Week 3- Response to Lecture & Tutespark

This week's lecture focused on a short history of the computer and the internet. The computer had origins in various machines, including Charles Babbage's Difference Engine created in the 19th century. The computer became a commercial product in the 1950s and the first computer was sold, used solely for government, military and corporate companies, however it was still large and unsuitable for average home consumption. However, the first computer was founded by Alan Turing during WW2, and in 1975 the first PC (personal computer) was released by Bill Gates called Microsoft.

It is interesting to know that the computer was originally mechanical rather than electronic, and the first computer program was created by Ada Byron- Lady Lovelace. The 1990s saw the birth of the World Wide Web (WWW) allowing us to use computers and the internet to communicate. Certain internet applications were created as communication tools including electronic mail (email), file transfer protocol (FTP) and internet relay chat (IRC). Nowadays, there are even more internet communication tools which attract a faster response and are even more reliable. These include instant messaging (IM), peer-2-peer file transferring (p2p), portable audio, voice chat (eg. Skype), Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Technology continues to advance day by day, through new inventions, discoveries and developments in science. The world will forever be introduced to new and exciting communication tools which will assist us in our everyday living. The World Wide Web is all around us and has become an essential part of society and I don't believe we would know how to live without it.

TUTESPARK

Digital- a data technology that uses discrete (discontinuous) values...Although digital representations are discrete, the information represented can be either discrete, such as numbers, letters, or icons, or continuous, such as sounds, images, and other measurements of continuous systems.- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital

Analogue- A method to store information as continuously variable signals instead of electronic codes.- http://publications.europa.eu/vademecum/vademecum/9313fdfe-c49e-119e-45c6a6441e63e066_en.html

Communication- Communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another. Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which share a repertoire of signs and semiotic rules.- http://www.google.com.au/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=define:communication&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=D_N5TOm4IsWPcdqX2PQF

Electronic- the branch of physics that deals with the emission and effects of electrons and with the use of electronic devices- http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=electronics

The Typewriter-

is a mechanical device containing a set of keys and when they keys are pressed, characters are printed onto paper.

http://www.principalspage.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads//2007/07/typewriter.jpg

Cassette Tape-

is a magnetic tape sound recording format...consisting of two miniature spools, between which a magnetically coated plastic tape is passed and wound. These spools and their attendant parts are held inside a protective plastic shell. Two stereo pairs of tracks (four total) or two monaural audio tracks are available on the tape; one stereo pair or one monophonic track is played or recorded when the tape is moving in one direction and the second pair when moving in the other direction. This reversal is achieved either by manually flipping the cassette or by having the machine itself change the direction of tape movement ("auto-reverse").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Cassette

http://www.davidairey.com/images/design/cassette-tape-1.jpg

Braille-

is a method used by blind people to read and write. Named after Louis Braille, who created it in 1821, each character is made up of six dot positions arranged in 2 columns of 3 dots each.

http://www.quido.cz/objevy/Braille.gif