1. Definition of computers Technically, a computer is a programmable machine. This means it can execute a programmed list of instructions and respond to new instructions that it is given. 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using computer? Advantages are : communication is improved, pay bill's online, people have access to things they would not have had before (for instance old people who cannot leave the house they can buy groceries online) Computers make life easier. The disadvantages are: scams, fraud, people not going out as much, we do not yet know the effects of computers and pregnancy or the emissions that computers make,. bad posture from sitting too long at a desk, repetitive strain injuries and the fact that most organizations expect everyone to own a computer. Year 1901 The first radio message is sent across the Atlantic Ocean in Morse code. 1902 3M is founded. 1906 The IEC is founded in London England. 1906 Grace Hopper is born December 9, 1906. 1911 Company now known as IBM on is incorporated June 15, 1911 in the state of New York as the Computing - Tabulating - Recording Company (C-T-R), a consolidation of the Computing Scale Company, and The International Time Recording Company. 1912 Alan Turing is born June 23, 1912. 1912 G. N. Lewis begins work on the lithium battery. 1915 The first telephone call is made across the continent. 1919 Olympus is established on October 12, 1919 by Takeshi Yamashita. 1920 First radio broadcasting begins in United States, Pittsburgh, PA. 1921 Czech playwright Karel Capek coins the term "robot" in the 1921 play RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots). 1921 The first Radio Shack store is open. 1922 MPAA is established. 1923 Jack Kilby is born November 8, 1923. 1924 The Computing - Tabulating - Recording (C-T-R) company is renamed to IBM on February 14, 1924. 1927 Philo Taylor Farnsworth becomes the first person to successfully transmit a TV signal on September 7, 1927. 1927 Robert Noyce is born December 12, 1927. 1928 September 25, 1928, The Galvin Manufacturing Corporation begins, the company will later be known as Motorola. 1929 Gordon Moore is born January 3, 1929. 1930 Edsger Dijkstra is born May 11, 1930. 1930 Galvin Manufacturing Corporation Auto radios begin to be sold as an accessory for the automobile. Paul Galvin coins the name Motorola for the company's new products, linking the ideas of motion and radio. 1930 Citizen is founded. 1932 Jay Glenn Miner is born May 31, 1932. 1933 Canon is established. 1934 The FCC is established. 1934 The US Communication Act goes into place. 1935 The Polygraph machine aka lie detector is used for the first time. 1936 Germanys Konrad Zuse creates the Z1, one of the first binary digital computers and a machine that could be controlled through a punch tape. 1936 Dvorak keyboard is developed. 1937 Iowa State Colleges John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry begin work on creating the binary-based ABC (Atanasoft-Berry Computer). Considered by most to be the first electronic digital computer. 1937 Alec Reeves develops PCM. 1938 The company no known as Hewlett Packard creates its first product the HP 200A. 1938 Orson Welles and Houseman broadcast H.G. Welles War of the Worlds on the airways October 30th as a Halloween spoof. 1938 BBC creates the first science fiction television program. 1939 George Stibitz completes the Complex Number Calculator capable of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing complex numbers. This device provides a foundation for digital computers. 1939 The first Radio Shack catalog is published. 1939 Iowa State Colleges John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry create a prototype of the binary-based ABC (Atanasoft-Berry Computer). 1939 Hewlett Packard is found by William Hewlett and David Packard. The name is decided on the flip of a coin toss. 1940 The first handheld two-way radio called the "Handy Talkie" is created by Motorola for the U.S. Army Signal Control. 1941 German Konrad Zuse finishes the Z3, a fully operational calculating machine. 1943 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first general-purpose electronic digital calculator begins to be constructed. This computer by most is considered to be the first electronic computer. 1943 Dan Noble with Motorola designs a "Walkie Talkie" the first portable FM two-way radio that a backpack version that weighed 35 pounds. 1944 The relay-based Harvard-IBM MARK I a large programmable-controlled calculating machine provides vital calculations for the U.S. Navy. Grace Hopper becomes its programmer. 1944 The first binary, and partially programmable computer, Colossus, was created at Bletchley Park. 1945 Patent is filed for the Harvard Mark I digital computer on February 8, 1945. 1945 The Von Neumann Architecture is introduced in John von Neumann's report of the EDVAC. 