The birth of the computer

Discuss the impact of TWO of the following figures on the development of digital technologies and digital culture: Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, William Gibson, Kevin Mitnick, Alan Turing, Ray Kurzweil, J.C.R. Licklider, Douglas Engelbart.



                                                  The Birth of the Computer

Modern-day technology and potential future technological developments are feasible due to the work of great minds from the past, present and the future. Significant digital inventions such as the computer have had momentous influences on the way people live their lives on a day to day basis, both privately and publically. Human reliance on technology has created a digital culture throughout the world. This essay will discuss the impact Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage had on the development of digital technologies and digital culture evident in today’s society.

Contemporary society’s reliance on digital technology as forms of entertainment and necessity has assisted in the creation of a digital culture throughout the world. This idea can be drawn from the work of Charles Gere in his book Digital Culture. According to Gere, “the possibility of convergence and integration that digital technology offers has led it to dominate technical developments in media and communications,” (Gere 2002: p10).

Digital technologies are technological devices that can store and transmit information in digital form, namely; information that is in basic form; a series of numbers (Woodford 2006: p6). Today’s society is consumed by digital technology. According to Gere (2002), “‘computer technology’ and ‘digital technology’ have become [almost] interchangeable.” In addition to inventions such as the mobile phone and the Internet, the computer is among the most commonly used digital devices in the world. Today, the computer as “a programmable device that can store, retrieve, and process data” (Dale et al 2000: p3) is used to access the Internet, create art, literature and music, to play videos, DVDs, video games and music, store data, calculate and process mathematical problems and much more. However this was not always the case, the idea of having a machine perform tasks for us can be derived from Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine and furthermore his second invention; the Analytical Engine.

In the 1820s, Charles Babbage, an English mathematician, began theorising the construction of a machine that would perform calculations of arithmetic and print the solutions in the form of a table, he named it the Difference Engine (Sherman 2006: p25). In 1822, Babbage had completed a small model of engine and “announced it to the Royal Astronomical Society... in a paper called ‘Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical tables’,” (2006: p25). Babbage began building the engine in 1823 “using a decimal number system – one to ten – and was powered by the user cranking a handle,” (2006: p25). By 1828 the English Government had lost interest in Babbage’s Difference Engine and refused to fund the construction of the machine any further (2006: p25). Due to lack of government funding, Babbage began to fund the construction of the engine himself which involved purchasing the required materials and resources such as steel, brass and pewter clockwork (2006: p28). Babbage’s Difference Engine was never physically constructed due to two problems: a lack of funding and the fact that Babbage had already begun working on his next invention; the Analytical Engine (2006: p32).

The Analytical Engine was a “more versatile calculating machine” (Spiller 2002: p22) than the Difference Engine. This engine was designed with five parts; the store which would hold data, the mill which would act like the CPU of a modern-day computer, the control which would run on punch cards that help the programming for each job being processed, the input which was where information requests of the user and finally the output which printed the result (Sherman 2006: p 32). The punch cards used in the Analytical Engine were modelled off those used in Jacquard’s pattern-weaving loom of 1804 that fed threads through a system of wooden cards punched with holes (Gere 2002: p 22). The weaver’s actions were codified and converted into marks on the wooden cards and the machine was able to read the punctures in the cards and repeated the pattern or action” (2002: p 22). In his book ‘Of the Analytical Engine’, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864) Babbage states that there were two types of cards; operation cards and variable cards (Babbage in Spiller 2002: p 26). The operation cards directed the nature of the operations to be performed and the variable cards directed the particular variables on which those cards are required to operate (Babbage in Spiller 2002: p 26).

Babbage’s engines were among the first “prototypical computers,” (Gere 2002: p23) if his ideas, thoughts and designs were not documented, the beginning of the computer’s history would be different (Maisel & Smart 1997). According to Bradley (2006) Augusta Ada Lovelace (1815 - 1852) was the first person to document the computer programming process. Her extensive notes explaining the functions and controls of “Babbage’s Analytical Engine included a thorough explanation of the steps necessary for calculating the Bernoulli numbers” (Bradley 2006: p69). Lovelace’s knowledge of mathematics provided her with the “understanding necessary to accomplish this historical achievement,” (Bradley 2006: p69).

