CSE 301 History of Computing

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CSE 301History of Computing

• Introduction

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Who am I?

• Richard McKenna
• E-mail richard_at_cs.stonybrook.edu
• Work phone [phone]
• Office Location CS Room 1436
• Fall 2011 Office hours
• MW 12 pm 2 pm,
• and by appointment
• Home page http//www.cs.stonybrook.edu/richard

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Course Homepages

• http//www.cs.stonybrook.edu/cse301
• Announcements
• Syllabus
• Schedule (lecture slides, hw, etc )
• Etc
• http//blackboard.stonybrook.edu
• Message Board
• Grades

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Textbook

• Computer A History of the Information
  Machine(2nd Edition) by Martin Campbell-Kelly
  and William AsprayPublished by HarperCollins,
  2004,ISBN 0813342643

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CSE 301 Registration Issues

• For U2, U3 or U4 students
• Cannot be used to satisfy a technical elective
  requirement for CSE and ISE majors.
• Cannot be used to satisfy the upper-level course
  requirement for CSE minors.
• Can be used to satisfy DEC H requirements
• Can be used to satisfy a free elective
  requirement for CSE and ISE majors.
• Can be used to satisfy the minimum number of
  upper-level courses required by the university
  for graduation.

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Course Components

• Quizzes
• Different assigned reading each week
• A quiz each Monday on these readings
• Lectures will follow quiz on topics from reading
• Lowest quiz grade dropped
• No make-up quizzes

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Course Components (continued)

• Mid-Semester Computing Topic Web Page
• 1500 words.
• End of Semester Video
• 1 minute
• Tutorials will be provided
• Topics to be provided by the instructor

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Course Components (continued)

• Midterm Exam
• based on lectures readings
• sample exam will be provided
• Final Exam
• second half material only
• sample exam will be provided
• Note Both exams will have essay questions

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How are grades computed?

• Quizzes 30
• Web Page 15
• Video 15
• Written Midterm Exam 20
• Final Exam 20
• 100

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ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

• All work you submit for homework, projects, or
  exams MUST be your own work.
• If you cheat or aid someone in cheating, you will
  automatically fail this course and be brought up
  on charges of academic dishonesty without
  warning.
• NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE!

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Special Assistance

• If you have a physical, psychological, medical or
  learning disability that may impact on your
  ability to carry out assigned course work, I
  would urge that you contact the staff in the
  Disabled Student Services office (DSS) in the ECC
  building (where the Computer Store used to be),
  632-6748v/tdD. DSS will review your concerns and
  determine with you what accommodations are
  necessary and appropriate. All information and
  documentation of disability are confidential.

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Reading Assignments

• Quiz 1 on Monday, 9/12
• Aspray book, chapters 1,2
• Quiz 2 on Monday, 9/19
• Aspray book, chapter 3

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Course Description

• A study of the history of computational devices
  from the early ages through the end of the
  twentieth century. Needs for computation in
  ancient times, development of computation through
  the 1800s, development of the first modern
  computer and its early uses. Creation of
  programming languages. Development of the
  microcomputer, emergence of the Internet and the
  World Wide Web.

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Course Topics

• Early Computational Devices
• Charles Babbage
• Computing in the 1800s
• Analog computing
• Computing in the early 1900s
• World War II and the Advent of Modern Computers
• Computers become a Business Tool
• Mainframe Computing in the 1950s
• Early history of software and programming
  languages
• The computing industry in the 1960s
• The rise of IBM.

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Course Topics (continued)

• The impact of the microprocessor
• Moore's Law
• The personal computer
• Modern input devices
• The Graphical User Interface
• The rise of Microsoft
• The Wired World
• Development of the Internet and the World Wide
  Web
• Mobile and wireless computing emerges
• Legal and Social Impacts of Modern Computing

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Course Goals

• To study the historical, political, and social
  events that led to the development of modern
  computational devices
• To examine the lives of some of the most
  influential inventors, thinkers and entrepreneurs
  of the computer revolution
• To understand how computer hardware and software
  evolved based on social and economic forces in
  the 20th century
• To consider current social, legal and ethical
  issues in computer science and determine the
  factors that led to these modern problems

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My Goals

• To help make you an informed decision maker
• To nurture your critical thinking
• To help you make yourself a more interesting
  person
• To inspire you to create

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What do these things all have in common?
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Why even study the history of computing? Who
cares?

