<!DOCTYPE html>
<script>var __pbpa = true;</script><script>var translated_warning_string = 'Warning: Never enter your Tumblr password unless \u201chttps://www.tumblr.com/login\u201d\x0ais the address in your web browser.\x0a\x0aYou should also see a green \u201cTumblr, Inc.\u201d identification in the address bar.\x0a\x0aSpammers and other bad guys use fake forms to steal passwords.\x0a\x0aTumblr will never ask you to log in from a user\u2019s blog.\x0a\x0aAre you absolutely sure you want to continue?';</script><script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://assets.tumblr.com/assets/scripts/pre_tumblelog.js?d9f4c92b186c422f85b52215bfcb76af"></script>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns# fb: http://ogp.me/ns/fb# blog: http://ogp.me/ns/blog#">
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>NCSA Mosaic on Github - alan dipert</title>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/avatar_4ae064934cfd_16.png">
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://alan.dipert.org/rss">
<meta name="description" content="NCSA Mosaic on Github In 1994, when I was in fourth grade, my dad brought me along with him to see a friend of his in the CS department at the University of Buffalo. My dad’s friend, Bill Rapaport,..." />
<meta name="if:Show notes" content="1">
<meta name="text:Disqus Shortname" content="" />
<meta name="color:Post Background" content="#F2F2F2" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://static.tumblr.com/26l8vc7/ej3lr0jwd/style.css">
<style type="text/css">
.post{background: #F2F2F2;}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/sh_main.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_css.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_html.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_java.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_sh.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_c.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_scala.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_cpp.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_php.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_ruby.min.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/lang/sh_javascript.min.js">
</script>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="http://shjs.sourceforge.net/sh_style.css">
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-965358-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
<!-- BEGIN TUMBLR FACEBOOK OPENGRAPH TAGS -->
<!-- If you'd like to specify your own Open Graph tags, define the og:url and og:title tags in your theme's HTML. -->
<!-- Read more: http://ogp.me/ -->
<meta property="fb:app_id" content="48119224995" />
<meta property="og:title" content="NCSA Mosaic on Github" />
<meta property="og:url" content="http://alan.dipert.org/post/435071716/ncsa-mosaic-on-github" />
<meta property="og:description" content="In 1994, when I was in fourth grade, my dad brought me along with him to see a friend of his in the CS department at the University of Buffalo. My dad’s friend, Bill Rapaport, was running NCSA Mosaic..." />
<meta property="og:type" content="tumblr-feed:entry" />
<!-- END TUMBLR FACEBOOK OPENGRAPH TAGS -->
<!-- TWITTER TAGS -->
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="
In 1994, when I was in fourth grade, my dad brought me along with him to see a friend of his in the CS department at the University of Buffalo. My dad&#8217;s friend, Bill Rapaport, was running NCSA Mosaic on a Sun workstation. I vividly remember the moment he brought up the Louvre&#8217;s website and a beautiful full color image of the Mona Lisa was magically beamed across the ocean from Paris, and onto the screen.
My dad had shown me gopher before, but nothing was ever in color. In fact, everything I&#8217;d seen about computers up to that point seemed pretty boring.
The moment I saw the Mona Lisa in full color on a computer monitor was one of only a handful of moments that led me to where I am now, which is a state of continual curiosity and wonder about these things, these machines, these computers.
Thanks in great part to the work of others, I was able to pretty easily get Mosaic to compile and run on my machine, and to relive for a moment my childhood renaissance.
What is the Mosaic, the Mona Lisa, that we can show children today?