Lovelace expressed an interest in the mathematical nature of Babbage’s Difference Engine after viewing it in Babbage’s studio in 1833 (Bradley 2006: p70). In 1842, Louis Menebrea, an Italian mathematician, published a French journal on the subject of the Analytical Engine (Maisel & Smart 1997). Shortly after the journal was published Babbage employed Lovelace to translate the French journal into English. It took Lovelace nine months between 1842 – 1843 to translate the journal and compose her own notes on the Analytical engine and the work of Charles Babbage. “She understood the plans for the device as well as Babbage but was better at articulating its promise,” (Maisel & Smart 1997).

Lovelace’s notes on the Analytical Engine included comments such as “[the Analytical Engine] can arrange and combine its numerical quantities exactly as if they we letters or other general symbols” (Lovelace in Gere p24). When “remarking on the use of punched cards as used in the Jacquard Loom she wrote ‘We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves (Lovelace in Gere p24).’” Overall, Lovelace’s notes on the Analytical Engine lent themselves to the interpretation of later scientists, mathematicians and inventors to assist them to understand the work of Babbage and what he sought to achieve, therefore allowing them to adapt Babbage’s ideas into more contemporary ideas and machines.

Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace had a substantial impact on the development of current and future digital technology, specifically the construction of modern computers. Babbage’s initial ideas and attempts to construct the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine, coupled with the notes documented by Lovelace assisted later inventors to devise and construct machines that relate more to modern-day computers. In conclusion, the works of Babbage and Lovelace both separately and together has contributed a largely to the conception of the contemporary computer and therefore the overwhelming digital culture evident within today’s society.








Charles Babbage
http://www.kerryr.net/pioneers/gallery/ns_babbage3.htm

The Difference Engine
http://history-computer.com/Babbage/DifferentialEngine.html

The Analytical Engine
http://www.chronarion.org/ada/

Ada Lovelace
http://www.chronarion.org/ada/













References for online essay:


Gere, C., 2002, Digital Culture, Reaktion Books Ltd, London, UK.

Bradley, M J., 2006, The Foundations of Mathematics: 1800 to 1900, Chelsea House, New York, US.

Woodford, C., 2006, Science in Focus: Digital Technology, Evans Brothers Limited, London, UK.

Maisel, M. & Smart, L., 1997, Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, San Diego Supercomputer Centre, viewed 20 October 2010

Nell B. Dale, N B., Weems, C., & McCormick, J W., 2000, Programming and problem solving with ADA 95, Jones and Bartlett Publishers Inc, London, UK.

Spiller, N., ed. 2002, Cyber Reader: Critical writings for the digital era, Phaidon Press Ltd, London, UK.

Week 10 - Overall Comments out New Com. Tech.

So this week we were asked to evaluate the course so far.

I found this course particularly fun, interesting and CONFUSING!

I really liked the way the teachers tried to come up with new, different and interesting ways of getting us to use different kinds of technology - for example using cameras on phones to take pictures which produced a story to a random film title OR making us use alternative search engines and for some.... learning to use apple macs.

I was intruiged by the quirky personalities of the teachers but abit puzzled by their teaching methods - especially since one teacher would tell their tute group this and the other that and then the students who are in different tute groups start arguing about what's due when, and whether or not we were supposed to write a lecture summary.

It was really refreshing to walk into Kaya's tute (after Jules decided to bail for whatever reason - his loss) and have the tutor sit down and discuss everything that needed to be done, when it was due and how to answer what essay question. I like my assessments to be clear! it's easier to get a good mark that way - so thank you Kaya.

