Technology Facts Computer

Technology Facts

Computer

Early electronic computers, developed around the 1940’s, were the size of a large room and consumed huge amounts of electricity. They were vastly different to the modern computers we use today, especially when compared to small and portable laptop computers.

Computers are programmed to carry out instructions. These instructions are usually very simple and require adding numbers together, moving data from one place to another etc.

A computer program can include as little as a few instructions to upwards of millions of instructions depending on the complexity of the program. Modern applications such as word processors, web browsers and graphic editors take large teams of programmers a long time to complete.

A computer’s memory stores numbers in huge amounts of cells that are addressed and can be quickly accessed by the CPU to perform calculations. There are two main types of computer memory, ROM (read only memory) and RAM (random access memory). ROM contains pre-written software and data that the CPU can only read, while RAM can be accessed and written to at any time.

Computers interact with a number of different I/O (input/output) devices to exchange information. These peripheral devices include the keyboard, mouse, display, hard drive, printer and more.

Computers are used to help link the world in the form of networks. Networked computers allow users to share and exchange data that is stored in different locations. You may have heard of a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) which connects areas of various sizes. The Internet is a vast network of computers spanning the globe that allows users to access email, the World Wide Web and other applications.

Although we normally think of computers as the ones we use in our everyday lives to surf the web, write documents etc, small computers are also embedded into other things such as mobile phones, toys, microwaves and MP3 players. We use computers all the time, often without even knowing it!

Video games can be played on a number of different platforms. This includes game consoles, handheld systems, computers, mobile phones, and others.

The first coin operated video games were introduced in the 1970’s with titles such as ‘Computer Space’ and ‘Pong’ gaining popularity.

Popular game consoles that dominate current markets include the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3. The three companies are battling to gain the attention of gamers in the competitive gaming industry.

Often seen as an industry leader and innovator, Nintendo have helped grow the video games industry beyond just hardcore gamers thank to games such as Nintendogs, Brain Training and Wii Sports, titles that take advantage of Nintendo’s unique gaming platforms and appeal to casual gamers.

In the past the primary input for video games has been the handheld controller, this has changed recently as game makers look to capture new audiences with new interactive input devices. Examples of this include cameras which respond to user movement, guitars, microphones, touch screens, motion sensitive controllers and more.

Video game genres are wide and varied. Examples of popular genres include action adventure, strategy, role playing, sports, racing, simulation and puzzle.

Making video games has become big business and creating a high quality game often takes the input of a large number of game developers for the game to be successful. As well as a high number of graphic designers and programmers, other skills such as management, writing and music are also important to the final product.

With the rise of the Internet gaming has seen a strong growth in the field of multiplayer games. While this previously was limited to playing with someone in the same location, it now includes people interacting with each other who are in different cities, countries or even living on opposite sides of the globe.

A popular example of multiplayer gaming can be seen in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). These games enable large numbers of players to interact in the same virtual world, creating fictional characters, living virtual lives and experiencing the challenges and quests that various MMORPG games offer. A good example of this type of gaming can be seen in the popularity of World of Warcraft (WoW), this game has become immensely popular and currently has over 10 million paying subscribers.

Depending on your view point, video games can be seen as in both a positive and negative light. While users can be entertained as they improve hand eye coordination, problem solving skills and other abilities there is also research of extended gaming limiting children’s physical activity and an overexposure to violence at a young age.

