Computers haven't always been as advanced as the very ones we use today. They started off as huge boxes with word processing. I'm sure some scholars would link the first computer to some obscure device in ancient times, like the abacus. Even in our lifetimes we have seen computers come a long way. From taking typing class in middle school on very old Macintosh processers, to paper thin computers.
Computers are an important part of our daily lives, not only as college students, but as individuals in a modern society. To be without one of your own isn't the end of the world, but things certainly become more difficult.
As a second part of the assignment I researched Hermann Hollerith. He is regarded as the "father of modern automatic computation" and founded the company that is now called IBM. He created a system to encode data on cards which were used for the US Census in 1890. Using a series of punched holes, data was recorded and were passed through electrical contacts. This system allowed the information to be understand better and quicker using his new technology.
Its fascinating to think how IBM has changed since first conducting the US Census. It started with a very important role in the US and is still one of the leading technology companies. They make the microprocessors used in many of the modern video games, are a leading company in terms of solar power, and computers. It's impressive how the company has developed as a whole
ReplyDeleteThose of us of a certain age recall the time when bills were sent in the mail printed on computer cards, typically bills from utility companies like the telephone company (there was only one at that time, under a government approved monopoly, Bell Telephone), gas, and electric. Printed on the cards was a sentence that was well known, often quoted, and often mocked by the counterculture--Do not bend, fold, spindle, or mutilate. You may not be familiar with the term spindle, which was a way of sorting bills and other items that were dealt with, the spindle being a desk accessory about the size of your hand, made of a stand with a pointed rod sticking up, so that papers that were dealt with would be pushed down onto the spindle, which both marked them by the hold it made and kept them together. Anyway, the point of all this being that any kind of damage or alteration to the computer card would make it unreadable to the computer. Can you guess how some folks decided to express their anger, dissatisfaction, or protest?
ReplyDeleteIn computer programming, each card contained one line of code, each had to be punched individually using a machine kind of like a typewriter, then the cards had to be kept in order (imagine dropping a batch of a hundred), fed into the computer, and then you had to wait for the result to be printed out. If you made the slightest mistake, the program wouldn't work, and you had to examine each card to try to find where the error is, make up a new card to replace it, and repeat the process. When I was in college, engineers in freshman computing classes would stay up all night for their assignments, doing this over and over again until they got it right.
I Like your definition of a computer as it reflects how we perceive our computers on a daily basis. These machines we use are much more complicated than most of us know, but in the end it is the tasks we complete on our computers that define them. It's refreshing to have a definition we can all relate to.
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