History of Computers

Hey. My name is Sydney; I am a sophomore majoring in Finance. I am on the women's rowing team (we are still recruiting if any girls are interested! (no exerience needed, I never did a sport before!)) and am from Columbus, Ohio.

This week in class we learned about the history of computers, which bored me to death. I spent most of the last class thinking about when my family got our first computer. We had one computer that we all fought over, games were on floppy disks, and the internet was dial-up. Now each of the three kids have our own laptops, My mom has a work computer and laptop, then we have the family computer. I went from saving my first typed paper on a floppy disk to now saving all of my papers on a flash drive. Our technology is changing constantly.

One thing that actually caught my attention was the personal computer. The picture that we were shown was not what I imagine when I think of a computer. It was just a tinker toy hobby thing like model airplanes. It did not have a key board, mouse, or even a monitor!

The Altair 8800 was introduced in 1975, and was the first pc with commercial success. It came as a kit that was to be put together by the owner. A year after that, Apple introduced the Apple 1, then after that the Apple 2 which made the personal computers take off. It wasn't long until businesses began including personal computers for spreed sheets. Today I can't imagine going into a business or home that doesn't have atleast one computer. Just to think, the idea of having your own computer came in 1975, and look at where it has taking us!

first time blogger

Hi everyone my name is John Gregory, and unlike a lot of people in this class, my major is not business management. i originally started off with social work. but switched to business management because i had heard so many good things about it but when i took the classes i realized that it wasn't for me, so i switched back to my first major which is social work and that is where my passion is. but enough about me time to get to the blog.

Through out the first 2 classes we have been leaning a lot about when computer were first made and how long they took to make, etc.. I thought i knew a lot about technology but as we have been learning i have realized that there were so many things i didn't know. like that in the 1940's most large businesses contained tabulating and sorting machines for accounting and financing functions. I also find it interesting that the information age was started in the 1950. in the 1950's the first computer was created. in 1952 IBM had a machine that was designed for scientific calculations called the IBM 701.

Before the computer had a processor it was programed with punch cards. once IBM saw other companies come out with personal computers. they said to them self we could do that, and they came out with the IBM 360. other companies then started to come out with better computers with advanced graphics and expandable features. when you think of Microsoft you think of almost all computer . well before Microsoft became what it is today. it had a contract with IBM to have the MS DOS as their main operating system..


looking at what we have leaned so far it is clear that when computers first came out they wern't very good compared to what we have today. that's what like about technology its always changing and becoming better. i cant wait to see what the future hold for technology.

Hi Everyone - History Lesson, Jacquard Loom

I dont know if we are supposed to find some info from the web to contribute for this first blog post... someone please let me know if we are...its nice to meet everyone and i look forward to fun semester in IS 215! I am a senior, although i did go to WCC for 2 years prior to transfering to Eastern..i really like it here so far :) I am an international business major, with a concentration in marketing, and a minor in spanish. i am hoping to study abroad this fall in Spain. Cant wait to get to know everyone.

Lauren Martin

The history of computers we learned about was amazing! I am not very technically savvy, so to hear that the first computers were machines that read punched cards was like, "whoa, it started out that simple?" I feel like now its so advanced i can barely keep up. I went to Wikipedia and looked up computers and read a little more about the Jacquard loom, one of the first computers.

It was invented in 1801, by Joseph Marie Jacquard, and was made so that people could weave intricate patterns quickly. It works by reading punched cards, "it was the first machine to use punch cards to control a sequence of operations." Each hole in the puch card corresponds to a hook, which can either be up or down causing the thread to be placed appropriatly. "The ability to change the pattern of the loom's weave by simply changing cards was an important conceptual precursor to the development of computer programming."(Wikipedia)