On the otherhand, although I have to admire Daniel's passion the internet and cyberpunking, but I had no idea what he was talking about 90% of the time. I particularly remember when he said "so what is cyberpunking?" at the start of the lecture and then I waited for the answer for the rest of the lecture, however most of his lecture content remains unclear to me. I DID however, enjoy changing the "real" news story into a cyberpunk one. I found that activity quite fun.

All in all I would have to say that I enjoyed most of the course but feel like I still don't fully understand some of the concepts that were discussed - and I'm not sure if that's due to the way that they were explained or the fact that I was unfamiliar with alot of the jargon used throughout the lectures.

Week 9

This week we have to choose one of 6 essay topics. At the moment I'm thinking of choosing question one which is: Discuss the impact of TWO of the following figures on the development of digital technologies and digital culture: Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, William Gibson, Kevin Mitnick, Alan Turing, Ray Kurzweil, J.C.R. Licklider, Douglas Engelbart.


In the Lecture, Daniel spoke about William Gibson in reference to Cyberpunk. We just spoke about the questions in the tutorial and my tutor has suggested doing William Gibson and Charles Babbage because she thinks they fit well together. I will have to find out some information on Babbage first because I have never heard of him before and then I will be able to see if I think they are the figures I want to write about. But before I start I will definitely check out a few of the others incase I find someone else more interesting than those two. It will also depend on how much information I can find about each of the figures.

week 8 - tutespark - Cyberpunk

CYBERPUNK:
Corporate control over society: Cyberpunk almost always has an ever powerful controlling entity that directs society. Most often this is represented as a corporation. Some times its simply an ever present singular government. A common theme for corporate control involves a futuristic dystopia, where the last traces of high civilization exist only in an enclosed and protected city, where civil liberties are removed under the guise of protecting humanity.


I decided to incorporate ideas from the Resident Evil series to incorporate into a story about the flu vaccines for young children being recalled in Australia.


I retrieved the story from -http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/23/2880763.htm

Doctors told not to give the vaccine to under-5s

Updated Fri Apr 23, 2010 12:41pm AEST

Umbrella Corp said people suffering from the effects of the virus changed from seriously ill to critical as officials investigated whether a bad batch of vaccine was to blame. Doctors are being warned not to give the vaccine to children under the age of five, after a child fell critically ill and dozens more suffered serious adverse reactions after receiving the vaccine in New York.

Umbrella Corp's Health Minister Jackie Cartwright says that in the past month, 23 otherwise healthy children have suffered fever, vomiting, febrile convulsions and developed an appetite for human flesh hours after receiving the vaccination.

America's chief medical officer Jim Black says parents should not have their children vaccinated at the moment.

"Until we know more we've suggested that we don't use that [vaccine] for the moment in children under five as the effects it has had upon the children are extremely contagious," he told ABC Local Radio this morning.

"I'm advising all doctors today not to use it until we know a bit more.

"This is not the expected reaction, therefore I just think it's wise and precautionary not to use it in children under five to avoid the effects from spreading worldwide."

Professor Bishop says there have been hundreds of reports of issues with the vaccine in other states or territories.

"We've asked the Umbrella Corp to be in touch with all of the states and we've spoken to chief health officers of all of the states," he said.

"We're getting all the information together so that we have a very complete picture, which we don't have fully at the moment."

This morning a spokeswoman for Federal Health Minister Nicola Rixon said all American parents were being advised not to give their children the vaccine.

The spokeswoman described the measure as a "precaution".

New York's Health Department has suspended the vaccination program for children under five after a spike in admissions to Princess Merideth Hospital (PMH).

New York's chief health officer, Terry Beach, says the department is investigating whether the reactions were caused by a particular type of vaccine or batch.

"We are concerned that there's a much higher number of fever and canibalistic reactions than would be expected, and doctors at PMH have told us this," he said.

"Now we have to work out why, whether it's related to a particular type of vaccine or particular batch."

"Until we find out why these reactions have occured we must put all affected patients into isolation where they can be monitored and tested."

One of the manufacturers, CSL, says it is aware of the matter and is working closely with the Diseased Goods Administration and New York authorities.

