LECTURE 1 - THE HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

PART 3 - THE TRIUMPH OF THE (MALE) NERDS - THE RISE OF PERSONAL COMPUTING

The "Mainframe" model of computing

Between the 1940s and 1970s, a single large computer was generally hooked to a set of simple, TV-like "dumb" terminals. The computing operations were handled by the central, "mainframe" computer, and the terminals handled drawing output data to the user's screen.

Progress to interactive computer systems in the 1960s

Steve Russel's Spacewar game on the PDP-1 computer at MIT, 1961	Restored PDP-1 computer at the Computer History Museum	Restored PDP-1 computer running SpaceWar
More information and movies at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-09-21-Spacewar/index.html#swmovies

Graphical user interfaces developed for "workstations" (high-end personal computers) in early 1970s

Originally, computers displayed their output as text, and were commanded by typing at the keyboard. In the 1970s, visual, graphical interfaces began to be developed that allowed users to "point and click" on graphical objects on their screen. This allowed people who were not sophisticated programmers to use computers. 

• Ivan Sutherland and Sketchapd - the first real-time interactive computer program
  Ivan Sutherland	Sutherland using Sketchpad in 1963	Using a light pen to draw onscreen
  Douglas Engelbard and the WIMP (Windows, Menus, Mouse, copy/paste) interface
  Douglas Engelbart and the first computer mouse, copy/paste interface, computer network, videoconference in "The Mother of all Demos", Menlo Park, 1968 - MOVIES AT http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html Main site: http://www.1968demo.org/	Close of Engelbart's original computer mouse from the late 1960s (already the worse for wear)	An early version of a mouse-driven interface by Engelbart http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_engelbart.htm
  Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, Smalltalk, and the Dynabook (1968-1980) - concept for a "future" laptop computer with a graphical user interface. Existed only as a mockup, radio-controlled by a mainframe. Software was designed for children. Led to the development of the Xerox Alto, the first "real" computer with a graphical user interface. Adele Goldberg created the programming language Smalltalk, which was used to create the first graphic user interfaces on computers, and introduced "object-oriented" concepts necessary to write complex graphical operating systems.. 1980 article on the Dynabook - http://www.atariarchives.org/bcc3/showpage.php?page=5
  One of several Dynabook mockups	Alan Kay's Dynabook in mockup form, early 1970s	Alan Kay and his kids
  Smalltalk and GUI Programming
  Adele Goldberg	Screen from smalltalk programming languages
  The Xerox Alto - the first commercial GUI
  Xerox Alto (1975)	Screen interface of the Alto	About 500 were built
  The Xerox Star (1981) Extremely high-resolution graphics, computer mouse, windows, menus. - the Macintosh concept was "stolen" from this computer's design http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/xerox-8010/index.html
  Xerox Star (1981)	Close-up of Xerox start interface, featuring WYSIWYG

Why did the PC become a mass-market consumer product? Male Uber-Boomers in the 1970s and 1980s saw personal computers as a "revolt" against Big Brother (i.e., their fathers)

During the 1970s, shrinking computer components allowed smaller computers to be made. In addition, falling costs allowed these computers to be creates for use by a small group, or even a single user. This development made the PC possible - but it took a cultural shift for PCs to become more than hobby devices.

During the 1970s, the emerging "Baby Boom" generation led a series of "liberations" within society. The most significant for technology was "computer lib" - the idea that the mainframe model of computing was "Big Brother" and oppressive, while computers for everyone would "liberate" individuals, society, and data itself.

"Computer Lib" (1974) - The computer as a revolutionary artifact of the Baby Boomer counterculture to "liberate" data from oppressive central control of mainframes

 

Baby boomers take up the call for "computer lib"

• 1975 - First experimental personal computers. These computers had no mouse, keyboard, or monitor and only 250 bytes of RAM. Programmed by flipping switches on front of panel, lights blinked when program executed. The Apple 1 and 2 represented a major step forward by using a keyboard for input.
   

  Bill Gates in Jail (soon after founding "Micro-Soft")	A bunch of hippie programmers in 1976	Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak doing the hippie thing (Apple Computer)	The garage where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozinak developed the Apple 1
  Altair 8800, the first commercial PC (what Bill Gates started Microsoft to provide software for)		Apple 1 (1976) - beginning of a "user-friendly" computer that can be operated by non-engineers

Bill Gates and Ric Weiland, 1976

"COUNTERCULTURE" MEDIA ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF PERSONAL COMPUTERS

BYTE Magazine   A page from the first issue of BYTE Magazine, Sept-Oct 1975 showing clear "counterculture" features. Click to enlarge to full-size. Here's a link to the entire text of the very first article in BYTE magazine http://www.digibarn.com/collections/mags/byte-sept-oct-1975/one/

Classic BYTE magazine covers from the early 1980s the first magazine dealing with Personal Computers (PCs) - http://tinney.net/auction.htm

VIDEO: Homebrew computer club 30th anniversary - Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple) remembers
http://news.com.com/1606-2-5937539.html?tag=nl

"1776" July 1976	"Future Computers?" April 1981	"Opening Files" Nov 1981	"Digital Arts" July 1982	"Wall Street Terminal" Oct 1982

Visicalc Spreadsheet - first PC software (ran on Apple II) useful to business (ancestor of Excel), incorporated virtually all the major features of modern spreadsheets in a real-time interface.

IBM PC - first mass-market business computer. Bill Gates (steals) CP/M and renames it MS-DOS, and gets exclusive right to distribute it independently of IBM (what made him a billionaire)

The IBM PC - a DOS (non-graphical) system	Screen from word-processor Wordstar, running under DOS

1984 - Arrival of the Apple Macintosh - the first graphical-interface PC that allowed "the rest of us" to "think different"

• The 1984 Commercial for the Macintosh (directed by Ridley Scott, most influential ad in advertising history)
  http://www.curtsmedia.com/cine/1984.html
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(television_commercial)

Images of the Macintosh

By the time the Macintosh appeared, the main features of personal computers were already set. The differences between the 1984 Macintosh and the PCs of the 2000s are simply a matter of degree (and speed). However, many PC users during the 1980s were resistant to the graphical user interface, which did not appear in Microsoft PC products until the early 1990s.

According to Alan Kay, there has been NO REAL PROGRESS in computer interfaces and software since the early 1980s

The Macintosh, as featured by BYTE magazine in 1984	Closeup of the original model Macintosh
Another view of the 1984 Macintosh, showing the external floppy drive	The 1984 Macintosh desktop showing windows, menus, icons
The 1984 Macintosh Control Panel and Calculator	MultiPlan, an Excel-like spreadsheet shipped with the 1984 Macintosh
Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh (animation showing its use)	MacPaint, a bitmap drawing program for the 1984 Mac
MacDraw, an Illustrator-Like vector drawing program for the 1984 Mac	A 1984 Macintosh game, "Alice"

AWESOME - 1986 Mac Plus BEATS AMD Duo-Core at most common tasks!

http://hubpages.com/hub/_86_Mac_Plus_Vs_07_AMD_DualCore_You_Wont_Believe_Who_Wins (this is from a computer 1000x slower than an AMD Duo-Core - a computer built before you were born can still beat your computer today at 90% of the things people use computers for... what does this tell you about "progress" in computers?)

Mac Plus faster at Microsoft Word	Mac Plus faster at search/replace	AMD slightly faster at Excel tasks	AMD barely even with Mac Plus

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