Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX
w00t!!
Calum:
quote:There is still some "argument" as to what was truly the first "computer" as we now think of the word. There was a gay guy who worked for British intelligence during WWII named Turing (sp) who developed a machine for cracking the German Enigma code. The brilliant little queen killed himself a few years later after getting popped on a morals charge by the Bobbies.
--- End quote ---
How many geniuses have met a premature tragic end, due to their socially backward society, eh?
As to the first computer, the first time the concept was used was during the French Revolution. The bureaucracy required to turn the entire nation around, calculating tax, and so on, and all the numerous details that the new regime demanded required a huge amount of calculation. This was acheived by hiring a large number of accountants and arranging them all strictly in physical order, with each one having a specific task to do, and all those with like tasks arranged just so, in order to get the massive efficiency required.
These men were called computers, and it is said that Babbage witnessed this arrangement first hand, which gave him the idea for his difference engine, some info about which can be found here, and which he got to try out when the Astronomical Society of London commissioned a table of the stars to be worked out.
Here's a good history of the difference engine by the way. It was never finished, due to money and, again, social circumstances.
I'm sure there must have been other independent thinkers who thought along the same lines, oblivious to the work of Babbage and Herschel. For instance, were the stone circles of Europe really big calculators? Utilising the alignment of the heavenly bodies for mathematical purposes? Who knows.
Difference Engine No 2. and Difference Engine No 1.
Link to image
Link to image
Links to pictures of the Difference Engine No 2.
[ July 02, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]
voidmain:
quote:Originally posted by lazygamer:
Oh and Linux on C64? If you got one hanging around then go put Newcomer on it.
--- End quote ---
Not "Linux", but "Lunix" (notice the "u"). He got me on this one too. Lunix is not Linux but it is an attempt at a UNIX like OS.
KernelPanic:
I think the first programmable computer was built in England.
Sleeping Dog:
You are spot-on right about Babbage, Calum. I should have been more specific and said "electronic computer" when referring to Alan Turing's "Colossus". There was even a mechanical "calculating machine" used, I believe, in the 1900 US census that employed punch cards that were stacked and "read". The US Navy also used a machine on submarines during WWII for aiming torpedoes that was part mechanical and part electronic in its computing function.
By the way, Void Man. I was chatting with one of my old High School chums who was in that class with me. He pointed out that I had misspelled IITRAN. The IIT part of it stood for Illinois Institute of Technology. Prior to our getting time on the machine at the bank, we had to send the programs there to be run. There was a 10 day turn around to get the results back in the mail.
Sleeping Dog
voidmain:
Back when "snail mail" was as fast as electronic messaging. Very interesting story. Thanks for sharing!
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