Lecture 2 Summary

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2263230473227872064

Lecture 2..........

The second Lecture of Communication and Digital Technology was pretty interesting stuff as I had never known all that much about the internet and computers before... Adam discussed the history that surrounds the Internet and computers as part of the first half of the lecture. One person, in history, that was seen to be the starting creator of computers was Charles Babbage with his 19th century invention called "Difference Engine", which I suppose was the starting creation of computer-like machines in society. He did create the first digital computer which was used for calculation..which I find interesting because computers these days aren't specifically used for that sort of thing anymore.. Other significant people in computing history that Adam discussed included; Ada Byron - daughter of Lord Byron, a metaphysician and creator of the first computer program. A woman..who would have thought..I know i would have thought it to be a man... Alan Turing - developed the computer further.... Also a fact that I learnt in the lecture was that IBM was the first company that commerically produced computers..I thought it was Microsoft. My perception of this is probably because Microsoft is so out there and in your face that one would presume it to be so..But not the case which I learnt. Adam also discussed the types of computers that were invented such as: Apple and Xerox Parc. I found it quite interesting to here about IBM and Microsoft's beginnings. It was quite amusing the know that when the creators of computer (ie: Bill Gates etc) were younger they use to swap computer parts and ideas about ways to improve on their computer models they were building. If only they knew then about what laid a head in the future..Do you think they still would have swapped ideas and computer parts..hmmm maybe not....The Internet was the second part of the lecture. Not knowing much about the 'behind the scenes' of the internet, Adam cleared this up with a viewing of the movie "Warriors of the Net", which is the link at the top of this blog. It was an amusing but informative movie about how messages/communication can go from one computer to the next etc via the Internet. Highly recommended for anyone who isn't up-to-date with the computer/internet world. Also one interesting point that i'll never forget Adam saying is that, "It is important to understand that the internet is not the same thing as the web"..overall it was an interesting lecture..