The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Does This Compute?

When I was young, very young, computers took up whole rooms and were operated by men, and a few women, in lab coats with clip boards, glasses, and who had serious looks on their faces. Well, in the movies anyway. In movies, the men generally wore suits and ties, the women in dresses no matter what kind of job they had. Movie life and real life didn't mesh well in my head. My father never wore a suit, at work or anywhere else. Neither did anyone else's father that I knew except for Norman's, the nerdy kid down the street. But his father was a lawyer so it was to be expected. In movies, men were mostly dressed in suits (except for cowboys and convicts), even bad guys like bank robbers. But I digress, this isn't about men in suits.

It's about computers.

Some say the first computers were mechanical clocks. After all, they computed time. But that really isn't the definition of "computer". A computer, in simple terms, is something that accepts data, processes it, and displays the results.

I just found out that a man in Germany, Konrad Zuse, built the first electrical binary programmable computer (the Z1) in his parents' living room between 1936 and 1938 (Wikipedia says 1941 but referred to the Z3).

I suppose there was room because his parents didn't have a stereo and TV to take up a lot of space. Just that huge radio that they could listen to Herr Hitler on.

For years,people got along without computers in their businesses and homes. My father certainly did. He owned a business and the closest thing to a computer in that was a manual adding machine; punch in the numbers, and pull the lever, repeat as necessary. I think it only had 4 types of calculations and ran to two whole decimal places.

The military was the main driver behind the computer. It needed to calculate trajectories, quickly and accurately. This helps you destroy the enemy more efficiently while lowering the possibility of of destroying your own men and machines. World War II was the impetus behind the invention of Eniac, the first American electronic computer of note. However, the war was over by the time it was built. The Eniac is younger than I am.

The Eniac was a mass of electro-mechanical devices and electron tubes. It wasn't until the transistor was developed that the computer could truly start to evolve. The transistor meant miniaturization and less heat generation.

In 1981, I bought my first computer, an Osborne 1. Relatively few people owned computers at the time. But that is about the time that people started thinking about them. Large businesses had been using what were called "small computers" which took up the space of maybe three or four refridgerators, sometimes more. Large corporations could afford mainframe computers which took up whole rooms. Small businesses were getting into what would later be called "personal computers", mostly made by Radio Shack and companies that are now long gone.

By the time I bought that Osborne, Apple had stores, Radio Shack was big, and people had started buying personal computers for entertainment rather than just business needs.

Fast forward to today and it's a surprise when I hear someone say "I don't own a computer." They are everywhere. And they are attached to the internet.

The newest phones, like the I-Phone, are little computers which can tap into the internet and play online games. They are the logical evolution of those PDAs of a few years ago that only kept your address book and an appointment calendar.

We are a tapped in, connected, digital species. What next? Implants that we can use to make calls and access the internet?

[890/891]

5 comments:

Neo said...

back before 1978 had a neighbor his dad would bring home a 'hefty biefcase and plug the phone up to it and tell me he was networking with his dads work, I was a bit intreigued but took me till 2003 to bet my fist pc. Had a little experience on a "non- internet computer back in 96 or so. Wife bought a computer we didn't go internet. Again intriqued in 03 met a guy who knew computers networking and internet and I began to learn. Now I feel like a newby again learning Vista

Douglas said...

Neo - In 1977 Pacific Telephone sent me off to a school on a computerized long distance switching system. This was the first fully digital switching system. It made sense to me. When I got through that (15 weeks stretched over 4 1/2 months), I was hooked. When I returned, I worked with a DEC PDP-11 and then helping install the switching system. It was not until 1981 that I got that Osborne. I got into Unix and C (though I've forgotten most of it now) In 1986, I bought my first PC clone. By 1989, I was putting my own PCs together and running a BBS. By 1996, I was connecting to the internet and had been through countless computers.
I may volunteer for that digital implant...

The Jules said...

My Dad was telling me how he had his first electronic caluclator for his business - on hire!

I also think it's amazing that modern cars have more processing power than the Appollo moon missions.

Wendy said...

I started using the Internet over a 300 baud modem and a friend of mine wanted me to upgrade to something faster. At time time everything was all text and the screen would fill up faster than I could read so I didn't get what all the hubbub was about needing something faster.

In retrospect that seems really ridiculous and funny but I didn't see where things were going since it was all just text email and bulletin boards. No web for several years later.

What a cool world.

Wendy said...

I started using the Internet over a 300 baud modem and a friend of mine wanted me to upgrade to something faster. At time time everything was all text and the screen would fill up faster than I could read so I didn't get what all the hubbub was about needing something faster.

In retrospect that seems really ridiculous and funny but I didn't see where things were going since it was all just text email and bulletin boards. No web for several years later.

What a cool world.