21 December 2021 - THE COMPUTER THAT CAME BY TRUCK

 

THE COMPUTER THAT 

CAME BY TRUCK

G'day folks,

Today, a laptop would probably do the job. But back in 1957, when Norwich City Council became a pioneer among British local authorities applying computer technology to handle its payroll and tax on residents, a BIG machine was needed to handle the work, as became apparent on this day.

So big, in fact, that the computer had to be delivered on the back of a truck and then manoeuvred into the offices using ropes, pulleys – and brute strength.

The Council’s first computer came from Elliott Brothers of London and was photographed being delivered in February 1957.

It took a while before the monster was up and running. Then on 3 April that year, amid much fanfare and in the presence of the Lord Mayor and the Press, Council officials gave a demonstration of the machine in action.

Within the computer was a rapidly revolving magnetic drum on which “words” could be recorded. Each “word” was equivalent to a nine-digit number or six alphabetic characters.

The films for the magnetic drum came in reels 1,000 feet long, each capable of storing about 300,000 “words”. The “words” were received onto the film from hand-punched paper tape.

The preparation of local tax bills came about through the punching on paper tape of the figures involved and the paper tape was used to control electric typewriters.

They produced the finished bill on continuous stationery which was then simply torn off and sent to the householder.

Local government involves a lot of repetitive work and Norwich Council thought that it was, therefore, “a field where the advantages of speed and accuracy inherent in electronic data processing will lead to substantial savings.”

They anticipated savings on staff alone of 20 per cent.

The possibility that they needed to lose staff to make room for such a massive amount of machinery was not mentioned.

Clancy's comment: Man, that is whopping. We have sure come a long way since then.

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27 March 2018 - THE INVENTION OF THE INTERNET

THE INVENTION 

OF THE INTERNET

G'day folks,

We all use it but do you know how it came to be? Unlike technologies such as the light bulb or the telephone, the Internet has no single “inventor.” Instead, it has evolved over time. The Internet got its start in the United States more than 50 years ago as a government weapon in the Cold War. For years, scientists and researchers used it to communicate and share data with one another. Today, we use the Internet for almost everything, and for many people it would be impossible to imagine life without it.

The Sputnik Scare 

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first manmade satellite into orbit. The satellite, known as Sputnik, did not do much: It tumbled aimlessly around in outer space, sending blips and bleeps from its radio transmitters as it circled the Earth. Still, to many Americans, the beach-ball-sized Sputnik was proof of something alarming: While the brightest scientists and engineers in the United States had been designing bigger cars and better television sets, it seemed, the Soviets had been focusing on less frivolous things—and they were going to win the Cold War because of it.

After Sputnik’s launch, many Americans began to think more seriously about science and technology. Schools added courses on subjects like chemistry, physics and calculus. Corporations took government grants and invested them in scientific research and development. And the federal government itself formed new agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), to develop space-age technologies such as rockets, weapons and computers.

 The Birth of the ARPAnet

Scientists and military experts were especially concerned about what might happen in the event of a Soviet attack on the nation’s telephone system. Just one missile, they feared, could destroy the whole network of lines and wires that made efficient long-distance communication possible. In 1962, a scientist from M.I.T. and ARPA named J.C.R. Licklider proposed a solution to this problem: a “galactic network” of computers that could talk to one another. Such a network would enable government leaders to communicate even if the Soviets destroyed the telephone system.

 In 1965, another M.I.T. scientist developed a way of sending information from one computer to another that he called “packet switching.” Packet switching breaks data down into blocks, or packets, before sending it to its destination. That way, each packet can take its own route from place to place. Without packet switching, the government’s computer network—now known as the ARPAnet—would have been just as vulnerable to enemy attacks as the phone system.

“LOGIN” 

In 1969, ARPAnet delivered its first message: a “node-to-node” communication from one computer to another. (The first computer was located in a research lab at UCLA and the second was at Stanford; each one was the size of a small house.) The message—“LOGIN”—was short and simple, but it crashed the fledgling ARPA network anyway: The Stanford computer only received the note’s first two letters.

 The Network Grows 

 

By the end of 1969, just four computers were connected to the ARPAnet, but the network grew steadily during the 1970s. In 1971, it added the University of Hawaii’s ALOHAnet, and two years later it added networks at London’s University College and the Royal Radar Establishment in Norway. As packet-switched computer networks multiplied, however, it became more difficult for them to integrate into a single worldwide “Internet.”

 By the end of the 1970s, a computer scientist named Vinton Cerf had begun to solve this problem by developing a way for all of the computers on all of the world’s mini-networks to communicate with one another. He called his invention “Transmission Control Protocol,” or TCP. (Later, he added an additional protocol, known as “Internet Protocol.” The acronym we use to refer to these today is TCP/IP.) One writer describes Cerf’s protocol as “the ‘handshake’ that introduces distant and different computers to each other in a virtual space.”

