The Tech Edition

April 09, 2008

The dizzying pace of the Information Age

By JOE GRANESE
Correspondent

Those of you who are too young to remember the IBM PC can visit a website dedicated to the revolutionary machine that started an era at http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc/pc_1.html. To learn more about the New Jersey educated Admiral Grace Hopper, visit her Wiki page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper. Admiral Hopper is an Information Age pioneer and her story is fascinating. If you love your iPod, you can thank Bill Gates. Video history buffs can watch him save Apple at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxOp5mBY9IY. His infusion of cash came at a critical time for the Cupertino concern. Their success from that point forward has been nothing short of miraculous.

As the 21st century progresses, everyday life in America is a wonderland of wireless telephones, fast computers and non-stop connectivity. We cannot leave the home without checking our e-mail, or start the day without sending a text message to someone. We live in the Information Age, and, in the main, we love it.
As I write this, a Major League Baseball game is streaming live through my computer’s speakers. My investment portfolio is updated instantly in its own window, while both personal and business communications arrive nonstop in their own venues. This may seem like just another day at the office to many, but the advantages we take for granted today were the stuff of science fiction just a few years ago.
The computer as we know it, a programmable binary device used to make calculations, first saw the light of day in 1941, when Konrad Zuse produced the Z3. This device, which stored its programming on punched paper tapes, is considered the first programmable computer.
Many others followed. Admiral Grace Hopper and Howard Aiken contrived the Harvard Mark I computer in 1944. More than 50 feet long, the device was used to plot naval firing solutions. Capable of fairly complex mathematical calculations, the Mark I served the United States until 1959. Admiral Hopper was credited for coining the term ‘computer bug’ during her work on the Mark I, when she found that a moth had become lodged between some relays.
ENIAC joined the parade in 1946, a year before the invention of the transistor. The Universal Automatic Computer, or UNIVAC, debuted in 1951 with a nearly incomprehensible ability to perform addition calculations in 120 microseconds. Program information was stored on magnetic tape, a dramatic upgrade from the punched cards and paper tapes in contemporary usage.
UNIVAC brought the computer into the public eye by successfully predicting the winner of the 1952 Presidential election in America. While most polls and pundits were convinced that Adlai Stevenson would win handily, UNIVAC suggested that Dwight D. Eisenhower would prevail. This powerful prognosticator is currently on display in the Smithsonian Institution.
The invention of the Integrated Circuit by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce in 1958 did much to further the miniaturization of components. Today we know their innovation simply as the computer chip. Gamers out there will be happy to know that the first real computer game, Space Wars, debuted in 1962 at MIT.
The first true microprocessor, the Intel 4004, arrived in 1971, along with the floppy disk, as computing began to move within the reach of small business and individuals. By the mid-’70s, portable calculators were showing up on desks from coast to coast.
There is much discussion as to which unit was the first personal computer. I give the nod to the Altair 8800, which was being sold in kit form in Popular Electonics magazine for $349 in the early ’70s. The name Altair was chosen from an episode of Star Trek, and the unit that appeared in the magazine was just a box with a few colored lights installed, as the computer itself was not yet available.
Progress was swift from this point, as the business and scientific communities worked hand-in-hand to deliver faster, more useful computers. The IBM PC, the original Personal Computer, was introduced in 1981, crunching numbers at an amazing 4.77 MHz and running a new operating system called MS-DOS as presented by a company called Microsoft. They bought the rights to the system for just $50,000. Later that year, Microsoft would begin work on their Interface Manager, a utility which would later gain a measure of fame under the name Windows.
Computers began to work their way into the home as well as the office, thanks to the popularity of units like the legendary Commodore VIC-20 and 64 and the Apple II. 1982 would welcome Peter Norton and his Norton Utilities, Word Perfect 1.0, and the first computer virus, known as The Elk Cloner.
As the ’80s rolled along, tremendous advances were made in technology. While this was still most apparent in business environments, home users were beginning to embrace personal computing as a means of making their everyday tasks easier to manage.
