History and Future of Computers

 

Introduction

            In modern times, the computer has had an essential role in the continued sustainment and advancement of society. Computers are extremely versatile tools that can be used by companies, organizations, governments, and individuals on a daily basis. There are many forms a computer comes in such as desktops, laptops, macs, tablets, and smartphones. While they have only been widely used for the past more or less 30 years and smartphones for the past 15 years, computers have actually been around for much longer than we think, and they will continue to be universally used for the foreseeable future.

            It has reached a point where it is almost impossible to operate modern organizations with the same efficiency without the convenience offered digital documentation and the speed of online communication. Not only that, but digital documentation saves the organization money by using less physical paper on a daily basis. It is for this reason that I do not see a future where we completely abandon computers for something else. On the contrary, technology will continue to advance and constantly make computers more efficient at accomplishing daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks.

                This topic relates to Information Technology because knowing the history of computers helps understand the computers of today and the future

History (Analytical Engines)

            While computers started gaining popularity in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the very first computer actually dates back to the 1800’s. In an article published on University of Minnesota’s website (paragraph 4):

“In 1821 Babbage invented the Difference Engine to compile mathematical tables. On completing it in 1832, he conceived the idea of a better machine that could perform not just one mathematical task but any kind of calculation. This was the Analytical Engine (1856), which was intended as a general symbol manipulator, and had some of the characteristics of today’s computers.”

            While the functions of this original computer were minimal, it was the start of what we know today as computers. In 1848, an English mathematician and Babbage’s friend named Ada Lovelace successfully writes the very first computer program on how to calculate Bernoulli numbers. Five years later, in 1853, a Swedish inventor named Per Georg Scheutz and his son collaborated to design the first computer that computes tabular differences and prints the results known as the printing calculator. And to cap off the 1800’s, in 1890, a tabulating machine for punch-card system to help calculate the U.S. Census was designed by an American statistician name Herman Hollerith. This system saves the government several years of calculations and taxpayers approximately 5 million USD.

In the 1930’s, a couple of breakthroughs were engineered. In 1931, Vannevar Bush, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), invents the differential analyzer, which is a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration. It emerged as among the first advanced computing devices to be used operationally. Later, in 1936, the Turing machine was invented by British scientist Alan Turing. The Turing Machine was capable of computing anything that is computable and the concept of the modern computer is heavily inspired by his ideas.

Many advances like these slowly lead to the arrival of what is considered the world’s first modern computer in 1946.

History (Modern Computers)

            February 14, 1946, is the beginning of the modern computer that lives on to this day, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). It was the first electronic, programmable, and general-purpose digital computer. The ENIAC was funded by the U.S government during the Second World War and developed by Ursinus Professor of Physics John Muchly and University of Pennsylvania Professor J. Presper Eckert. The ENIAC is the basis of most computing that is used today, excluding A.I.

            In the 1960’s, the internet started as a method used by government researchers to share information. It was invented because computers back then were very large and immobile so in order to share stored information, magnetic computer tapes were sent thought the conventional postal system. But computers were not able to directly communicate with each other until January 1983 with the creation of a new communication system named Transfer Control/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP) which allowed different kinds of computers to communicate with each other which marks January 1, 1983 as the official birthday of the internet. On April 30, 1993, the internet became available to the general public when the World Wide Web (www.) was released into the public domain.

Current Developments

            Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is not as new as one might this although it has different meanings depending on the use. For example, despite video game consoles essentially being computers, video game A.I. and computer A.I. are different things. For decades, video game A.I. has referred to how characters in a game are designed to respond to a programmed situation and a good example for this is Metal Gear Solid, a stealth video game where enemies are programmed to patrol a perimeter and react to how the player traverses in the environment.