The World Wide Web 

Cerf’s protocol transformed the Internet into a worldwide network. Throughout the 1980s, researchers and scientists used it to send files and data from one computer to another. However, in 1991 the Internet changed again. That year, a computer programmer in Switzerland named Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web: an Internet that was not simply a way to send files from one place to another but was itself a “web” of information that anyone on the Internet could retrieve. Berners-Lee created the Internet that we know today.

 Since then, the Internet has changed in many ways. In 1992, a group of students and researchers at the University of Illinois developed a sophisticated browser that they called Mosaic. (It later became Netscape.) Mosaic offered a user-friendly way to search the Web: It allowed users to see words and pictures on the same page for the first time and to navigate using scrollbars and clickable links. That same year, Congress decided that the Web could be used for commercial purposes. As a result, companies of all kinds hurried to set up websites of their own, and e-commerce entrepreneurs began to use the Internet to sell goods directly to customers. More recently, social networking sites like Facebook have become a popular way for people of all ages to stay connected.

Clancy's comment: Thank God it's here. It's my office, and without it I wouldn't be sending this to you guys.

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7 September 2016 - FACTS ABOUT STEVE JOBS

FACTS ABOUT STEVE JOBS

G'day folks,

I've posted this guy a few times, but I bet you didn't know these facts.

Steven Paul, better known as Steve Jobs, was an American pioneer of the personal computer revolution, and the creator of Apple Inc. Right from the 1970s when he began his innovative discoveries up until his death, he was known by the world, but only well-known by people closest to him. In 2011, after he died, Walter Isaacson, his official biographer, described him as the creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries which included personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

In twenty quick sentences, this article will tell you some other parts of Job’s life that were not entirely known to the public. They are facts that defined him, and made him unique and unforgettable at the same time.

1. Steve Jobs didn’t have a college degree. He didn’t even plan to go to college because he saw another path to success.

2. When Steve Jobs was CEO of Apple, he withdrew only one dollar annually from Apple’s accounts. However, he was getting compensation from his shares and reimbursements so he could still afford a lavish lifestyle.

3. Steve Jobs’ faith in alternative remedies cost him his life. On his dying bed he regretted not choosing natural and alternative medicines for curing his cancer.

4. Almost every early Mac computer produced by Apple had Steve Jobs’ signature engraved inside. Consumers would not see them without a special tool but would be proud of carrying Job’s signature all around.

5. Before Apple, Steve Jobs used to work for Atari. Atari company contributed to the electronic entertainment industry by making prominent arcade games, video game consoles and home computers.

6. Steve Jobs’ final words were “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.” His life was truly “WOW, WOW, WOW” – full of greatness, love and success. Or was he seeing something strange on his death-bed that marveled him?

7. George Lucas sold to Steve Jobs what would become Pixar. The deal was made in 1979 and cost 5 million dollars.

8. Steve Jobs was not a programmer; he never wrote a single line of programming code but his technical people convinced him that programming had to be object-oriented to produce a revolutionary effect.

 9. Products made by Apple don’t have a direct off switch because Steve Jobs was afraid of death. He felt once something is “off”, you are gone.

10. Steve Jobs’ final appearance at an Apple event was during the introduction of iOS 5 and iCloud. He delivered his final Apple speech on June 6, 2011.

 11. Steve Jobs was the majority shareholder of Disney. 7,7% of the Disney common stock belonged to him.

12. Steve Jobs was diagnosed with dyslexia and had a GPA of 2.65. Doing simple tests for Jobs was harder than for any average healthy beginner.

13. Steve Jobs was biologically half Syrian Muslim. He was an adopted child and the name of his biological father was Abdulfattah Jandali. His real mother was an American and her name was Joanne Carole Schieble. The Father of Joanne warned her not to keep the baby and so she put up Steve for adoption.

14. Steve Jobs was a Zen Buddhist by religion. He used to go to India for meditations where he also learnt about simple ways of life.

 15. Steve was a pescatarian. He ate fish but didn’t eat meat or any other protein.

16 Steve Jobs said doing the drug, LSD was one of the most important things he ever did in his entire life. He was sure that LSD helped him to succeed in business.

17. Steve Jobs was killed by something sharing the same initials with what he invented – PC. He died from Pancreatic Cancer.

18. Steve claimed he was impotent and so denied his first daughter, Lisa. For a while Lisa was raised by her mother on welfare checks.

 19. Older Apple laptops used to have the logo upside down. It was not a mistake, but on purpose to satisfy Apple users.

20. Steve Jobs didn’t want his products to be white. But when he was shown “the moon grey white color” by designer Jonathan Ive, he could not help but fall in love with the angelic colour.

 Clancy's comment: I applaud his vision, self-belief and drive. Rest in peace, Steve.

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