Twenty years ago, a University of Oklahoma engineering student was working for his father, an appraiser, during the summer months and during every break. He and his friends started looking at computer programs for dad's business, finding what was available to be extremely expensive, and really not very good. The naïve college student thought, "give me a couple weeks and I can write a program that does it better."

The idea was just to write it for dad; it didn’t start out as a business plan. But then they started getting more serious as they wrote it and realized that what they were coming up with was really a better product than was out there. In 1985, Dave Biggers incorporated a new company, a la mode, inc., then quit school in 1986 and took the company and moved it to Salt Lake City with two partners. Eventually, Dave moved back to Oklahoma because of family, and bought his partners out of the company.

This month, in fact, is the 19th anniversary of the founding of a la mode. We're celebrating, and getting a kick out of how long 19 years is in this business (or anywhere else). Consider:

The property in Typicalville, U.S. you said was worth $80,000 in July 1985 is worth $203,292 today, an increase of 2.5 times. Unless it's on the west coast, in which case it's worth $283,821, an increase of 3.5 times.

Ohio and Maryland S&L failures in the summer of 1985 were precursors to the national S&L crisis and then bailout under President George H.W. Bush, which resulted in the current federal system of state licensure for appraisers. FIRREA was still four years away.

The oil market was about to take it on the chin in 1985 (which contributed to the S&L crisis), and a typical Houston, TX home was valued at $78,600 19 years ago this summer. By 1988, that home would lose more than 20 percent of its value and be worth $61,800. (Today, the same home is worth $134,926, according to Freddie Mac.)

The average rate on a conventional mortgage on a resale was 11.02 in July 1985. And dropping, from a recent high of 12.52 in October 1984. Today your average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is going for about 6 percent.

There was no such thing as "Windows," at least beyond the Microsoft and IBM boardrooms. In fact, there was no Graphical User Interface (GUI) in common usage — you know, icons, pointers, that kind of thing. Everything you wanted a computer to do, you had to tell it to do by typing commands at a command prompt. Microsoft shipped Windows 1.0 on November 20, 1985 (two years late). That same year, Steve Jobs resigned from Apple Computer, and a balance of power was struck in the computer operating system industry that could have been much different.

The desktop laser printer debuted in 1984, and Hewlett-Packard spent 1985 amassing market share in the high 80 percent range. A 300-dpi Laser Jet set you back only $3,600 in 1985.

IBM introduced the first 386 microprocessor in 1985. There would be a 486, and then something called "Pentium," as the years went by.

Toshiba introduced the first successful "portable PC," the precursor to laptops and notebooks, its T1100. It ran DOS 2.11 completely in ROM (for the computer geeks out there).

CD-ROM drives were just starting to be manufactured for use with PCs in 1985. Disks were not yet erasable, or recordable, by the user. A disk drive cost about $1,000.

Microtek introduced the world's first 300-dpi black and white sheetfed scanner. Most appraisers, if they were submitting pictures along with their reports at all, got double prints and taped them onto addenda. There was no such thing as a color scanner, let alone a "digital camera."

AOL was founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1985. In November, the company released its first online service, called "Q-Link," for Commodore Business Machines. It would be 1991 before the DOS version of America Online was launched.

In 1985, Tetris debuted in the Soviet Union.

In 1985, there was a Soviet Union.

Two years after the first cellular phone service was launched in Chicago, the "car phone" was growing in popularity, if not shrinking in size, yet. There would be one million cellular subscribers nationwide by 1987. There are now more than 11 million in the New York metropolitan area alone.

New Coke debuted in April 1985. "Coke Classic" "debuted" shortly thereafter.

Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers scored 208 points, Doc Gooden went 24-4 with 268 strikeouts, unranked Villanova won the NCAA basketball championship, the Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento, CA, and the Miami Dolphins were demolished in the Super Bowl by the Joe Montana-led San Francisco 49ers.

Jean M. Auel's The Mammoth Hunters was the fiction bestseller of 1985. We haven't read it but are sure it's got nothing on The DaVinci Code. 1985's nonfiction bestseller: Iacocca: An Autobiography. Which reminds us of our favorite 1985 computer joke: What do you get when you cross Lee Iacocca with a vampire? An AUTOEXEC.BAT!