If you&#8217;re on GNU/Linux-Ubuntu (or something else, and you know your way around your package manager) you can compile and run NCSA Mosaic yourself: http://github.com/alandipert/ncsa-mosaic" />
<meta name="twitter:title" content="NCSA Mosaic on Github" />
<meta name="twitter:url" content="http://alan.dipert.org/post/435071716/ncsa-mosaic-on-github" />
<meta name="twitter:site" content="tumblr" />
<meta name="twitter:app:name:iphone" content="Tumblr" />
<meta name="twitter:app:name:ipad" content="Tumblr" />
<meta name="twitter:app:name:googleplay" content="Tumblr" />
<meta name="twitter:app:id:iphone" content="305343404" />
<meta name="twitter:app:id:ipad" content="305343404" />
<meta name="twitter:app:id:googleplay" content="com.tumblr" />
<meta name="twitter:app:url:iphone" content="tumblr://x-callback-url/blog?blogName=alandipert&postID=435071716&referrer=twitter-cards" />
<meta name="twitter:app:url:ipad" content="tumblr://x-callback-url/blog?blogName=alandipert&postID=435071716&referrer=twitter-cards" />
<meta name="twitter:app:url:googleplay" content="tumblr://x-callback-url/blog?blogName=alandipert&postID=435071716&referrer=twitter-cards" />
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://assets.tumblr.com/assets/scripts/tumblelog.js?b32c40067ef5fa460dd9a1eda92ee368"></script><meta http-equiv="x-dns-prefetch-control" content="off"/></head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header" role="banner">
<h1><a href="/">alan dipert</a></h1>
<div id="description">
<p><p><a href = "http://twitter.com/alandipert/">twitter</a> <a href = "http://github.com/alandipert/">github</a> <a href = "mailto:adipert@acm.org">email</a></p></p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="content" role="main">
<div class="post text">
<div class="date">
<p><span class="day">08</span> 3 / 2010</p>
</div>
<div class="content">
<h2>NCSA Mosaic on Github</h2>
<p><img height="269" width="406" alt="NCSA Mosaic 2.7 viewing GitHub.com" src="http://github.com/downloads/alandipert/ncsa-mosaic/github.png"/></p>
<p>In 1994, when I was in fourth grade, <a href="http://dipert.org/">my dad</a> brought me along with him to see a friend of his in the CS department at the University of Buffalo. My dad’s friend, <a href="http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/">Bill Rapaport</a>, was running NCSA Mosaic on a Sun workstation. I vividly remember the moment he brought up <a href="http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en">the Louvre’s website</a> and a beautiful full color image of the Mona Lisa was magically beamed across the ocean from Paris, and onto the screen.</p>
<p>My dad had shown me <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)">gopher</a> before, but nothing was ever in color. In fact, everything I’d seen about computers up to that point seemed pretty boring.</p>
<p>The moment I saw the Mona Lisa in full color on a computer monitor was one of only a handful of moments that led me to where I am now, which is a state of continual curiosity and wonder about these things, these machines, these computers.</p>
<p>Thanks in <a href="http://seanm.ca/mosaic/">great part to the work of others</a>, I was able to pretty easily get Mosaic to compile and run on my machine, and to relive for a moment my childhood renaissance.</p>
<p>What is the Mosaic, the Mona Lisa, that we can show children today?</p>
<p><i>If you’re on GNU/Linux-Ubuntu (or something else, and you know your way around your package manager) you can compile and run NCSA Mosaic yourself: </i><a href="http://github.com/alandipert/ncsa-mosaic"><i><a href="http://github.com/alandipert/ncsa-mosaic">http://github.com/alandipert/ncsa-mosaic</a></i></a></p>
