Discussion: The Web turned 33 years old this week. Can you even remember what it was like back then? Their was no pictures, no music and no color, and it could take a COUPLE OF MINUTES to load a page. If a webpage takes longer than 3 seconds I start getting annoyed. “It’s like coffee… Read more »
Posts Categorized: IT and History
Why Russia’s first attempt at the internet failed
In the 1960s, a Russian engineer proposed a civilian computer network to connect workers and farmers all across the Soviet Union, and the idea made it all the way to the highest authorities in Moscow. What went wrong? Source: BBC Future Date: November 15th, 2017 Link to video: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171110-why-russias-first-attempt-at-the-internet-failed Discussion 1) There are myriad examples of tech that came… Read more »
Why didn’t electricity immediately change manufacturing?
For investors in Boo.com, WebVan and eToys, the bursting of the dotcom bubble came as a bit of a shock. Companies like this raised vast sums on the promise that the worldwide web would change everything. Then, in the spring of 2000, stock markets collapsed. Some economists had long been sceptical about the promise of computers. In… Read more »
Outdated office technology could be lowering your productivity
Outdated hardware and operating systems slow down many workers, and that’s when they aren’t paralyzed by connection issues. Source: Bloomberg Date: April 25th, 2017 Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2017/04/20/office-technology-could-be-lowering-your-productivity.html Discussion 1) Over 10% of all computers worldwide use an operating system first launched in 2001 and which has been let completely un-updated since 2014. Does this figure surprise you? Why or… Read more »
Internet pioneer Robert Taylor dies
While working at the Pentagon in the 1960s, he instigated the creation of Arpanet – a computer network that initially linked together four US research centres, and later evolved into the internet. At Xerox, he later oversaw the first computer with desktop-inspired icons and a word processor that formed the basis of Microsoft Word. Source: BBC… Read more »
Just google it: The student project that changed the world
“Dad, what happens when you die?” “I don’t know, son. Nobody knows for sure.” “Why don’t you ask Google?” Of course, Google isn’t clever enough to tell us whether there is life after death, but the word “google” does crop up in conversation more often than either “clever” or “death”, according to researchers at the… Read more »
Programming in the early days of the computer age
Everyone remembers the first computer they ever used. And Joyce Wheeler is no exception. But in her case the situation was a bit different. The first computer she used was one of the first computers anyone used. The machine was Edsac – the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator – that ran for the first time… Read more »
iPhone – a moment in history
Ten years ago Steve Jobs of Apple launched the very first iPhone in San Francisco. Source: BBC News Date: January 11, 2017 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38550016 Discussion This is a really interesting historical article about the launch of the very first iPhone.
Leading Titles
Introduction to Information Systems, 3rd Canadian Binder Ready Version Update Edition
R. Kelly Rainer, Casey G. Cegielski, Ingrid Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, Cristobal Sanchez-Rodriguez
ISBN: 978-1-119-13385-8
August 2015, © 2016
CDN $98.95; CDN $114.95