You may have noticed that we kicked off our #NVT30 celebrations recently. For the past 30 years, NVT has been delivering ICT services and solutions to businesses of all sizes and sectors across the UK and beyond. Our success over the past three decades is thanks to our long-lasting relationships with our staff, clients, partners and friends.
As part of our celebrations, over the coming months we will be taking a look back at the journey to where we are today, while we take an optimistic look forward to the next thirty years.
Today, join us on a nostalgic trip back in time as we look back at some iconic events and happenings of 1988, the year NVT was established.
- On 13th February 1988, STV began 24-hour broadcasting. Subsequently on 19th July, the debut of the STV-produced game show ‘Wheel of Fortune’ was aired. The popular show ran until December 2001 after 14 series and 735 episodes!
- The XV Winter Olympics were held in Calgary, Canada between 13th and 28th These were the first Winter Olympic Games to be held over a two week period. A total of 57 nations took part, including 1,423 athletes across 46 events, 6 sports and 10 disciplines. The 1988 Winter Olympics are remembered for the iconic ‘heroic failure’ of ski jumper Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, as well as the Olympic debut of the Jamaican National bobsled team.
- Looking at the technology industry in 1988, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled the NeXT Cube computer. A black cube shape, the NeXT had 3 microprocessors and 8MB of RAM, costing a pricey $6,500!
- As the demand for improved graphics and sound increased, Creative Labs Inc. released the first SoundBlaster add-on sound card for PCs in 1988. It had more advanced features than its predecessors and, within a year, became the best-selling expansion card for the IBM PC.
- On 2nd November 1988, The ‘Morris Worm’ was released. It is known widely as the first computer worm/virus distributed on the internet, which caused widespread damage to around 6,000 computers. It was not initially created to cause damage according to its creator, Robert Tappan Morris, rather it was made to ‘gauge the size of the internet’. The cost of the damage was estimated to be worth up to $10 million and gravely impacted the perception of the security and reliability of the internet at the time.
- In the software arena, the ‘Mathematica’ software was created in 1988 by Stephen Wolfram. It was a programming language used in mathematical, academic, scientific and engineering fields. It allowed the symbolic entry of mathematical functions and equations alongside a graphic display of results.
1988 had many highs and lows and will always be a memorable year for us as the year NVT was founded by Stephen Park Brown.
What are your most memorable events of 1988?