The consensus number one single of 1985 was "Careless Whisper" by Wham! Featuring George Michael. Dire Straits released its seminal Brothers in Arms album, featuring the song "Money For Nothing." Three albums debuted on the Billboard charts at number one in 1985: No Jacket Required by Phil Collins, Songs From the Big Chair by Tears For Fears, and the soundtrack from Miami Vice. Retro rockers Chris Isaak and Silvertone released their first album, Silvertone.

Miss Utah, Sharlene Wells, was crowned Miss America.

A much earlier incarnation of "Must See TV" not involving Friends or Seinfeld sees millions of viewers tuning in to NBC's Thursday night lineup: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, and Night Court.

Last week we talked about Windows XP and how it's an absolute must to move away from the older, slower operating systems, like Windows 98. You can also avoid headaches — literally and figuratively — with a larger monitor, many of you told us.

When you stare at a computer monitor for hours at a time, it's no fun to get glare headaches due to small monitors with low resolution. One appraiser who uses a 22" Gateway HDTV monitor told us, "I would recommend this type of monitor to everyone. Get ready to lay down some bucks, but it is really worth the extra cash to protect your vision. Another plus — it uses so little desk top space it leaves lots of desk top to clutter with other junk!"

Another reader agreed, but noted you don't necessarily have to spend a lot. "I just upgraded to a 19 inch Samsung from a 15 inch flat LCD," he wrote us. "What an amazing difference. Less eye strain for one thing. The color and contrast is amazing. All for 180 bucks!"

One reader, the Operations Manager for a national real estate company, pointed out: "Besides the fact that it is bad for our vision to strain for hours on end, a large monitor can be helpful when showing others in your office what you are doing on your screen. Many appraisal offices hire trainees. And when our desks are so cluttered with papers — even in this 'paperless society' — you can allow those trainees or fellow employees the opportunity to stand back while you show and explain parts of your report."

We asked you when you upgrade your monitor — when it fizzles out or when you upgrade the rest of your system. "Upgrades happen when I feel the need to visit my eye doctor," one reader told us. "I think, gee, which would I like, bi-focal contact lenses, or a nice new bigger monitor. Answer is really easy."

Popular monitor tricks included purchasing cards that allow the user to rotate the monitor to "portrait" mode (or monitors purchased with that built-in capability). "I just purchased a 22" Dell flat screen and upgraded to GeForce 5500 video card so I can rotate the monitor into portrait mode," one reader told us. "Best choice I have made in a long time. It is really great seeing all of Form 1004 and 1025 as I enter various adjustments and watch the corresponding changes happen down screen." Another reader recommends the 17" Dell UltraSharp 1703FP Flat Panel. "The monitor can be rotated 90 degrees which allows me to see almost a whole page of the URAR and no more scrolling around when I'm drawing a really large house. I highly recommend this monitor!"

Dual monitors are growing in popularity. "I can't hardly work without dual monitors now," one reader wrote. "Between WinTOTAL, the local MLS system, Internet, Outlook, etc., I think I'm ready to add a third." Another wrote: "The dual monitor has really been an asset to me for the last year and a half. When someone calls, asking about an appraisal, I can keep the main monitor up and check the information they are asking about on the second monitor without minimizing the main screen."

WinTOTAL 5 is being designed to support dual monitor use.

One concerned reader wrote in response to last week's piece about upgrading to XP. He agrees it's important, but thought we might have glossed over some key considerations. As he put it: "My concern is not that the information you give in the article is inaccurate, on the contrary, I believe running XP is paramount to having the fastest most efficient machine possible (not to mention secure). I feel that you do not offer enough information about the many problems that may arise when a computer is upgraded to a new operating system, especially XP."

Thanks for writing, and it's probably a good idea to mention it: Upgrading your operating system is an important operation. You don't want to do it on the spur of the moment but plan for the upgrade. Do it when you have time. Not when you're backlogged. And, do it before new software versions, like WinTOTAL, are released. It's best not to be in the position of learning the nuances of a new operating system and new software at the same time.