This has evolved tremendously over the years and a clear example of is Metal Gear Solid V when compared to the first game; in the first game, the enemies just patrolled an area and the instant you were spotted, the entire area was alerted by your presence and if you hid for a minute or two, everything would go back to normal. But when looking at the latest entry, the fifth game, the basics are the same, the enemy patrols an area and reacts to how the player interacts with the environment. The difference is that now the A.I. learns the players playing patterns and counters it over time. For example, if the player uses a lot of sleeping gas, the enemies will start incorporating gas masks in their ranks, if the player relies on headshots, the enemies will start using helmets, and many more examples like this. Another A.I. advancement is the communication between outposts and bases; if a player is spotted and engages in combat, enemies can radio other outpost to request backup and to tighten security, this can be avoided by sabotaging communications. Over time, A.I. improves in many ways. DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is an A.I. program developed by Nvidia to multiply the performance of games by creating entirely new frames, displays a higher resolution, and improves the overall images quality of intense ray-traced content. In essence, it helps your game perform at a higher performance level without the need to lower your settings.

In contrast, computer A.I. is very different as it consists of a program designed to learn in real time, it was this way for years until there multiple advancements were made within the past year. Early versions of computer A.I. was in the form of chatbots and it stayed that way until the image generation function was vastly simplified for users. A.I. generated images has existed since the early 1970’s but did were not made popular until the boom in either late 2022 or early 2023. By this time, image generation was nigh-realistic with complications when it came to hands

Figure 1.

Example of how A.I programs generated hands

This, of course, was fixed in a few short months. Next came the popularity boom of A.I videos and voices, now when A.I. videos started, it was extremely uncanny as the A.I. generator had difficulty generating movement that kept a consistent look. On the other hand, A.I. voices are able to generate any person’s voice and tone as long as it has a prior sample to reference. While sounding only slightly robotic, A.I. voices were mostly convincing and have advanced to the point where an entire song can be sung by an A.I. generated voice. Recently, Open AI launched a new program called Sora, which is an A.I. video generated that creates photorealistic videos with smooth animations. While at the moment, there is no sound and it can only generate 60 second videos, I can see a near future where this program can generate entire music videos, films, and even video games.

All these examples are to show how much A.I. has grown in such a short time and to show the potential of how quickly technology can advance now, especially with the newly added help of A.I.

Figure 2

Image taken from an A.I. generated video by Sora

Future of Computers

            In the near future, I predict that A.I. will be the basis of most computer programs used in homes and organizations. One idea I have for the future is an entire server where a business keeps track of products, funds, and services and automatically creates analyses of all activities and automatically generates a report with graphics and comparisons to previous months and years. But A.I. would do more than just help with work, it will help with your own personal accounts, money management, and eventually take over the world.

            Modern computers may very well have already reach the pinnacle of design, encompassing a monitor or more, keyboard, mouse, and the CPU. So the goal is to improve the systems and programs, the software of the computer. In other words, continuously be able to process more and more information at a faster rate until the wait time is near negligible. In fact, we have already started this process a few years ago with the introduction of the SSD storage.

            In short, computers and A.I are the future of society unless some catastrophic event happens (Skynet) and we lose access to or control of these systems.

References

UMN. (n.d.). Who was Charles Babbage?. College of Science and Engineering. https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/who-was-charles-babbage#:~:text=This%20was%20the%20Analytical%20Engine,of%20Babbage%27s%20prototype%20computing%20machines

Gregersen, E. (2015, December 10). Ada Lovelace: The First Computer Programmer. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/story/ada-lovelace-the-first-computer-programmer

Williamson, T. (2023, December 22). History of computers: A brief timeline. LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html

World’s first modern computer, born from an Ursinus professor, celebrates 75th Anniversary. • News • Ursinus. (2021, February 15). https://www.ursinus.edu/live/news/5455-worlds-first-modern-computer-born-from-an-ursinus#:~:text=On%20February%2015%2C%201946%2C%20Ursinus,ENIAC%2C%20the%20first%20modern%20computer

A Brief History of the Internet. A brief history of the internet. (n.d.). https://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit07/internet07_02.phtml

 

 

 

 

 

Network Security

 

Introduction

            Whether it is considering an individual or an organization, information and system security are crucial to have in all computers. Having security protects personal documents and information from intruders and an organization’s confidentiality such as statistics, employee payrolls, and the personal identifiable information (PII) of its employees.

