Tech Symbols –what they mean, where they come from

This article does not intend to be a dictionary of sort but we intend to show you the meaning of the tech symbols you come across almost every day both on PC, Smart phones and Tablets.

Credit: helpmerick.com; infographic from edudemic.com

Let’s head right into it

We start with

The power button

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It’s plastered on T-shirts; it tells you which button will start your prius; it’s even been used on NYC condom wrappers. As far back as World War II, ENGINEERS USED THE Binary systems to label individual power buttons, toggles and rotary switches: a 1 meant “on” and a 0 meant “off”. In 1973 the International Electrotechnical Commission vaguely codified a broken circle with a line inside it as “standby power state” and sticks to that story even now. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), however, decided that was too vague and altered the definition to simply mean power.

Network

Despite being “invented” many years prior, the thing we now recognize as Ethernet port symbol was actually designed by IBM’s David Hill. According to Hill, the symbol was part of a set of symbols that were all meant to depict the various Local Area Networks available at the time. The array of blocks, which are purposefully non hierarchical, each represents computers and terminals. While hill makes no specific mentions of bob Metcalfe’s earliest Ethernet sketches, the modern symbol uses them for inspiration. 

Bluetooth

You’ve probably heard the story of the tenth century Danish King, Harald Blatand, as it relates to Bluetooth, right? He was renowned connoisseur of blueberries ; at least one of this teeth was permanently stained blue: yadda yadda yadda. What you might not know is that the Bluetooth symbol is actually a combination of two runes that represents Haralds initials . It just so happens the first Bluetooth receptor had a “teeth-like” shape, and was –you guessed it –blue. But the symbolic interplay doesn’t end there. As the Bluetooth SIG notes, Blatand was instrumental in uniting warring factions in parts of what are now Norway, Sweden and Denmark –just as Bluetooth technology is designed to allow collaboration between differing industries such as the computing, mobile phone and automotive markets.

Pause

                                          

As far as the pause symbol goes, many have noted it resembles the notation for an open connection on an electrical schematic. Some say it is simply a stop symbol with a chunk carved out of its centre. We’d put our money on a more classical origin in musical notation, the caesura indicates a –wait for it –pause

Play

While the play/pause symbols aren’t native to computers they’ve made their way onto keyboards , media players (real and virtual), and any other device capable of playing audio or video. Unfortunately, neither the right pointing triangle nor the double pause bars seem to have a definitive origin. They first appeared as tape transport symbols on reel-to-reel tape decks during the mid-1960s. In some cases, they were accompanied by the (double triangle) rewind and fast forward symbols. The direction of the play arrow indicated the direction the tape would move. Easy.

USB

Created as part of the USB 1.0 spec, the USB Icon was drawn to resemble Neptune’s trident, the mighty Dreizack. In lieu of the pointed triangles, at the top of the three pronged spear, the usb promoters decided to alter the shapes to a triangle, square and circle. This was done to signify all the different peripherals that could be attached using the standard.

Sleep

People were confused by the “stand by state”. It seemed counter-intuitive for an electronic device to be neither on nor off. So after IEEE nicked the ICE’s standby button (remember?), it decided some rechristening was in order. The governing body renamed standby mode “sleep” to invoke the state where humans are neither on nor off. Today, a crecent moon is the defacto sleep state on devices in the US and Europe. Its metaphorical power is undeniable! Travel to Japan though and you’ll probably see the occasional “zzz” button.

Firewire

                                                       
Back in 1995, a small group at Apple –the main developer of firewire –set about designing a symbol that could accurately reflect the new technology they were working on. Originally intended as serial alternative to SCSI, FireWire’s main allure was that it promised high speed connectivity for digital audio and video equipment. So designers opted for a symbol with three prongs representing video, audio and data. Initially the symbol was red but was later altered to yellow for unknown reasons.

At- @

The only symbol on the list to earn a spot on the MoMa’s architechture and design collection. How has this fetishized symbol become so potent over the years? It probably has something to do with the net-ruling runes and mysterious origins. It has been known by many names: the snail (France and Italy), the little mouse (China), the monkeys tail (Germany). In 1971, a Bolt, Beranek and Newman programmer Raymond Tomlinson decided to insert the symbol between computer network addresses to separate the user from the terminal. Prior to Tomlinsons use, the @ also graced the keyboard of the American Underwood in 1885 as an accounting shorthand symbol meaning “at the rate of”. Go back even further and things start to get hazy. Some suggest that @ has its origins in the sixth century, that monks adopted it as a better way of writing the word ad –Latin for “at” or “toward” –that was not so easily confused with AD, the designation for Anno Domini, or the years after the death of Christ.

The Apple (command) button

What do Swedish campgrounds and overuse of the Apple logo have in common? A lot, According to Andy Herzfeld, of the original Mac Development team. While working with other team members to translate menu commands directly to the keyboard, Hertzfeld and his team decided to add a special function key. The idea was simple: when pressed in combination with other keys, this “apple key” would select the corresponding menu command. Jobs hated it –or more precisely the symbol used to represent the button –which was yet another picture of the apple logo. Hertzfeld recalls his reaction: “there are too many apples on the screen! It’s ridiculous! We’re taking the apple logo in vain!” A hasty redesign followed in which bitmap artist Susan Kare pored through an international symbol dictionary and settled on one floral symbol that, in Sweden, indicated a noteworthy attraction in a campground. Alternatively known as the Gorgon loop, the splat, the infinite loop, and in the Unicode standard, a “place of interest” sign. The command symbol has remained a mainstay on Apple keyboards to this day.

The terror

The terror is known by many names: the hypnowheel of doom, the spinning pizza, the pin wheel of death, the SBBOD (Spinning Beach ball of Death). Apple officially calls it the “spinning cursor”, but most Mac users hail it with a simple expletive. It first appeared in Apples OSX and continues to indicate that an application is not responding to system events. As many have noted, the SBBOD is actually an evolution of the wristwatch “wait” cursor that the company first used in the early versions of Mac OS. While its design origins remain mysterious. Apple likely drooped the wristwatch symbol as it reminded users of the time passing as the program remain perpetually hung up. Despite this , the modern iteration has proved only one thing though: it’s entirely possible to despise a pretty, hypnotic spinning wheel.

MENU(OPTIONS)

Watch for this symbol on mobile devices, websites, and more desktop programs. It appears insignificant, but click it or tap it and you will see many options that will help you get more out of your program, website or App.



Settings

                                                 

The gear icon reveals options or settings for programs, apps or website you use. It differs from the one with three horizontal bars menu in that options or settings are commonly used to make a change you want to keep for future use of the app, website or program. For example, changing the font size of a site or the background colour of an app. The menu, on the other hand, gives you options for things you need to do right now.



Zoom

The magnifying glass is the most common symbol used to indicate how to enlarge or shrink an item. Mobile devices, programs and websites make use of it. You might encounter a magnifying glass with a “+” in it indicating enlarge or a “-“ in it (indicating reduce)