Book Summary
1. The computer age
The work has changed, too, and many people got jobs in factories. It was the beginning of the industrial age.
Some people still say they have never used a computer, but probably use computers every day - just do not realize. This is because there are computers in ordinary things: cars, TVs, CD players, washing machines ...
Some people still say they have never used a computer, but probably use computers every day - just do not realize. This is because there are computers in ordinary things: cars, TVs, CD players, washing machines ...
2. In the beginning
We can write any number by ten digits (0-9): for example, 134 means 1 x 100, 3 x 10 and 4 1. Computers also use the values occur when do the math. Without values, calculations are impossible speed.Between 1000 and 500 BC, the Babylonians invented the abacus. Each line of stones showed a different place value. In the seventeenth century, people began to build calculating machines. In 1640, the French mathematician Blaise Pascal made an arithmetical machine. Over the next ten years, over fifty machines Pascal.Leibniz machine was called the Step Reckoner. You could make it harder for the machine calculation Pascal arithmetic.
3. The first computers
People to calculations and wrote the books were called computers.In the 1820s, an English mathematician named Charles Babbage invented a machine to very difficult calculations automatically. He called his machine a difference engine.Do not finish Babbage Difference Engine, it began work on a machine called an Analytical Engine. However, Babbage never finished building this machine either!A woman named Ada Lovelace worked with Babbage. I knew I could do incredible calculations with the analytical engine, and wrote a program for it. Babbage's ideas were ahead of their time. In addition, Zuse wrote programs for its machines, making holes in an old tape of cinema.
4. Alan Turing
Turing began working on a computer to break the code.Turing worked with other mathematicians in a secret place called Bletchley Park. They knew that the Germans were using machines called Enigma machine to send coded messages. Turing and others at Bletchley built a machine called the Bomba. (Some Polish mathematicians had already built a machine called a pump to try to decipher the Enigma code. In 1942, workers at Bletchley Park could read and understand all the German messages.It was harder to understand than the Enigma code.
5. The history of the PC
In 1957, IBM made a team called the 610 Auto-Point. They said it was the "first personal computer." He was big and expensive (55,000 dollars). The first computers (like the Colossus) had no computer chips, using glass tubes. In 1971, Intel made a computer chip called the 4004. Had 2,250 transistors. An American inventor named Ed Roberts used the Intel 8080 chip to one of the first PC. The personal computer was coming.They made their first PC in 1981.Since 4004 Intel made the chip in 1971 with 20,250 transistors, computer chips have become faster.
6. Bill Gates and Microsoft
Bill Gates was born in Seattle, USA, Gates and Allen left college early and started his own company - Microsoft.Bill Gates and Microsoft helped write the operating system for this equipment. 1995, the new operating system (Windows 95) comes with a piece of software that allowed people to use the Internet. Many people are unhappy about Microsoft because they think the company is too big and powerful. Most personal computers use the Windows operating system, so people often buy software from Microsoft as well. Some programmers do not want money for their software - they just want to share ideas with other computer programmers. They call these programs "shareware."
7. Man versus computer
However, the equipment is angry with humans. The idea of the teams that are more powerful than human beings is also of interest to scientists. Wanted to prove that a team can win against Gary Kasparov, the chess player in the world.In 1996, Deep Blue and Kasparov played six times. Kasparov won the match, IBM knew his team could do better. This time, Deep Blue won the match (3.5 to 2.5).However, Deep Blue had help from humans. Computers are good at chess, because they can make millions of calculations per second. Some scientists believe the brain is like a very strong team, so if we can make a computer that is powerful enough, you will think like a human brain. One of the first team coach, Alan Turing, was interested in the question "Can a team really think like a human being?", So he invented the Turing test. That "someone" could be a person or may be a computer. There is a $ 100,000 prize to the first team to pass the test.
8 The Internet
With the Web is much easier to find information on the Internet, and switch to another part of the Internet. Hundreds of new Internet companies. Now, only the best companies in Internet start-up are making money.For this reason, some very young people have been very successful Internet start-ups. During the 1998 World Cup, 300,000 people visited the website of sports every day. Tom and his father started another Internet company called Schoolsnet, which has information for students and teachers. Thanks to the Internet, Tom Hadfield became a very successful businessman before leaving school!Today, almost all companies in the world have a website on the internet. These people were not part of the companies, which hoped to sell Web addresses to companies for a lot of money for a future day. Internet users can go to Napster and copy your favorite music. The Internet is not only important for business. Some people already do most of their purchases on the website.
9. getting the message
Although the first email message was sent in 1971, emails began almost two hundred years earlier. Telegraph machines used electricity to send messages along wires from one place to another. He also invented a special code for messages - Morse Code.A telex machine could send a message to any telex machine in the world. It was not a perfect system - but it worked. This made it easier to send emails because there was a single system. In late 1990, people began to send other email using their mobile phones to send text messages. Text messages use your own language.
10. computer games
In the 1960's, a programmer named Donald Woods invented a game called Adventure. Together, Spacewar and adventure began to be the two most important types of computer games: games with the speed and action, and games with stories and imagination. In 1971, a student named Nolan tried to make money Bushmell game Spacewar. To play the game, people had to put money into the machine. But nobody wanted to play the game.bushmell Nolan decided that the play space was too difficult. Computer games were here to stay.Computers are much more powerful, so that the games are much faster and use of striking images.
11. I love you (and other viruses)
A virus is a type of computer program. The virus first appeared in 1986. It was called a brain. In 1987, a more dangerous virus called Jerusalem appeared. People knew that the virus would be a problem, and programmers began writing anti-virus software. Each new virus was more difficult to find, so the anti-virus software needed to get. In 1993, the virus appeared in Washington DC SatanBug. For example, in 1999, the Melissa virus appare. This virus is called "I love you."The virus writers are getting better all the time, but so is the anti-virus software.
12. The future
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. It is not easy to make predictions about computers! You can only look at the recent past and try to see where we go in the future.The computers will be smaller and smaller in the future? Probably not, for two reasons. This is software that makes computers think more like humans.Computer scientists are also trying to build computers that can see. It's easy to make a computer with eyes, but very difficult for the team to understand what is seen. Then a new type of equipment will be needed. For now, scientists are following the construction of the first quantum computer.