Dr Beach says parents should closely monitor their child if they have been vaccinated in the past 24 hours.

"Cool the child, [give them] paracetamol and make sure their temperature returns to normal, if it doesn't bring them to an isolation facility immediately" he said.



Here is the trailer for the first Resident Evil series, retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiS6gtClrqk

Week 7 - tutespark

1. What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?

"Creative Commons is an international non-profit org that provides free licences and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally."

I think Creative Commons could be relevant to my experience at uni because it means I could copyright my personal work but also be able to share my work with others and I will still get credit for my work but other will be able to reference or use it - like if I want to publish my work like an article or journal.


2. Find 3 examples of works created by creative commons and embed them in your blog.


Here are some videos created by Creative Commons to help people understand what they are about and how their service can be used.

- Creative Commons - A Shared Culture



- Creative Commons - Get Creative



- Creative Commons - An alternative to copyright





3. Have a look at Portable Apps (a pc based application) – provide a brief description of what it is and how you think this is useful.

portable - carried or moved with ease
app - a computer program like a web browser or word processor

"A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer."

Portable Apps can be useful because it allows you to carry your all the applications on you computer ranging from your web browser (history and favourites), calendar, emails and with all your contacts and settings, your instant messenger and contacts list, your documents and presentations and even your antivirus program and other computer utilities. You can also "carry all your important passwords and account information securely."

Portable Apps are convenient for travel and sharing.

week 7 - tutespark - free software

This week we were asked to try some free software and write about whether we liked the software or not.

I decided to download some free software that I thought I would actually use in the future, rather than download something and then delete it. Since I had to send a track of me singing to hopefully, a future employer, I thought I would down some software that would help me cut and edit some video footage of my high school performances. I downloaded AVS4YOU, which is a variety of software such as video, audio and image editing and coping, audio recording, file converting, making ringtones and a few more.

It took me awhile to teach myself how to use AVS without having to read the entire instructions but I got a hang of the tools I needed to use like video copying, cutting and burning. I came across a few problems though - when I copied a video from a DVD onto the computer I couldn't find a way to access the temporary files so every time I wanted to access the video I copied, I had to go through the entire copying process again.

The other problem was since I hadn't actually perchased the software, when it came to burning the edited videos to a disc the AVS4YOU watermark was burnt onto the disc over the time of my video and the only way the get rid of it was to buy the software to get the activation code.

Finally, when I burnt the videos to the disc, the sound didnt work at all and I have no idea why, so I gave up on the cutting and editing and burning and just copied the entire disc and sending that.

All in all, I didn't mind the software, except for all the watermarks and lack of sound.

Week 6 - tutespark

This week we had Daniel as our guest speaker, he spoke about social networking... He asked us: "Who owns the content (pics, videos and text) you put on the internet on various sites and who has the rights to your creations?"


According to Chris Crum on WebProNews "According to Twitter's terms of service, you own your content, but Twitter does host it and they have control over it regardless of whether or not you own it."


According to the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities under Sharing Your Content and Information

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to yourprivacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

retrieved from - http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

According to Myspace terms and conditions under Proprietary Rights in Content on MySpace. 

6.1 MySpace does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, applications, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you transmit, submit, display or publish (“post”) on, through or in connection with the MySpace Services. After posting your Content on, through or in connection with the MySpace Services, you continue to retain any such rights that you may have in your Content, subject to the limited license herein. By posting any Content on, through or in connection with the MySpace Services, you hereby grant to MySpace a limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on, through or in connection with the MySpace Services, including, without limitation, through the MySpace Services to applications, widgets, websites or mobile, desktop or other services which are linked with your MySpace account (collectively, “Linked Services”), including, without limitation, distributing part or all of the MySpace Services and any Content included therein, in any media formats and through any media channels, except that Content marked “private” will not be distributed by MySpace outside the MySpace Services and Linked Services.

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/TermsConditions.aspx#ixzz10PP3C1KP