Birth of computers and the internet

During the early evolution of the computer there were three main people that envisioned such a thing as a computer. This first computer was designed to calculated complex mathematic equations and print mathematical tables. Charles Babbage was the brains behind this Difference Engine, as it was called. He is considered the inventor of the first digital computer. Although he created parts for the Difference Engine, due to a lack of government funding it was not completed in his life time. Babbage also envisioned the Analytical Engine; a massive, steam powered, mechanical computer. Ada Byron is also another important person in the evolution of the computer. She aided Babbage with his ideas on the Analytical machine and her self conceived of a machine that could play music and produce graphics and be of everyday use. The first computer program is also credited to Ada. Alan Turing, was the man responsible for the serious work related to the mathematics and cryptography in the development of the computer.

The very first computers were large expensive machines only used for military, government and corporate work and were mass produced by IBM. However computers became smaller, quicker and less expensive at an exponential rate. In 1965 a man by the name Gordon Moore proposed the Moores law; the capacity of microchips doubles every two years. Another law conceived by Moore claims capital costs are rising faster then revenues thus leading to a limited rate of technological development.

The mouse, graphical user interface and pull down menus where concepts developed by Xerox PARC in their pursuit to make computers usable by the general public. In 1975 the first PC was released. It was an exciting revelation but it was still the beginning and these computers had one major flaw, there was no common language or set of terms to enable easy communication between the users and their computers. This is where the famous Bill Gates steps in; he wrote a language called BASIC for the Altair so that it could be used for general applications such as word processing, basic accounting and a few games. This was the start of Microsoft. Nerds, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, started their own company; Apple. The first machine they produced had a single circuit board, no case and no keyboard. It sold for $USA666.60. Their combined dream was to create small home computers that were for people interested in programs and what they could do instead of the tech and hardware side of the machines.

At this point in development IBM was still lagging a bit behind. They were still selling big computers to big businesses when they realised there was something in the sale of personal computers for the general public. IBM relied on “open architecture”, which involved the buying of shelf products form a broad variety of different companies and selling them together as a package. The hardware was not the problem now, the software was. Bill Gates was then approached by IBM and he promised them he would find an Operating System. Gates contacted a man by the name Tim Patterson who has created an Operating System that was basically a rip off of Kildalls’. IBM has also approached Kildall for an Operating System but he and his partner refused to sign a non-disclosure statement before conducting a meeting. So Gates bought the Operating System off Patterson and basically started making his money. So IBM gained more and more market shares mostly due to its relations with the software giant Microsoft.

The internet is basically a network of networks. These networks are made up of servers, mainframes, personal computers and many other devices that use computer mediated communications technology (CMC). These items are all loosely connected to the telephone system and in recent years have become connected to broad-band cable and satellite services. The US Federal Networking Council decided on this definition of internet in 1995;

• (i) is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons;
• (ii)is able to support communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons, and/or other IP-compatible protocols; and
• (iii) provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein.

Some people maybe stumped when you ask them; what is the difference between the World Wide Web and the internet? They may even believe that you’re talking about the same thing. However the web is only an application of the internet.

There is also much confusion when trying to specifically define cyber space. A commonly understood definition would be that cyber space is a conceptual space where words, relationships, data, wealth and power are manifested by people using Computer Mediated Communications technology.

Email as we all know was one of the earliest used of the internet. The direct downloading or uploading of files from you computer to another computer is called File Transfer Protocol. In the 1990’s IRC (Internet Relay Chat) became extremely popular as one of the first applications that allowed people all over the world to type a real time conversations. More recent internet applications that many people are probably familiar with are; Instant Messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing, portable audio and podcasting, VoIP and Voice chat.