1984 brought the famous Super Bowl commercial for a new computer called the Macintosh. Apple promised to dethrone “Big Brother,” the now ubiquitous PC and its growing horde of clones, and bring computing to the masses. Today, 24 years later, Macintosh computers account for about 8 percent of the total installed base, and the commercial is still remembered most fondly.
My most vivid memory from the ’80s features a man with a full head of hair standing outside a computer store in suburban Philadelphia. His Members Only jacket was stuffed with 10 and 20 dollar bills in an amount that substantially exceeded the value of his car. At 10:01, he entered the store and took possession of a brand new IBM PC-AT computer, featuring a mind-numbing 1.2 MB floppy disk drive and running at the dizzying speed of 6MHz. (A few months later, I upgraded it to 8MHz.)
By the end of the decade, America had entered the Information Age in earnest, and there was no turning back. Companies of all sizes were beginning to automate their offices. Network Operating Systems like Novell Netware allowed computers to talk to each other and share peripherals, while applications such as Word Perfect and Lotus 1, 2, 3 left plenty of time for workers to gain proficiency in the new Solitaire game that was included in Windows 3.0.
The Internet as we know it was taking shape, too. Archie, the first search engine, was developed in Canada The World Wide Web itself began life in 1991, thanks in part to the development of Hypertext. In a minor setback, the game Zero Wing would bring the phrase “All your base are belong to us!” into the vernacular.
Computers began to blur the lines between productivity and entertainment in the ’90s, as processors became faster, displays sharper, and games more addictive. High fidelity audio was joined by CD-ROM technology to make the gaming experience even more spectacular.
The beginning of the Dot Com boom was typified by the 1995 IPO (Initial Public Offering) of shares in Netscape, publishers of a popular World Wide Web browser. The stock was offered at $28 per share, and by the end of the day was selling for well over $50. That year also brought us Hotmail, eBay, and the landmark Windows 95.
In 1996, the IBM computer Deep Blue bested World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov in two matches. The following year, the Dancing Baby entered our collective consciousness, bringing a few laughs into the workday and putting a sharp point of the desktop computer’s potential as a medium for information exchange.
Along the way, Compac acquired DEC, Apple grabbed NeXt, and Microsoft absorbed Hotmail. Mergers, insane IPOs, and curiously funded startups were the order of the day as the DotCom boom continued unabated. Windows 98 was introduced just in time to see Microsoft founder Bill Gates take a pie in the face. Geeks had officially become the rock stars of the Information Age.
In August 1997, Bill Gates saved a struggling Apple Computer by purchasing $150 million worth of Apple stock. He also promised to continue to develop the popular Microsoft Office application for the Macintosh platform. The move turned out well for all parties concerned, as the Apple stock that was selling in the low 20s then is now trading above $140 per share.
We all managed to survive the Y2K crisis, and many of us were able to sidestep Windows ME as the 21st Century began. 2001 saw Napster, a popular file-sharing system pass the 25 million user mark while AOL members numbered more than 28 million.
People were visiting the Internet every day, many of them scanning online news services for information on the DotCom Meltdown. Tech companies were disappearing as fast as they had appeared by 2001, taking hundreds of millions of dollars with them.
That year would also bring three major innovations to the Information Age. Wikipedia, the user-driven online reference tool, was born. Apple introduced the iPod, and Microsoft released Windows XP. All three are still a major part of life in 2008. On the downside, viruses like Code Red and SirCam would cause untold damage to computer networks worldwide.
The Personal Computer reached another milestone in 2005, when IBM sold their PC division to Lenovo, leaving the industry it founded decades earlier. Online video resource YouTube debuted in 2005, along with the Blu Ray video standard.
2006 saw the introduction of the Intel Core2Duo processors and Microsoft Windows Vista, ensuring that progress would continue to drive the Information Age. Apple, having dropped the word computer from their name earlier in the year, introduced the iPhone to sellout crowds.
The story of the times is still being written. Expect devices to get smaller, faster and cheaper as the days pass. Wireless connectivity is likely to be available everywhere in a matter of a few years, as widespread coverage gives everyone a chance to enjoy the benefits of progress.

Joe Granese can be e-mailed at granese@juno.com or you can comment on this story by calling 609-624-8900, ext. 250.