Yep, computer storage has increased but the computing part (the brains) has shrunk down to something that is almost invisible. No more special climate controlled rooms fed by large current carrying electric power cables, no more punch cards, and no more reels of magnetic tape.
Take all this computing power, multiply it by a thousand fold, and shrink it down to almost nothing and you have a modern computer chip. You can see how small they are in the next picture of one on the tip of a finger.
This has made our modern life so much more fun and intelligent. Now, all the information you could ever want is in your smart phone. No, I don't have a smart phone, we just have tablets and computers. These small chips can be used for a lot of things other than a phone or computer, some of which would be for tracking and spying and other naughty things.
Who is to blame for these little chips? An English fellow named Geoffrey Dummer. Now isn't that strange, a fellow named "Dummer" invented a chip that was "smarter". He was born Feb. 25, 1909 and passed away Sept. 9, 2002. He was a British electronics engineer and consultant.
I don't know about you, but I would like to thank Mr. Dummer for his contribution to our lives and the information age. Now, you all have a great day, you hear?
In December, 1959 I quit college on my 18th birthday and took a bus to the big city of Columbus, Ohio. Got a job with the electric company as a key punch operator... yep! I would put about 500 cards (about 3'x8"?) in the hopper and type in the meter readers logs. The machine I used was about the size of a chest-type freezer and with at least a dozen, maybe 2 dozen operators keying away the place wasn't quiet. I wonder what ever happened to those huge machines, all those cardboard electric cards... and sometimes I even wonder about the women (yes, everyone was female) operators from back then.
ReplyDeleteMy first job was at Pullman-Standard and we used those punched cards for awhile. I remember a table with a special typewriter that punched cards and tapes. A lot of our machines ran on punched Mylar tapes.
DeleteDizzy, do you think we can go too far with these little things, considering the voluminous info that is collected on everyone today. Is that a violation of one's civil rights? If the ability to do it is available, then it will be used and I don't know if we are better off or not.
ReplyDeleteYes, in fact, I believe we have already gone too far.
DeleteI have heard that some folks put disinformation out for the spies.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there are boring people like me. . . If someone starts to spy on me, they get bored real fast and move on to someone more interesting.
Delete