Friday, October 1, 2010

Computers Part 2

The birth of the personal computer starts with the Altair computer, which was a kit that could be purchased for self assembly at home. It was very basic, with no peripherals. Paul Allen and Bill Gates became intrigued with the Altair and developed a basic programming language for the computer. Around the same time as Microsoft was being founded by Allen and Gates, in California Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs created the Apple computer. The Apple II was an "attractive and relatively reliable machine" pg 92. It was also used in a lot of schools and was one of the first computers that students were able to get a chance to use. IBM also started growing and creating their own version of the personal computer. "With the introduction of the IBM PC and Microsoft DOS, Apple faced serious competition for the first time." pg 96. It was not until all three of these companies started expanding when they realized they had real competition competition on their hands. Computers were becoming more and more popular and each company needed something that could make their computers better. Macintosh gained attention when they created a computer with a screen in the same unit as the computer, and a keyboard and mouse. Computer games started to become a growing industry, with computers like the Macintosh that were available to the public.
Networking became the next step in this world of computers. It started out with ARPAnet which connected computers at major universities. The video we watched in class a few weeks ago did a pretty good job of portraying this networking. The universities were reluctant to network with each other and share resources, but part of the deal of being in the network was that they had to be connected to the other schools. I find this very interesting, because it shows how competitive the environment was back then, compared to today, where we share information readily on web 2.0. Bitnet, created by IBM soon replace ARPAnet. It used IP addresses to create what we now know as the internet. The internet changed everything, in regards to connections between places and people.
With computers becoming more and more popular and internet access more accessible, it created a digital divide, between people that had access to the technology and people who did not. It also creates new problems, such as hacking and viruses. The world was a lot simpler of a place before the widespread use of computers, but it has enhanced our lives incredibly. Things are so much easier because we have computers and the internet. Research on anything is available to us at anytime as long as we have access with a computer that is connected to the internet. We can connect in ways that we have not been able to connect before, and it changes our definition of location. We can be in multiple locations at once, where as fifty years ago that would have been impossible. It is amazing to read about how this all started because someone wanted to make math calculations more efficient and easier. It started a technological revolution that has changed our lives.

PS. Algorithms
The use of algorithms today has become extremely popular, whether we realize it or not. I honestly hadn't thought about all the algorithms the computer uses on us, for example the music pandora picks for you based on your one choice of music. I find it intriguing more than I find it creepy or weird. Pandora helps me find new music that I may not have found before, and the "Things you may like" on youtube, or amazon, help me find the things that I actually do want that I hadn't had the time to look for myself. I understand it is a little weird that it can make choices for me, but it's not like someone knows everything about me and is helping me, it's a machine who doesn't know me personally, just my likes and dislikes.

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