• Learn relevant modern lessons
• learn from the past
• business technology
• Make better professional decisions
• Be a better citizen
• Be a better nerd

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A start of semester pub quiz(for fun, not points)

• Divide up into teams of 5
• Have one person write down all names on a page
• Each team choose a name
• Answer the following questions as best you can

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Question 1

1. World War II began when Germany invaded what
   neighboring country?
2. In what year did this invasion take place?
3. Who declared war on Germany as a result of this
   invasion?

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Question 2

• World War II was fought between the Axis and
  Allies powers
• Name the 3 leading nations from the Axis side
• Name the 3 leading nations from the Allies side

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Question 3

• The Cold War lasted almost 50 years and was
  fought in pitched battles on a global scale.
• What two nations fought each other in the Cold
  War?
• The first pitched battle started in 1950 in a war
  in which almost 50,000 Americans were killed.
  What war was this?

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Question 4

1. Other than the USSR and its components, name 5
   nations that were behind the Iron Curtain.
2. Name 10 nations today that were once part of the
   USSR.
3. Under what Soviet premier did the USSR break up?

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Question 5

• Who was
• infamously fired from Apple Computers in 1985 due
  to the sluggish sales of the Mac?
• the second man to walk on the moon?
• Where was
• the first video game invented?
• the first transistor invented?

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Question 6

1. Social Media Websites have helped spread the Arab
   Spring this year. Name 3 Arab nations whose
   governments have been overthrown this year.
2. What nickname is used for the technology the
   Chinese government uses to monitor Internet users
   and suppress Web site access and free speech
   online?

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Question 7

• In what year was
• the first digital electronic computer invented?
• the first programming language invented?
• the Internet invented?
• the first personal computer available?
• NOTE
• in the history of computing, many times being the
  one who invents the first so and so is not as
  significant as being the one who invents the
  first successful so and so
• by successful I mean widely appreciated

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Question 1

1. World War II began when Germany invaded what
   neighboring country?
2. In what year did this invasion take place?
3. Who declared war on Germany as a result of this
   invasion?

Poland
1939
Great Britain
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Question 2

• World War II was fought between the Axis and
  Allies powers
• Name the 3 leading nations from the Axis side
• Name the 3 leading nations from the Allies side

Germany, Japan, Italy
US, UK, USSR
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Question 3

• The Cold War lasted almost 50 years and was
  fought in pitched battles on a global scale.
• What two nations fought each other in the Cold
  War?
• The first pitched battle started in 1950 in a war
  in which almost 50,000 Americans were killed.
  What war was this?

US, USSR
Korean War
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Question 4

1. Other than the USSR and its components, name 5
   nations that were behind the Iron Curtain.
2. Name 10 nations today that were once part of the
   USSR.
3. Under what Soviet premier did the USSR break up?

Poland, East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Czecheslovakia
Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan
Mikhail Gorbachev
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Question 5

• Who was
• infamously fired from Apple Computers in 1985 due
  to the sluggish sales of the Mac?
• the second man to walk on the moon?
• Where was
• the first video game invented?
• the first transistor invented?

Steve Jobs
Buzz Aldrin
BNL
ATT Bell Labs - NJ
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Question 6

1. Social Media Websites have helped spread the Arab
   Spring this year. Name 3 Arab nations whose
   governments have been overthrown this year.
2. What nickname is used for the technology the
   Chinese government uses to monitor Internet users
   and suppress Web site access and free speech
   online?

Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen
The Great Firewall of China
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Question 7

• In what year was
• the first digital electronic computer invented?
• the first programming language invented?
• the Internet invented?
• the first personal computer available?
• NOTE
• in the history of computing, many times being the
  one who invents the first so and so is not as
  significant as being the one who invents the
  first successful so and so
• by successful I mean widely appreciated

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Computing Timeline
a) 1939-1949 digital electronic stored program
computer emerges
d) 1975 MITS releases Altair 8800 computer kit,
commonly called the first personal computer
b) 1957 FORTRAN released, first significant
high-level programming language
c) 1969 DOD launches Internet at UCLA,
Stanford, UCSB, Utah