Computer symbols and icons: origins

Wrote Rob Schwandt in an August 18, 2010 ktla.com post, "Since computers came into our lives, we really didn't ask questions about how they got here or the process of naming the keys and symbols."

"But aren't you curious about where the names and symbols came from?"

I was, you might be as well.

The article takes a look at the six symbols pictured above and below and how they came to mean what they do.

I was especially interested in the story behind the USB symbol [below],

which I'd never realized before reading Schwandt's piece has three different geometric shapes at the tips of the three-pronged spear.

[via Joe Peach]