</div>
<div class="info">
<p><a href="http://alan.dipert.org/post/435071716/ncsa-mosaic-on-github">Permalink</a> <span style="float: right;"><a class="dsq-comment-count" href="http://alan.dipert.org/post/435071716/ncsa-mosaic-on-github#disqus_thread"></a></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="notecontainer">
<div id="disqus_thread"></div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://disqus.com/forums/alandipert/embed.js"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://alandipert.disqus.com/?url=ref">View the discussion thread</a></noscript>
</div>
<div id="pagination" role="navigation">
<p>
<a href="http://alan.dipert.org/post/445462664" class="newer">Next post »</a>
<a href="http://alan.dipert.org/post/387937678" class="older">« Previous post</a>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="footer">
<div class="wrapper">
<ul class="links" role="navigation">
<li><a href="/archive">Archive</a></li>
<li><a href="http://alan.dipert.org/rss">RSS</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="info-theme" role="contentinfo">Powered by <a href="http://www.tumblr.com">Tumblr</a> and designed by <a href="http://kcmr.tumblr.com">Kcmr</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
(function() {
var links = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
var query = '?';
for(var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {
if(links[i].href.indexOf('#disqus_thread') >= 0) {
query += 'url' + i + '=' + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + '&';
}
}
document.write('<script charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="http://disqus.com/forums/alandipert/get_num_replies.js' + query + '"></' + 'script>');
})();
//]]>
</script>
<!-- BEGIN TUMBLR CODE -->
<iframe src="http://assets.tumblr.com/iframe.html?9f9b05bc6d86a119a5f73c15523c270b&src=http%3A%2F%2Falan.dipert.org%2Fpost%2F435071716%2Fncsa-mosaic-on-github&pid=435071716&rk=VHijK6xW&lang=en_US&name=alandipert&brag=false&avatar=http%3A%2F%2F24.media.tumblr.com%2Favatar_4ae064934cfd_40.png&title=alan+dipert&url=http%3A%2F%2Falan.dipert.org%2F" width="330" height="25" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute; z-index:2147483647; top:0px; right:0px; border:0px; background-color:transparent; overflow:hidden;" id="tumblr_controls"></iframe>
<!--[if IE]><script type="text/javascript">document.getElementById('tumblr_controls').allowTransparency=true;</script><![endif]-->
<script type="text/javascript">var s=new Image(1,1);s.src=((r='http://www.tumblr.com/impixu?T=1367904700&J=eyJ0eXBlIjoiYmxvZyIsImJsb2dpZCI6IjQzOTQ2OCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHA6XC9cL2FsYW4uZGlwZXJ0Lm9yZ1wvcG9zdFwvNDM1MDcxNzE2XC9uY3NhLW1vc2FpYy1vbi1naXRodWIiLCJyZXF0eXBlIjowfQ==&U=PKFKHICOCA&K=904552d3d69a06124428ac35f1e01e06db829f3434f7fa9bcee035bc3dbbc2f2&R=http%3A%2F%2Falan.dipert.org%2Fpost%2F435071716%2Fncsa-mosaic-on-github%3Fa50cdc10'.replace(/&R=[^&$]*/,'')) + ('&R='+escape(document.referrer)).substr(0, 2000-r.length).replace(/%.?.?$/,''));</script><noscript><img style="position:absolute;z-index:-3334;top:0px;left:0px;visibility:hidden;" src="http://www.tumblr.com/impixu?T=1367904700&J=eyJ0eXBlIjoiYmxvZyIsImJsb2dpZCI6IjQzOTQ2OCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHA6XC9cL2FsYW4uZGlwZXJ0Lm9yZ1wvcG9zdFwvNDM1MDcxNzE2XC9uY3NhLW1vc2FpYy1vbi1naXRodWIiLCJyZXF0eXBlIjowLCJub3NjcmlwdCI6MX0=&U=PKFKHICOCA&K=489b9f8e96c7fcd68f91c4022e3fdbcfe30129a52bf679668f1f58e55b70c0d6&R=http%3A%2F%2Falan.dipert.org%2Fpost%2F435071716%2Fncsa-mosaic-on-github%3Fa50cdc10"></noscript> <!-- END TUMBLR CODE -->