Ping Attacks

            Ping attacks can be used to breach the safety of computers in multiple forms, a couple of them being the Ping of Death and a Ping Flood. While these two are similar, they do differ in important ways. For example, a ping flood attack is when multiple compromised systems send a huge volume of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo packets to the target; in simpler terms, as implied by the name, it floods the target’s computer with a large number of requests and the system tries to respond to every ICMP request with a reply packet. This causes the target system to be overwhelmed and occupies all inbound bandwidth which prevents users from accessing the system.

On the other hand, the Ping of Death attack is a denial-of-service (DOS) attack, it is a variant of the ping flood as instead of sending many corrupted files, this attack consists of sending oversized packets that exceed the maximum IPv4 packet size (Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is a packet that is made of 65,535 bytes). As the computer struggles to process these oversized packets, it crashes.

 

Security Incidents

            Having a computer can lead to security incidents such as phishing and computer viruses. Phishing is essentially when scam emails or text messages are sent. Within these messages are links to malicious websites that either contain malware, gather sensitive information, or transferring money; they can target individuals or organizations. Computer viruses targets files and systems of a computer and then replicating itself. These are primarily spread through email and often require user action to activate. Viruses can damage data files, destroy files, and even spread to other computers and networks.

Computers are vulnerable to threats because threats are usually computer programs designed to infiltrate and target sensitive information. For example, viruses are programs that computers can easily run, phishing consists of links via your computer to trick you into exposing your own private information, and the way they all relate is that they are created by a computer to target another computer.  If a computer gets hit with a virus, a couple of symptoms it can experience are things like corrupted information, loss of files, and accessing your email to spread the virus to people close to you.

In order to protect from these security incidents, some very important steps to take are to avoid clicking on unknown links, even from people you know until you can confirm it with them in-case their system has been compromised too. Another action is to back up all files and data, especially the important personal information. And lastly, use a trusted anti-virus to protect your computer from intruders and dangerous programs; my current anti-virus software is Avast.

 

 

Conclusion

Understanding all the risks your computer is subject to is already a massive step in knowing how to protect yourself from these intruders that wish to steal information and do you harm. Not only does this minimize the risk of your computer being affected, it also reduces the risk of contacts being infected and continuing to spread.

 

References

Fortinet. (n.d.). What is a Ping of Death and ping of death attack? https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/ping-of-death

Imperva. (2023, December 20). What is a Ping Flood: ICMP Flood Ddos Attack: Imperva. Learning Center. https://www.imperva.com/learn/ddos/ping-icmp-flood/

Phishing attacks: Defending your organisation. NCSC. (2018, February 5). https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/phishing

CISA. (2024, February 14). Virus basics: CISA. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA. https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/virus-basics

Computers in the Workplace

 I will talk about an industry that I am very familiar with and have plenty of experience in, the military, and how Information Technology (IT) in my area of expertise as a data analyst. To determine how IT is used, it is important to determine exactly what IT is the use of systems, not only computers but also telecommunications to store, retrieve, manage, and deliver information using voice, data, and/or video.

The way IT is used at my job is by throughout several steps of collecting data and sending information with the use of systems, including, but not limited to computers and office phones. The computer alone has multiple functions in order to get the job done. We use information systems, methods of verification to confirm data integrity, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and email. This data is then used to create products that are simple and easy for leadership to understand. Considering all the systems we use, having workers with computer literacy skills is essential to the success of the mission. Understanding data and transforming it into legible information is the basis of this job.

As time goes on, technology continuously advances and so will the systems we use, the data we need will change, and so will the systems. Over the next 10 years, I am confident that the way work is conducted will receive an update or two mostly focused on performance and accessibility. Newer computers that run faster and process more data at any given time, and updated information systems that not only are easier to navigate, but also provide a cleaner report on the data used for our daily, weekly, and monthly products. Thus, enabling a higher amount of productivity. 

