Week 3 notes

The Birth of the Computer

Charles Babbage
Invention of the "difference engine" - (machine used to calculate and print mathematical calculations.

Ada Lovelance
Assisted Charles in the invention of the "analytical engine" - (A machine able to compose and play music).

Alan Turing
The birth of the computer.

FILM REVIEW: "The Enigma machine"
portrayed the use of technology in warfare. (Nazi ingenuity) The invention of encoding machines used to send information.

Mathematicians were hired to find out the key to breaking the secret codes.
The solution was to eliminate the wrong codes immediately to save time in cracking the right codes.

Moore's Law
IBM 1950 were the first generation of computers.

Moore states "The capacity of the microchip doubles every two years. This has held true for 40 years, but this is seen to change.

Xerox PARC
Early 70's - Developed the 'think tank' technologies. e.g mouse, user interface, pull-down menu's. It made computers more interactive and useful.

Apple
A group a 'nerds' got together - exchanged ideas. Steve Jobs and Steve Woznak.

IBM & Microsoft
'Open architecture' - Buying shelf products from a range of other companies and putting in altogether in a package. The hardware wasn't a problem, but the software was.
Bill Gates kept an open mind to 'merging information about hard/software. The found an operating system (MS Dos), and soon gained a 'monopoly of the market'. This is was seen as the "Microsoft conspiracy-taking over the world"