The Age of Computers

The last few classes talking about the evolution of the computer have been really fascinating. i knew a rough timeline already and many of the names and companies mentioned we familiar, but how they all connected and the significance of it all was. One thing that i have to ask is where did all the girls go? In the ealier videos it seemed that most of the "programmers" working on ENIAC and the like where women, but later they ousted women saying that we would find it boring or somthing. I find this kinda offensive. I do understand that back then they were technicians, almost an equivalent to other clerical positions that women held and that as the invention aspect took precedent it became the world of mostly "nerdy" men. i hate the negative connotation the word nerd has, passionate is a better term for this early inventors. Grace hopper was one of the few woman mentioned that made a huge contribution. She made the first computer language that was compiled, in other words written in like english terms than translated for the computer to understand. having taken programming classes we almost take this for-granted now a days . i can't imagine programming with out a language like this. i give props to the people who were doing it make then. like with the altair box. i thought it was hilarious when they made music out of it.

Its amazing how fast computers are evolving, even in the last 20 years. i remember when i was little watching my dad ( an electrical engineer) soldering transistors and microchips onto circuit boards. he had drawers of these things, all neatly organized. today they would be gigantic for there equivalents. something an inch back then probably fits into something a few millimeters now. another memory of a computerized thing was my moms loom. my dad attached this box that was somehow programed with a pattern and attached it to the loom. i was too young to understand it then, maybe i should ask again. I miss our first computer. it was an Amiga and i would spend hours using the paint program. i still have some of the pictures i made.

Overall computers are fascinating things, the history remarkable, and the future a mystery.