Traveling Through a Network: Ping/Traceroute

 I executed a  ping and a traceroute for google.com, yahoo.co.jp, and spiegel.de. The end of these domains indicate the country these websites are being hosted in. For example, ".jp" indicates that the website is being hosted by Japan while ".de" indicates that the website is hosted in Germany (It is ".de" because in German, the country is named Deutschland).

I started by running a ping for each of the websites. a relation I was able to find was that each ping sent out 4 packets and received 4 packets, which mean not a single one was lost in the process, although the time differed depending on the country. Since I am in the U.S., the ping on google.com was the quickest at between 31 and 36 milliseconds per round trip with an average of 33. After that was Japan with between 161 and 163 milliseconds for an average of 161 milliseconds per round trip; and Germany staying between 128 and 131 milliseconds with an average of 128 milliseconds. The meaning to this is very simple, the farther the host country, the longer the round trip. 

Essentially, when the command to ping is executed, an echo request packet is sent to the host; after it is received, an echo reply is sent back. But what is and echo request and an echo reply? Basically, these echo requests are used to see if a system is on the network and functional, a reply confirms the functionality from the host. If the system you're trying to reach doesn't exist, isn't powered on, or isn't connected to the network, an error will be returned. The ping test can identify connectivity between two network connections, often as a troubleshooting tool. Below are the pings sent:

Traceroute on the other hand was a much longer process than ping as its goal was to trace the route a packet takes between your computer and the destination computer. One similarity noticed was that all three traceroutes timed out at least twice during the process with Japan timing out three times. If the host is not on a directly attached network, an error is returned. The traceroute test checks the path that the computer is using to connect to the network.

Microsoft program comparison

 Introduction

Identifying and documenting the details of our daily lives and presenting them in three different formats. The formats assigned to us were Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. In the Word document, the goal was to list and explain each activity in detail. In Excel, we listed every activity, the hours spent, the percentage of the day each one takes up, and a pie chart giving a visual representation of the data. And lastly, in PowerPoint, the goal was to create a presentation using images that portray each activity using animations and transitions in each slide to hold the audience’s attention.

Comparison & Function

Microsoft Word is, as the name suggest, a word processor that is used to create research papers, essays, documentation, etc. It comes with multiple functions such as being able to add a signature to documents, font type, font size, different document designs based on user preference, and many more. With this application, I was able to document my daily life in detailed a paragraphs that provide descriptions and add context to each activity. 

Microsoft Excel was developed to create and edit spreadsheets; it allows calculations to be performed, pivot tables to be created, the option to sort or filter specific data, create graphs, and several additional functions. Using this program, I listed each of my activities on different cells, the hours calculated next to each activity, a formula adding all the total hours, and the percentage of time spent doing each activity per day. With this data, I was able to create a comprehensive pie chart that gives a visual representation of how much of my day is spent doing each activity. And lastly, Microsoft PowerPoint is a program used to create presentations, the main purpose is to create a product that catches the attention of the target audience. In addition to pre-rendered designed, it is also possible to add animations and transitions between each slide. I used this program to give a visual representation of what my daily activities look like.

Now that the functions have been discussed, it is important to also mention the disadvantages of each of these programs, for example, Word does have the function of formulas but it pales in comparison to Excel's available formulas. Excel, on the other hand, is not adequate for writing large documents or research papers. And while PowerPoint has function for writing large amounts of text, it lacks many of the details present in Word. While each of these do have drawbacks, it works best when these programs are used together to create a product worthy of an audience.

Web/Mobile App Critique

 Everyday, millions of people around the world browse the internet for many different purposes including, watching videos, reading articles, and buying products online. Another activity that fellow internet users participate in is online discussion about any and every topic imaginable; which is why I have taken it upon myself to talk about the internet's most infamous discussion board, 4chan.

