dunder mifflin, this is laura.: Lecture 2: History of the Computer aaaaaaaand the Internet!

The History of the Computer:

1791: Charles Babbage Born. Conceived difference engine in 19th Century. "He sketched out the logical structure of the modern computer". Also conceived the analytical engine.

Image Sourced From: http://www.rabbitmail.co.uk/comp/images/babbage.jpg

1815: Ada Byron born. Conceived the idea of a machine that can do all the things we now do on computers everyday!

1912: Alan Turing Born. "In 1948, he moved to the University of Manchester to work on the Manchester Mark 1, then emerging as one of the world's earliest true computers." (H-Ref 3)

1950's: Computer first commercially produced by IBM.

1965: Gordon Moore put forward Moore's law: "the capacity of microchips doubles every two years".

1970's (early): Think-tank developed concepts such as mouse, GUI (Graphical User Interface) and pull-down menus.

1975: First PC Released. Bill Gates writes language called BASIC for the Altair so that it could be used for word processing, basic accounting, games AND started MICROSOFT.

(Image Sourced from: http://www.coins.ro/images/economic/Bill_Gates.jpg)

1978: Apple II launched at West Coast Computer Fair.

1980: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak make enough money of Apple to never have to work again (heaven on earth!).

Image Sourced From: http://www.silvermac.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/steve_and_steve.jpg

1985: Steve Jobs resigns from Apple due to conflicts with the board of directors. Apple's fortunes are not so great from here on in... (H-Ref 4)

1998: Steve Jobs returns and Apple's fortunes turn around.

1991: Linus Torvalds builds his own operating system. GNU/LINUX.

1995: "Windows '95 was launched by Bill Gates & Microsoft. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows '95 is an entire operating system - it does not rely on MS-DOS (although some remnants of the old operating system still exist)." (H-Ref 6)

2001: "Windows releases XP" (H-Ref 6)

2001: "Apple released Mac OS X" (H-Ref 7)

2005: "Apple announces they are going to use Intel processors in upcoming Macintosh computers" (H-Ref 7)

2006: Apple Computer introduces the MacBook Pro, their first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer, as well as an Intel-based iMac. (H-Ref 7)

2007: Microsoft Corporation launches Windows Vista more than 5 years after their last major, new operating system, Windows XP, was released. (H-Ref 7)

Note: All information found in this section, aside from what is already referenced, was found at H-Ref 1.

The History of the Internet

Definition of the Internet:

"The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail, in addition to popular services such as online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) person-to-person communication via voice and video." (H-Ref 2)

1960's: "idea of the internet conceived by RAND corporation (while considering nuclear war situations) Group of researchers in the US already working on the concept of "Packet Switching which is essentially breaking down messages into small chunks and transmitting them from one computer to another." (H-Ref 1)

1965: "First Network Experiment: Directed by Larry Roberts at MIT Lincoln Lab, two computers talked to each other using packet-switching technology." (H-Ref 5)

1989: "100 000 hosts on the Internet." (H-Ref 5)

1990's: Concept of the WWW emerged "as people generally began to see the potential for computers to communicate with each other as a matter of course. The Web merges the techniques of (i) internetworking and (ii) hypertext to make an easy-to-use, but powerful, global system that shares all information accessible as part of a seamless hypertext space." (H-Ref 1)

2000: "Fixed wireless, high-speed internet technology is now seen as a viable alternative to copper and fiber optic lines placed in the ground." (H-Ref 5)

2005: "YouTube launches." (H-Ref 5)

2006: "There are an estimated 92 million Web sites online." (H-Ref 5)

2007: "1.114 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats." (H-Ref 5)

Seemingly Important Point:
1. "It is important to understand that the internet is not the same thing as the web. The web is just one part of the broader internet which includes many other things as well as the Web. If this sounds confusing it helps if we think of the internet as a collection of computers." (H-Ref 1)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

H-Ref 1 - Nct09 Blog, Stephen Stockwell

http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/2009/08/short-history-of-computing-and-internet.html

Accessed on the 12th August 2009

H-Ref 2 - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

Accessed on the 12th August 2009

H-Ref 3 - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

Accessed on the 12th August 2009

H-Ref 4 - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_jobs