Académique Documents
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I. INFORMATION AGE
Gutenberg’s printing press
printing press was invented by German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440
a device that applies pressure to an inked surface lying on a medium i.e. cloth or paper to transfer
the ink
hand mould printing press led to creation metal movable type
a new branch of media was known as “the press”
era of mass communication
permanently reformed the structure of society
political and religious authorities were threatened due to the increase of literate population
middle class was distinguished
proto-nationalism had grown due to rapid increase of vernacular languages
rotary press run by steam and used in industrial scale printing in 19th century
Enigma machine
Communications needed calculations due to advancing trade and industry
Computers were people who compiled actuarial tables and did engineering calculations.
During World War II, the Allies, countries that opposed the Axis powers (Germany, Japan and
Italy): had shortage of human computers for military calculations
United States mechanized the problem by building the Harvard Mark 1wi
an electromechanical monster 50 feet long
capable of doing calculations in seconds
British needed mathematicians to crack the German Navy’s Enigma code
used by Germans to transcribe their messages in encryption using a machine called Enigma
looked like an oversized typewriter
Alan Turing
an English mathematician
hired in in 1936 by the British Top-secret Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park
to break the Enigma code
code-breaking works became an industrial process having 12,000 people working three shifts day
in day out 24/7
Nazis had made the Enigma machines more complicated having approximately 10114 possible
permutations
Turing designed Bombe
an electromechanical machine
made the British able to read all daily German Naval Enigma traffic by searching through the
permutations
saved millions of lives since the invention shortened the war by as much as two years
Turing Machine
A generation with “electronic brains” was born by the 1970s who wanted their own personal
computers (PCs).
In 1975, members of the Homebrew Computer Club, became eager with the potential of the new
silicon chips
allow them build their own computers
Steve Wozniak built a simple computer around the 8080 microprocessor hooked up to a
keyboard and television in 1976
Steve Jobs called the computer Apple I and sold replicates of this machine to a Silicon Valley
shop
Bill Gates realized that PCs needed software and sold his Microsoft programs