4chan has a large catalog of boards to choose from, a few examples being video games, music, anime, cars, any many more. Throughout the years, this website has had quite a formidable reputation and was even reported on by national news networks. Since 4chan does not censor its users and due to the anonymity inherent in the website, people are free to talk about anything in any manner they choose. While many people may consider this an issue, it is mostly harmless and it may well be the only website (or at least on of the few) that allows its users to exercise their right of free speech. It also allows users to share images and videos anonymously but only as long as it falls within American law, so the only media that is not allowed posts that break the law. And it is because of this that I believe that 4chan represents the pure essence of the internet, all the good, the bad, and the ugly. Simply allowing users to speak their minds gives it a unique appeal that other discussion websites or apps such as Reddit do not have.

Upon entering the website, the home page greets you with three eye-catching elements, first, the four-leaf clover located at the very top of the page, the next thing you see directly below is a box that contains all the boards available, 76 total boards to choose from. Following below is another box advertising current popular threads. The image posted below is how the front page looks like to all members.

After choosing and clicking on a board to view, you are presented with up to 10 pages containing samples of threads each talking about your chosen topic; every individual thread can be opened separately on multiple different tabs simultaneously. A comparison I can give to this description is an assorted box of chocolates, since chocolate was chosen, everything in the box will be chocolate but there will be a variety of different flavors available. For example, on the homepage, I click on the Video Games board an am able to view multiple different discussions regarding video games. and starting a thread of your own is very simple, all you need to do is click on the button at the top [Start a New Thread]. The following image is an example of threads generally look.

Now of course, no website is perfect and the design of 4chan is incredibly outdated despite still being easy to use which calls for a modernized design that is more attractive and customizable. Another issue is that the homepage is simply unattractive to look at, especially since first impressions are the most important ones. A cleaner look for the front page will make it easier on the eyes and appeal to a larger audience. And the final improvement I'd make is adding their search bar to the front page rather that solely within each board, this way a user can search for specific keywords and find related threads.

Programming Languages

 Introduction

            Programming is the language of computer systems; it is the process of telling a computer which tasks to perform and in what order. Scratch is a website designed for newcomers to programming to create simple animations or interactable commands. Other coding programs such as Python are used to develop software, task automation, websites, and data analysis. So each program his its own benefits and drawbacks.

Scratch

            This assignment marked the first time in my life that I ever used Scratch. Seeing the different commands available fills one’s imagination with ideas that may or may not surpass their current abilities. For example, when I opened the website and saw the little cat sprite, some ideas of acrobatics entered my imagination but since I was inexperienced with the website, my final product was nothing like I imagined. With practice and studying further, I am certain that I can enhance my performance using this program. I was able to overcome this by playing around with several of the functions and observing the functions of each one. With this, I was able to successfully create a simple, yet primitive animation.

When compared to the interactive learning found in the textbook, the content in the textbook was engaging as interaction simplifies the process of learning. When reading about the high-level language, it made it clear that I have a long way to go and am looking forward to witnessing my progress throughout this class and how much I have improved by the fifth week. At the moment, the easiest one to use is Scratch, but that is only due to the lack of experience in the generalities of programming.

 Scratch is very effective when making simple animations and even small interactable games. Python, on the other hand, is a high-level programming language that is dynamic and specializes in the rapid creation of programs and applications. In terms of popularity, I believe that C++, Java, and Python are the big three that are used in programming. But in my opinion, I believe that Python stands on top as the most popular one simply because it is regarded as being among the easiest coding programs for beginners to learn.

Conclusion

Upon engaging in this activity with Scratch, my interest has been piqued and I am now even more curious to learn the language of programming so I can perhaps create masterpieces in the future. Understanding the language of programming with Scratch or any other coding programs proves to be helpful in the long-run as it also opens the doors to high-paying jobs throughout the world. There is a lot of detail that goes into creating something special and it’s something that benefits anyone.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/961842939

 

References

What is python? executive summary. Python.org. (n.d.). https://www.python.org/doc/essays/blurb/

How long does it take to learn python? (+ tips for learning). Coursera. (n.d.). https://www.coursera.org/articles/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-python-tips-for-learning