Topic 6

"I NEED A COMPUTER!!!!" - Johnny Demonic

History of the Computer

The Men Behind the Computer

- Charles Babbage
- 19th Century "Difference Engine" (first computing machine)
- Designed to calculate and print maths tables

- Alan Turing
- Studied quantum physics, probability and logic
- Wrote crucial paper clarifying the computability of numbers
- he and his team devised the first working computer, 'The Bombe' (which was used to break the german 'Enigma' Codes.

IBM (international business machine) was the first company to commercially produce computers, in the 1950s.

Xerox PARC developed concepts like the mouse, graphical user interface and pull down menus.

1975- the personal computer (PC) was released. it was called 'O'.

Bill Gates started writing a language called BASIC for this PC, so it could be used for programs like word processing, accounting and some games. in order to market his program, he started a little company in his garage- Microsoft. by the end of 1975 more companies had joined the PC industry.

Apple- Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak produced the Apple I (single circuit board, no case and no keyboard)

- Retail price, $US660.60
- they sold 50.

2 years later Apple II was launched in 1978.

IBM & Microsoft

-Open architecture (buying shelf products from a range of other companies and putting them together as a package)
- There are two things needed for the running of a computer- Operating System and the language.
- Gary Kidall (head of Digital research, Imc)
- Bill Gates (owner of Microsoft)
- Kidall wouldn't sign, Gates found and bought an OS (something IMB needed, but he could not give them) which was developed by Tim Patterson for $50,000, and sold OS and language to IBM.
THE INTERNET

"DAWN OF THE NET" anything is possible...

- A network of networks
- Servers, mainframes, PC's and other devices that use CMC (computer mediated communications) technology, interconnected by telephone system, and most recently broad-band cable and satellite services.
-links people around the world into an information-sharing sysytem.

LAN- local area network
- uncontrolled place
- Carries all types of information
Router- Takes information to where they want to go
R/Switch- Directs the the information
Newtwork interface- sends the info to the next level of the internet
Proxy- the middle man
- opens the package of info being sent out to the network
- Acts as security as well
Package- contains the URL
Firewall- serves 2 purposes
- prevents things from coming in and also from going out.

the Cycle

You --> firewall, router --> internet --> your firewall --> find the URL --> and then sends it back to you with the info that you were looking for.

Early internet Applications

-email
- file transfer protocol (FTP)
- IRC (internet relay chat) msn...

More recent

- IM
- Skype
- Peer 2 peer (p2p)
- mp3
- podcasting

I love the internet!