A Short History of the Computer and the Internet
First thing first; the computer...
It all started with Charles Babbage’s 19th century Difference engine, a machine designed to calculate and print mathematical tables, considered the first digital computer. A hundred years later (1950), the computers were first commercially produced by IBM, as large and expensive machines for military, government and corporate work. Another 15 years, and the first PC (called the 0) was released. This was the century of the computer nerds, and whilst others was wearing headbands and smoking for peace, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started the companies with the biggest share on today’s’ market, Microsoft and Apple.
The Internet…
The first idea of the internet came from RAND Corporation in the 1960’s, who along with researches from the US created a network for communication connecting computer systems across a long distance. Today we know the internet as a global information system that is logically linked together by a unique address space (http:// etc. ) creating a high level communication tool.
Tutespark
To successfully complete this week’s tutespark I’ll first have to define the terms digital and analogue technology.
So…
Digital technology is electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes data in terms of two states: positive and non-positive. Positive is represented by the number 1 and non-positive by the number 0. Data transmitted or stored with digital technology is expressed as a string of 0's and 1's. Each of these state digits is referred to as a bit.
Analogue technology conveys data as electronic signals of varying frequency or amplitude that are added to carrier waves of a given frequency. An analogue signal can be represented as a series of sine waves.
Analogue technology conveys data as electronic signals of varying frequency or amplitude that are added to carrier waves of a given frequency. An analogue signal can be represented as a series of sine waves.
My task this week was to find three examples of digital devices that are not electronic. The first thing that came to my mind reading this task was smoke signals, a way of communicate across long distance, first use by Native Americans.
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-send-smoke-signal.htmThe second device I thought of was Morse codes (Telegraph), which also is used to send signals (a coded message) and communicate over a distance.
The final device I could think of were walkie talkies, ‘are portable communication devices consisting of low-level radio transmitters and receivers’ 
No comments:
Post a Comment