The most important people in the early history of Computing:
- Charles Babbage:
Charles Babbage, born in 1791, is the inventor of the first digital computer. His idea was to create a machine that can calculate and print mathematical tables. Later he conceived a massive, brass, steam- powered, general- purpose, mechanical computer.
- Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace:
Ada Byron, born in 1815, translated an Italian article about Babbage, ‘Sketch of the Analytical Engine’ and thought about a machine which would be able to compose and play music, produce graphics and be of everyday use. And she created the first computer program.
- Alan Turing:
Alan Turing , born in 1912, did the serious work required for the development of the computer. During the Second World War, he worked with a program to break secret German 'Enigma' codes. Later he investigated programming, neural nets, and the prospects for artificial intelligence.
The first Computer:
The first commercially produced computer (Altair) was in the 1950s by IBM. They were really big, unwieldy and expensive. These machines were created for the military, government and corporate work.
In the early 70s, a concept was invented that made the personal computers of today possible and approachable by the general user.
Because the first PC had no language and no set of terms by which the user could communicate with their computer, Bill Gates started to create a language for it and began to work with his own little garage company called ‘Microsoft’.
Apple:
- first home-made PC by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
- Apple I sold for $USA666.60
- two years after the Altair they launched the Apple II and Apple grew really big
- the PC turned from a toy into a business tool
IBM and Microsoft:
- first IBM produced mainframes for big companies
- by 1980 they decided to get into the PC market
- after a few years, IBM gained more and more of the market share - largely through its association with the software giant Microsoft
Another Operating System:
- GNU/Linux, by Linus Torvalds
- it was his own version of Unix
- it spread quickly across the world as a completely free operating system (alternative to the expensive systems like Windows, MacOS and Unix).
The Internet, The Web and Cyberspace:
The Internet is often called an ‘internetwork’ and that really describes it. It is a network of networks, which includes servers, mainframes and personal computers and many other devices that use CMC technology.
- interconnected by the telephone system or broad- band cable and satellite services
- people all over the world are linked to each other in an information-sharing system
- the first idea came from RAND corporation in the 1960s
- they created a scheme for a communication, command and control network
- first it was developed for the government and the military, but later also for all people
World Wide Web (WWW, or Web):
- founded in the 1990s when people began to see the potential for computers to communicate with each other as a matter of course
- HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) is the name of the language in which web pages are written
- Important: internet is not the same thing as the web!! -> the web is only a part of the internet, the internet is more complex and it includes many other things as well as the Web
Cyberspace:
- really difficult to define
- it is an interconnection of reality and imagination
Early Internet Applications:
- Email (Electronic mail)
- FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
- IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
- MUDs, MOOs, MUSHes
- IM (Instant Messaging)
- Facebook/ MySpace
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