320 BC Greek philosopher Aristotle made this famous quote: “If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it... then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.”
1495 Around 1495 Leonardo da Vinci sketched plans for a humanoid robot.
1700 - 1900 Between 1700 and 1900 a number of life-sized automatons were created including a famous mechanical duck made by Jacques de Vaucanson that could crane its neck, flap its wings and even swallow food.
1913 Henry Ford installs the world’s first moving conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory. A Model T can be assembled in 93 minutes.
1920 Karel Capek coins the word ‘robot’ to describe machines that resemble humans in his play called Rossums Universal Robots. The play was about a society that became enslaved by the robots that once served them. This idea is now a common theme in popular culture, ie Frankenstein, Terminator, The Matrix etc.
1932 The first true robot toy was produced in Japan. The ‘Lilliput’ was a wind-up toy which walked. It was made from tinplate and stood just 15cm tall.
1937 Alan Turing releases his paper “On Computable Numbers” which begins the computer revolution.
1941 Legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes the short story ‘Liar!’ in which he describes the Three Laws of Robotics. His stories were recompiled into the volume “I, Robot” in 1950 – later reproduced as a movie starring Will Smith. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
1950 Alan Turing proposes a test to determine if a machine truly has the power to think for itself. To pass the test a machine must be indistinguishable from a human during conversation. It has become known as the ‘Turing Test’.
1954 George Devol and Joe Engleberger design the first programmable robot ‘arm’. This later became the first industrial robot, completing dangerous and repetitive tasks on an assembly line at General Motors (1962).
1957 The Soviet Union launches ‘Sputnik’, the first artificial orbiting satellite. This marks the beginning of the space race.
1964 The IBM 360 becomes the first computer to be mass-produced.
1968 Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark's, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. It features HAL, an onboard computer that develops a mind of its own.
1969 The U.S. successfully use the latest in computing, robotic and space technology to land Neil Armstrong on the moon.
1977 The first Star Wars movie is released. George Lucas‘s movie inspires a new generation of researchers through his image of a human future shared with robots such as the now famous R2-D2 and C-3PO.
1986 The first LEGO based educational products are put on the market and Honda launches a project to build a walking humanoid robot.
1994 Carnegie Universities eight-legged walking robot, Dante ll, successfully descends into Mt Spur to collect volcanic gas samples.
1997 On May 11, a computer built by IBM known as Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov. The first Robocup tournament is held in Japan. The goal of Robocup is to have a fully automated team of robots beat the worlds best soccer team by the year 2050.
1998 LEGO launches its first Robotics Inventions System.
1999 Sony releases the first version of AIBO, a robotic dog with the ability to learn, entertain and communicate with its owner. More advanced versions have followed.
2000 Honda debuts ASIMO, the next generation in its series of humanoid robots.
2004 Epsom release the smallest known robot, standing 7cm high and weighing just 10 grams. The robot helicopter is intended to be used as a ‘flying camera’ during natural disasters.
2005 Researchers at Cornell University build the first self-replicating robot. Each ‘robot’ is made up of a small tower of computerized cubes which link together through the use of magnets.
2008 After being first introduced in 2002, the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner has sold over 2.5 million units, proving that there is a strong demand for this type of domestic robotic technology.

Modern cell phones are capable of much more than just sending and receiving phone calls. Mobile phones used in today’s world allow users to send and receive text messages, emails, photos and video as well as access the Internet, play games, listen to music, use GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and more.

The cell phone has become an important communication tool that is used by people all over the world to keep in contact with each other at any time. Although they started off as quite bulky devices they are now very sleek, small and portable, comfortably fitting in a users pocket and surviving for hours on end thanks to a rechargeable battery.

Cell phone designs are constantly evolving to incorporate the new needs and desires of users. Some of these new functions include space for memory cards, flip screens, cameras, touch screens, USB ports etc.

Modern mobile phones also have wireless capability in the form of infrared, Bluetooth and other wireless protocols.

Some of the larger manufacturers of cell phones include Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Apple.

Applications that cell phone owners can take advantage of include word processing, calendars, mobile banking, web surfing, alarms, memos, video streaming, games and much more. Applications have exploded in popularity in recent times thank to the iPhone App Store which allows iPhone users the ability to download a wide variety of third party apps.

Despite all the positive benefits of cell phones, there are also some negative side effects which include the dangers of cell phones being used while driving, cell phones being used for harassment and students cheating on tests by using their cell phone to access information. Cell phones are often banned in classrooms or other school locations due to the distractions they can cause.

Although the World Wide Web is often referred to as the Internet, the two are not the same thing. The Internet is a huge network of networks that links computers together all over the world using a range of wires and wireless technologies. The World Wide Web is the collection of linked pages that are accessed using the Internet and a web browser.

English physicist Sir Tim Berners-Lee is regarded as having invented the World Wide Web in 1989. Since then he has continued the development of web standards and other web related projects.

Website addresses such as http://www.sciencekids.co.nz are known by the term Uniform Resource Locater (URL).

The domain name system of the Internet includes top level domains such as .com, .info, .net, .org, .edu, .mil and .gov as well as country specific domains and more.

As well as the World Wide Web, the Internet is used for such application as email, file sharing, online chat, phone and video calls, online gaming and more.

Thanks to the increasing accessibility of the Internet, the popularity of the web has exploded over the last 10 years. The web is now used for a number of different purposes including online shopping, social networking, games, news, travel information, business, advertising and much more.

Social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have become popular over the last few years. People now spend a large amount of their time online keeping in touch with each other through these applications and services.

Security and privacy concerns have always been a problem on the Internet with many people often unaware of the potential risks they take when inputting confidential data, passwords and personal information into various websites. Viruses and spam emails are other sources over security concerns which frequently cause disruptions and headaches for users of the web.

One of the best and most common ways of finding information on the web is through the use of search engines such as Google, Live and Yahoo. Google is currently the most popular search engine, receiving hundreds of millions of search queries every day.