Q for computer history experts

[Shanty Oilish]

Don't know much about computers but I often feel this unconnected gratitude to whomever's responsible for my pc and the internet. So, who would that be? Needn't narrow it down to one, but give me some names and why you cite them. Thanks!

[mreilly]

1. A shot of Chinaco for Vint Cerf

One of the co-designers of the TCPIP protocol, which is what makes your web browser possible.

Incidentally, Mr. Cerf HAS acknowledged Al Gore's efforts in helping to promote the Internet - as any intelligent person knows, he never claimed he invented it - to get it where it is today.

[Catshrink]

2. Steve Jobs and Apple for one

He and his buds at Apple persuaded Xerox to let them have the GUI which pretty much revolutionalized desktop computing. I know I wouldn't be using a computer if I had to learn code.

(I'm not an Apple person, but am grateful for Jobs' contribution.)

[Ein]

5. Thats what I was gonna say!

Seems Windows was a blatant copy of the original Apple GUI. I think I saw a movie about that... something like Pirates of the Silicon Valley.

[kixot]

3. Alan Turing

Hands down, if you ask me.

http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Turing.html

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Turing.html

He's the father of modern computing. One of the above site puts it this way: "Founder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher, codebreaker, strange visionary and a gay man before his time."

A tragic story, for sure.

[Catshrink]

6. Developed the Turing Test

Check out this site for an application of the Turing Test:

http://www.twinkiesproject.com

[Ein]

9. GAY!?!?!?!

Better go tell the Freepers so they can get thier asses offa the computer!

Thanks for the link :)

[Catshrink]

4. "Triumph of the Nerds"

Try to find this video -- it aired on PBS a couple of years ago. It's all about the evolution of computers. Very interesting...

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

7. ADM Grace Hopper, USN

Was instrumental in a lot of the "behind the scenes" math behind designing the internet and microchips.

[Maple]

8. Charles Babbage

and Ada Lovelace.

[caribmon]

10. emeagwali is pretty cool

http://www.emeagwali.com/index.shtml

<SMIP>

Philip Emeagwali, a computer scientist, is but one example. He uses his mathematical and computer expertise to develop methods for extracting more petroleum from oil fields.

It was his formula that used 65,000 separate computer processors to perform 3.1 billion calculations per second in 1989. That feat led to computer scientists comprehending the capabilities of supercomputers and the practical applications of creating a system that allowed multiple computers to communicate. He is recognized as one of the fathers of the Internet.

Supercomputers range in price from $30 million to $100 million, and computer companies had reservations about building them for fear few agencies would make such pricey purchases.

"At that time, the argument was, 'We shouldn't build computers that way because who can program them?' " said Emeagwali, who is also a civil engineer. "I answered that question by successfully programming them."

Future applications for Emeagwali's breakthroughs with the use of data generated by massively parallel computers include weather forecasting and the study of global warming.

<SNIP>

EDITED BY ADMIN FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS

[newyawker99]

19. caribmon

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

NYer99
DU Moderator

[dweller]

11. 0 & 1

binary may have been introduced by Sesame St. if they had tried.

dp

[BigMcLargehuge]

12. You can give your thanks to

Thanks for the PCs go to (In order)

The gang at Xerox Palo Alto Research Labs
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple Computer
Bill Gates and Steve Balmer and the guy who programmed the original Q basic that Gatges bought for 50 grand then sold to IBM

Thanks for the Internet goes to

Your friends at DARPA who created the first connectionless network

[unblock]

14. no no no, gates didn't SELL anything to ibm

he LICENSED it, retaining all other rights.

therein lies the real secret to gates' wealth.

his genius lies in business, not in technology.

[starroute]

13. Vannevar Bush (1890-1974)

An amazing man -- he was working on proto-computers as early as 1931, and by 1945, he was anticipating many features of both hyperlinks and the Internet.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/bush.html

Vannevar Bush was never directly involved with the creation or development of the Internet. He died before the creation of the World Wide Web. Yet many consider Bush to be the Godfather of our wired age often making reference to his 1945 essay, "As We May Think." In his article, Bush described a theoretical machine he called a "memex," which was to enhance human memory by allowing the user to store and retrieve documents linked by associations. This associative linking was very similar to what is known today as hypertext. Indeed, Ted Nelson who later did pioneering work with hypertext credited Bush as his main influence (Zachary, 399). Others, such as J.C.R. Licklider and Douglas Englebart have also paid homage to Bush.

The seminal 1945 essay is available at http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm

[Catshrink]

16. What an unfortunate name.

But they can't be related.... this Bush was intelligent.

[unblock]

15. al gore, i kid you not

all joking aside, let's remember that the internet (ne arpanet) was originally an academic and military research network. it was a GOVERNMENT PROJECT FROM INCEPTION.

gore was a key advocate in keeping it funded, in pushing all government agencies to develop web sites, and in sheparding the internet along.

no he didn't "invent" anything in the technical sense, but then again, people credit bill gates with hundreds of programs that he had even less to do with....

[DS1]

17. It's a shame that "I kid you not" has to be attached to this

In the early sixties, DARPA connected the first computers via telephone lines. It was considered by most to be useless, but they kept on going, until finally the Defense Dept. realized it could be useful. What is now called the internet offered the DoD an ability to send messages no matter how many switching (phone operators) stations were knocked offline via nuclear blasts. TCP/IP was the next step, Transmission Control Protocol, Internet Protocol, a way of assigning data to data, so that in case data couldn't reach it's target, it could find a different way to get there. Packets were the keyword. Packets of data didn't know what they contained, they just knew where they were supposed to go.

Al Gore saw this incredible potential of data transmission, and funded numerous programs to bring this new technology to the civilian sector. He proposed a bill in the Senate that opened what was formerly known as Darpanet to what we now know as the Internet.

He didn't "Invent" the Internet, he did open it from a secure Gov't program to something we can all use.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

18. I don't know about the computer itself, but

you can thank Al Gore for the internet!

(I'm so sorry, but I just HAD to go for that one!)

[Kellanved]

20. Either John von Neumann or Konrad Zuse

Von Neumann formulated the basic architecture of a computer, still in use today.
http://www.rit.edu/~drk4633/vonNeumann/

Zuse built the first working computer.
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Zuse.html