), like a sleeping human

• Crescent Moon: de facto symbol of ‘Sleep’ state of devices in the Western world, to represent the state humans are supposed to be when such a moon is high up in the sky

• To carry the metaphorical wit one step further, some devices in Japan sport the ‘ZZZ’ button!

Computers today have replaced the ‘Standby’ button with ‘Sleep’ button

Play• The large right-pointing arrow indicates

‘Play’ (1st and 2nd pictures)• The small double right-pointing arrows

indicate ‘Fast forward’ (2nd picture)• The small double left-pointing arrows

indicate ‘Rewind’ (2nd picture)• Mid-60s Tapes: These symbols 1st appeared

as tape transport symbols in reel tape decks• They are intuitive; the direction of arrow

indicates direction of tape movement• Digital Devices: They were imported into

digital audio / video media devices (real or

virtual) from their analog counterparts

Nobody is very clear about the exact origin of ‘Play’ symbol

Pause• Historical Analogy: The caesura in poetry indicates a ‘Pause’ (Greek / Latin verse: A break between words; Modern verse: A pause near the middle of a line)

• Musical Analogy: The ‘Pause’ symbol may have originated from musical notations

• Tech Analogy: Some say it is simply a ‘Stop’ symbol with a central vertical strip missing (2nd and 3rd pictures)

• Electrical Circuit Analogy: Some have likened it to the notation for an open connection in a electrical circuit diagram

‘at’ / ‘at the rate of’

• Synonyms: The Snail (France / Italy); The Little Mouse (China); The Monkey’s Tail (Germany)

• 6th Century Monks: Used this symbol to depict the word ‘ad’ (Latin for ‘at’ or ‘toward’) to prevent confusion with AD (Anno Domini), the years after Christ

• American Underwood, 1885: Underwood Typewriters had a key with this symbol, which was used as an accounting shorthand symbol meaning ‘at the rate of’

• Raymond Tomlinson, 1971: Programmer in Bolt, Beranek & Neuman (BBN) and inventor of Email; Needed a symbol in computer network addresses to separate the User(name) from the Domain name

• Tech Notation: For want of a better notation Ray inserted the ‘@’ symbol and the rest is history; It became a very potent symbol in the digital world

This symbol is so potent that one can type any gibberish with the ‘@’ and MS Office ™ will convert it into a link zxsg@pglg.xy

Ethernet• This is the Ethernet port symbol• Ethernet Inventor: Bob Metcalfe• Symbol Designer: David Hill of IBM• Hill’s symbol drew inspiration from

Metcalfe’s earliest Ethernet sketches• Tech Meaning: It is part of a set of symbols

all designed to depict the Local Area

Networks (LANs) available at that time• Each array of blocks represent a Computer

or Terminal• True to its designation, the blocks are

purposely arranged non-hierarchically

Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs) and MANs (metropolitan area networks). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and 1st standardized in 1983 as IEEE 802.3

Bluetooth• This is the symbol for Bluetooth technology• Origin: Named after 10th century Danish king,

Harald ‘Blåtand’ (Danish / Swedish for ‘Blue tooth’)

• Historical Fact: Harald united warring factions in parts of Norway, Sweden and Denmark

• Tech Analogy: Similarly, Bluetooth technology allows cable-free connections between computers, mobile phones, PDAs, printers, etc.

• Other aspects of the symbolic interplay:– Harald had one blue-stained tooth (some say he

was fond of blueberries; Some say he had a bad tooth)

– The symbol is also a combination of the 2 alphabets (Nordic runes) that represent Harald’s initials

– The 1st Bluetooth receptor had ‘teeth-like’ shape (like the symbol itself) and was blue in color

Nordic runes: H (hagall) in 1st figure and B (berkanan) in 2nd figure

USB• This is the USB (Universal Serial Bus) icon, created as part of USB 1.0 spec

• Mythology: Icon is based on Poseidon’s Trident (right lower) or Neptune’s Dreizack or Lord Shiva’s Trishul (left picture)

• Design: In lieu of pointed tips of the mythical 3-pronged spear, the USB promoters converted the tips into a triangle, square and circle, attached to the stem asymmetrically

• Tech Significance: Varying shapes signify the various different peripherals that could be connected to a computer using this technical standard

Poseidon (right lower picture) and Lord Shiva (left picture)

FireWire• Apple Inc. 1995: Developers designed the FireWire symbol to reflect the new FireWire technology they were working on

• Original Technology: Originally intended to be a serial alternative to SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)

• Current FireWire: Now it promises high-speed connectivity for digital audio and video equipment

• Design: So the symbol was designed with 3 arms, representing Audio, Video and Data

• Originally it was red; later it was changed to yellow (for obscure reasons)

• Command symbol (1st picture) in Apple Mac keyboard (2nd picture)• Synonyms: Gorgon loop, The Splat, Infinite sign, ‘Place of Interest Sign’

(according to the Unicode Standard)• Andy Hertzfeld (of the original Mac team): Wanted to create a special

function ‘Apple key’ that would transfer menu commands directly to the keyboard, when pressed in combination with other keys

• Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple Inc.): ‘Apple key’ originally had the Apple logo (3rd picture above); Steve hated the fact that the Apple logo was being used everywhere (“We are taking the Apple logo in vain!”) – Enter Susan!!

• Susan Kare (bitmap artist): Selected the floral symbol from an international symbol dictionary, indicating a ‘noteworthy attraction’ in a Swedish campground; It became the Command symbol on Mac keyboards

Command

Hung Program

• Indicates a program is not responding to system commands

• Appears like a pretty spinning wheel with almost hypnotic qualities, but arouses resentment in Apple users and generally evokes an expletive!

• Synonyms: Hypnowheel of Doom; Spinning Pizza; Pinwheel of Death; SBBOD (Spinning Beach Ball of Death); ‘Spinning Wait Cursor’ (Apple’s official terminology)

• Design: SBBOD evolved from wristwatch ‘wait’ cursor that Apple first used in earlier Mac OS

• Apple subsequently dropped the wristwatch because it reminded users of the time passing as the program remained perpetually hung up

• Current symbol first appeared in Apple OSX

Thank you for watching