Computing Through The Ages

~Computing Through the Ages~

"That's what's cool about working with computers. They don't argue, they remember everything and they don't drink all your beer," (Paul Leary).

From the Abacus (16th century counting devise) to the laptop, auto computing has always been a desire for us humans. We are lazy, and we like to take the easy way out of problem solving. This is why we pay so much for someone, or something to do the work for us. Hence the computer.

We're going to start with the use of electricity in computing, before then many non electric devises were used, but none capable of what we started using in the 1940's. But we must remember that no computer ever is better at problem solving then the human brain. The human brain is up to one million times better than our most capable of computers. Ok, back to when the modern computer was taking shape. It was during the war and we needed a place to store information, and a way to do it. Tests were being made on a way to "keep data". In 1945 punched paper rolls took the lead. Take a look at image 1-1 and 1-2. This was the most common type of data storage until magnified drums started becoming popular in the early 1950's. These were large metal cylinders that were magnified in certain spots; this was the first "digital data"

Devise. If it was magnified it was a "1" and if not, it was a "0". This is the computer code (binary code), and it is still used on today's computers.

A. ` 01000001. B. 01000010. C. 01000011.

D. 01000100.

E. 01000101.

F. 01000110.

G. 01000111. H. 01001000.

But letters were not used in the common computers until the first "word processor" which came out in the early 1970's, this was called -WordStar-.

Earlier in the 60's computers were reduced in size to where only four people were needed to run it, this was a major breakthrough. Sounds impressive? Not really. But keep in mind; now-a-days computers are one million times faster and more versatile than they were in the early 60's, literally. When the first computer came out that could add, subtract, multiply and divide. People thought that we had reached the end of inventions; there is nothing more that can be invented. But we say "wow, it's just a common calculator" but actually it wasn't, it was much worse than our common calculators that we can buy at the local dollar store. This was a machine not even capable of a digital screen; it had switches that had to be decoded every time a calculation was made, see image 1-3.

The Internet

Started for the government to transport data from computer to computer, it is now a common tool for everyone who's anyone to use.

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."