1945 The term bug as computer bug was termed by Grace Hopper when programming the MARK II. 1946 Freddie Williams applies for a patent on his cathode-ray tube (CRT) storing device in December. The device that later became known as the Williams tube is capable of storing between 512 and 1024 bits of data. 1946 ENIAC computer completed. 1946 Robert Metcalfe is born. 1946 The Selectron tube capable of storing 256 bits of information begins development. 1947 Freddie Williams memory system known as the Williams tube is now in working order. 1947 ISO is founded. 1947 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley invent the first transistor at the Bell Laboratories on December 23, 1947. 1948 IBM builds the SSEC (Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator). The computer contains 12,000 tubes. 1948 Andrew Donald Booth creates magnetic drum memory, which is two inches long and two inches wide and capable of holding 10 bits per inch. 1948 The 604 multiplying punch, based upon the vacuum tube technology, is produced by IBM. 1948 The television begins to divert radio audiences. 1949 Claude Shannon builds the first machine that plays chess at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1949 The Harvard-MARK III, the first of the MARK machines to use an internally stored program and indirect addressing, goes into operations again under the direction of Howard Aiken. 1949 The first computer company, Electronic Controls Company is founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same individuals who helped create the ENIAC computer. 1949 The EDSAC performs its first calculation on May 6, 1949. 1949 The small-scale electronic machine (SSEM) is fully operational at Manchester University. 1949 The Australian computer CSIRAC is first ran. 1950 The first electronic computer is created in Japan by Hideo Yamachito. 1950 The enhanced Z4 is installed by Konrad Suse 1950 Steve Wozniak is born August 11, 1950. 1950 Alan Turing publishes his paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence in October. This paper helps create the Turing Test. 1950 The NICAD battery begins its commercial use. 1951 The first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) is completed by T. Raymond Thompson, John Simmons and their team at Lyons Co. 1951 The first commercial computer, the "First Ferranti MARK I" is now functional at Manchester University. 1951 The first ISO is published with the title, "Standard reference temperature for industrial length measurement." 1951 UNIVAC I was introduced. 1951 The EDVAC begins performing basic tasks. 1951 The Nixie tube is first introduced. 1951 Grace Hopper develops A-0, the first Arithmetic language. 1951 Dan Bricklin is born. 1952 Complaint is filed against IBM for Monopolistic practices on January 1952. 1952 Fairly reliable working magnetic drum memories for use in computers begin to be sold by Andrew Donald Booth and his father. 1952 RIAA is established. 1952 Alexander Sandy Douglas created the first graphical computer game of Tic-Tac-Toe on a EDSAC known as "OXO." 1953 IBM introduces the first IBM computer, the 701. 1953 A magnetic memory smaller and faster than existing vacuum tube memories is built at MIT. 1953 Paul Allen is born January 21, 1953. 1953 The IBM 701 becomes available to the scientific community. A total of 19 are produced and sold. 1954 IBM produces and markets the IBM 650. More than 1,800 of these computers are sold in an eight-year span 1954 Alan Turing passes away June 7, 1954. 1954 The first version of FORTRAN (formula translator) is published by IBM. 1954 CERN is established on September 29, 1954. 1955 Steve Jobs is born February 24, 1955. 1955 Tom Watson, IBM's president is featured on the front of Time Magazine March 28, 1955. 1955 Albert Einstein dies on April 18, 1955. 1955 John McCarthy coins the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 1955 at Dartmouth University. 1955 Dartmouth Colleges John McCarthy coins the term "artificial intelligence." 1955 Tim Bernes-Lee is born June 8, 1955. 1955 William (Bill) H. Gates is born October 28, 1955. 1955 IBM introduces the first IBM 702. 1955 Bell Labs introduces its first transistor computer. Transistors are faster, smaller and create less heat than traditional vacuum tubs, making these computers more reliable and efficient. 1955 The ENIAC is turned off for the last time. Its estimated to have done more arithmetic than the entire human race had done prior to 1945. 1956 The TX-O (Transistorized Experimental computer) and first transistorized computer is demonstrated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1956 On September 13, 1956 the IBM 305 RAMAC is the first computer to be shipped with a hard disk drive that contained 50 24-inch platters and was capable of storing 5 million characters and weighed a ton. 1957 IBM announces it will no longer be using vacuum tubes and releases its first computer that had 2000 transistors. 1957 Fairchild Semiconductor is founded by Andy Grove, Eugene Kleiner, Gordon Moore, Jerry Sanders, Robert Noyce.