<iframe src="http://assets.tumblr.com/analytics.html?dcba2423e6f5653ee72915980432c1c3" scrolling="no" width="1" height="1" frameborder="0" style="background-color:transparent; overflow:hidden; position:absolute; top:0; left:0 z-index:9999;" id="ga_target"></iframe>
<script>
var COMSCORE = true;
window.setTimeout(function() {
var analytics_frame = document.getElementById('ga_target');
analytics_frame.contentWindow.postMessage('enable_comscore', analytics_frame.src.split('/analytics.html')[0]);
}, 1000);
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var _qevents = _qevents || [];
(function() {
var elem = document.createElement('script');
elem.src = (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://secure" : "http://edge") + ".quantserve.com/quant.js";
elem.async = true;
elem.type = "text/javascript";
var scpt = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
scpt.parentNode.insertBefore(elem, scpt);
})();
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_qevents.push( { qacct: 'p-19UtqE8ngoZbM' } );
</script>
<noscript>
<div style="display: none;"><img src="//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/'p-19UtqE8ngoZbM'.gif" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/></div>
</noscript>
<script type="text/javascript">var s=new Image(1,1);s.src=((r='http://www.tumblr.com/impixu?T=1367904700&J=eyJ0eXBlIjoidXJsIiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cDpcL1wvYWxhbi5kaXBlcnQub3JnXC9wb3N0XC80MzUwNzE3MTZcL25jc2EtbW9zYWljLW9uLWdpdGh1YiIsInJlcXR5cGUiOjB9&U=AFIKFBAIEJ&K=78fad8f596a4ffc2fbcdeedf526422da4852ed92d046a43d15f347a136bdff05&R=http%3A%2F%2Falan.dipert.org%2Fpost%2F435071716%2Fncsa-mosaic-on-github%3Fa50cdc10'.replace(/&R=[^&$]*/,'')) + ('&R='+escape(document.referrer)).substr(0, 2000-r.length).replace(/%.?.?$/,''));</script><noscript><img style="position:absolute;z-index:-3334;top:0px;left:0px;visibility:hidden;" src="http://www.tumblr.com/impixu?T=1367904700&J=eyJ0eXBlIjoidXJsIiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cDpcL1wvYWxhbi5kaXBlcnQub3JnXC9wb3N0XC80MzUwNzE3MTZcL25jc2EtbW9zYWljLW9uLWdpdGh1YiIsInJlcXR5cGUiOjAsIm5vc2NyaXB0IjoxfQ==&U=AFIKFBAIEJ&K=7c21a08bb31e1a9683adfc511a945432339b0af38667dfeeeac147e31de59bc2&R=http%3A%2F%2Falan.dipert.org%2Fpost%2F435071716%2Fncsa-mosaic-on-github%3Fa50cdc10"></noscript><script type="text/javascript">var s=new Image(1,1);s.src=((r='http://www.tumblr.com/impixu?T=1367904700&J=eyJ0eXBlIjoicG9zdCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHA6XC9cL2FsYW4uZGlwZXJ0Lm9yZ1wvcG9zdFwvNDM1MDcxNzE2XC9uY3NhLW1vc2FpYy1vbi1naXRodWIiLCJyZXF0eXBlIjowLCJwb3N0cyI6W3sicG9zdGlkIjoiNDM1MDcxNzE2IiwiYmxvZ2lkIjoiNDM5NDY4Iiwic291cmNlIjozM31dfQ==&U=NGPDIGBHOJ&K=31d162ca2778f57fbf66bf712ef11cc93fb937f3aaf9801fffd7b552884bcd48&R=http%3A%2F%2Falan.dipert.org%2Fpost%2F435071716%2Fncsa-mosaic-on-github%3Fa50cdc10'.replace(/&R=[^&$]*/,'')) + ('&R='+escape(document.referrer)).substr(0, 2000-r.length).replace(/%.?.?$/,''));</script><noscript><img style="position:absolute;z-index:-3334;top:0px;left:0px;visibility:hidden;" src="http://www.tumblr.com/impixu?T=1367904700&J=eyJ0eXBlIjoicG9zdCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHA6XC9cL2FsYW4uZGlwZXJ0Lm9yZ1wvcG9zdFwvNDM1MDcxNzE2XC9uY3NhLW1vc2FpYy1vbi1naXRodWIiLCJyZXF0eXBlIjowLCJwb3N0cyI6W3sicG9zdGlkIjoiNDM1MDcxNzE2IiwiYmxvZ2lkIjoiNDM5NDY4Iiwic291cmNlIjozM31dLCJub3NjcmlwdCI6MX0=&U=NGPDIGBHOJ&K=61d88c3dfd2869190451db3882a5c937811ad924d95b061645ad3159af79d89d&R=http%3A%2F%2Falan.dipert.org%2Fpost%2F435071716%2Fncsa-mosaic-on-github%3Fa50cdc10"></noscript></body>
</html>