Computers: The Life Story of a Technology (Pg 85-149)

The second part of this book by Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro was a little more interesting in my opinion. While the first part of the book was of the coming of computers and the general background that they have, the second part of the book was more about the computers that we use today; or at least something that closely resembles what we use today. To be honest, I felt that the first part of the book was like reading a history book; the history of the computer that is, while the second part of the reading was much more translatable to the current generation.

The second part of Swedin and Ferro's book starts with chapter 5. Here, they introduce a common name to even the users of the current generation--Intel. Intel is as famous today as Swedin and Ferro described it to be in the past. They are a company that initially started the innovation of Microprocessors for the first hand held computers. The authors explain vividly the history if Intel; verifying that Ted Hoff was the initial creator of these Microprocessors and go on to explain how hobbyists like Gary Kildall strived to created the a variation of what we all know as the 'desktop.'

Swedin and Ferro continue their historical discussion by bringing up Altair created by Edward Roberts. The computer was one of the first that could be used at home and was quite expensive. Then a revelation of new technology introduced to the public, it was still by no means impressive to our standards today. The Altair came with 256 bytes of memory and peripheral devices were NOT included! However primal this device seemed to be, its fabrication laid out the foundation for the creation of Microsoft with Paul Allen and Bill Gates.

I really enjoy reading about the creating of Apple. I recently became a huge fan of Apple products. Skeptical at first, after plenty of research and a lot of saving, I finally decided to purchase a Mac Book Pro--I am satisfied to my fullest extent. I enjoyed reading about how the genius minds of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs came together to create the premises of such a terrific product. These two masterminds started out with simple, yet brilliant ideas including the popular arcade game, Breakout, and the invention of blue boxes. Eventually, they discovered their created invention, Apple.

I also found the history of Microsoft and their long term relationship with IBM. It was very early on when the two started to work cooperatively in recognition of the competition, mainly Apple. Together they created a power Operating System known as MS-Dos or PC-DOS. These popular and extremely powerful OS creations were the main driver in popularity in computers. One fact that I found incredible was that with the popularity rising in these machines, Time Magazine decided to name the PC as Man of the Year. This was the first time that the Man of the Year was not a 'Man.'

I thought that this was the major chunk in the second part of the reading that I found comparable and intriguing. The authors had an interesting read on the establishment of Wireless networks describing how AlohaNet was created by Norman Abramson and how he link a network through the Time Division Methods Access (TDMA.) When that failed because of AlohaNet's numberous terminals, innovators tried again with CDMA/CD. And thus lead to the creation of a network of computers no longer tied together with cables.

I'd also like to discuss Sedwin and Ferro's decription of the internet and how it was developed. He described how Tim Bemus Lee wanted to make information more accessable to the world. He did this with Computer Networking and Hypertext. With the creation of the internet followed Microsoft's attempt to maintain its stability as a technological monopoly; thus the creation of Internet Explorer.

Again, I found this second part of the reading to be much more interesting and enjoyable as you might be able to tell with the size of this blog entry. I liked discovering the past of the tools that we use today; a past that I can actually see, not something about Astrolabs or the Tally system. It was fun reading and I discovered a few things that I never knew before; things that will make me think next time I'm on the internet or in the Apple store.

Until next time...