Internet - 1

Computers and

The Internet

The device shown above is an abacus - the first "computer."

An abacus takes no electricity, doesn't have to be booted up, requires no maintenance, and never crashes. The rings are flipped back and forth to represent the placement of numbers in a sequence. The abacus dates back hundreds of years and is still the preferred calculator for a few people in some countries.

Today's electronic computers do the same thing - compute numbers, albeit a few billion times faster that an abacus.

All of today's sophisticated software - word processors, games, editing systems, e-mail, and even the page you are viewing - can be reduced to a string of "0" and "1" numbers that a computer "computes." Even CD music and DVD movies consist of nothing more than combinations of these two numbers that are "computed" and then presented to our eyes and ears.

Who Invented the Internet?

Although it has been assumed that the Internet was invented in the United States, there is evidence that the concept actually originated in Geneva, Switzerland.

Even before U.S. scientists started using the technology in the United States, scientists in research laboratories in Geneva, had linked computers in different departments together to share their findings with each other. Even so, it was scientists the United States that subsequently developed and popularized the concept.

The World's First Computer -

A 30-Year Secret

It is also widely assumed that the world's first computer was the American Eniac. Actually, Alan Turing, a British Postal employee developed the first computer in England during World War II.

Turing's computer, the Colossus, contained 1,000 vacuum tubes and was a major (although until recently very secret) factor in the outcome of World War II. The Colossus was developed to decode critical German encrypted messages - messages that provided information so critical that some historians say that Turning's computer shortened the war by at least two years. One historian feels that one million lives may have been saved as a result of this invention.

Although Turning was by some accounts the most important hero of the war, when it was discovered that he was gay, he was so persecuted that he ended up taking his own life.

The First Personal Computers

The first computers filled entire rooms and required thousands of vacuum tubes. When the transistor was invented, the size of computers suddenly shrunk to a fraction of their original size - and this development set the stage for personal computers.

The personal computer was introduced in 1975. It was the Altair, the device that Bill Gates of Microsoft, now reputed to be the world's richest man, took an immediate interest in. And the rest, as they say, is history. That history is graphically shown on the right.

The Internet and the worldwide web are based on computers, of course. And, love them or hate them, some very basic things are important to understand. But, don't worry, we're not going into a long, technical explanation on how computers work - just what's necessary to understand and effectively get around the Internet.

Although the terms Internet and the Worldwide Web are commonly used interchangeably, the worldwide web is actually only a part of the Internet. The latter includes Telnet, FTP (file transfer protocol), and other communication languages and approaches.

However, when most people speak of the Internet today they are just focusing on the Worldwide Web - the part of the Internet that displays pages such as the one you are now viewing.

Computer Platforms

Today there are two major computer platforms:  Windows (Microsoft) and Mac (Apple Computer).

Linux, an operating system that is gaining popularity because of cost and security, runs on most machines. However, the downside is that there is a scarcity of programs designed for Linux and it is not considered as user-friendly as the Windows or Mac operating systems (OSs).

The various Windows operating systems - primarily Windows Windows XP and Vista - run on well over 90 percent of the world's personal computers.

However, when it comes to workstations used in professional agencies, the race is much closer, as you can tell from this graph.

Today's Internet

Despite some increases in speed, and despite the many technological improvements(note chart above), the basic Internet structure and protocol has remained about the same for decades.

This is primarily because about 50% of people are still using telephone lines to access the Internet - something, incidentally, that telephone circuits were never designed for. Almost half of Internet users now have some form of high-speed access  - DSL (digital subscriber lines), satellite-to-home, etc.

Even though a new system would have many advantages, the introduction of a new and totally incompatible system would obviously represent a major problem - especially for the millions of users that have a major investment in the Internet as we now know it.

In the last two decades the number of U.S. homes connected to the Internet has been steadily growing.  There was a momentary dip in  April of 2001. The 3% decline (see graph) can be attributed to four things.

During the first part of 2001, a number of free Internet services went bankrupt and thousands of people who were using these services dropped out. Some free services started charging fees based on usage time. Many people who signed up for high-speed DSL  were disappointed when providers couldn't deliver promised services. And, finally, the economic downturn during the first part of 2001 in the United States resulted in belt-tightening by many people, and many non-necessities were eliminated from budgets.

However, since that time the number of Internet users has steadily progressed.  By 2006, high-speed Internet connections were being regularly used to view movies and download music.

Internet Use, Education, Race, and Age

Regular use of the Internet is strongly related to education and race.

Note in the graph on the left that while only about 22% of people without a high school education use the Internet, almost 90% of people with a college education regularly surf the Net. 

Age is also strongly related. In some cases grade school youths are much more comfortable with computers and the Internet than even their elder brothers and sisters who are in college.

Note from the graph on the right that Internet use almost doubles according to race. Again, this has definite implications for personal and professional success.

Although some families consider the Internet a luxury, savvy users and businesses now see it as a necessity in their lives and businesses.

Almost all U.S. libraries now have Internet connections.  The number of colleges and universities that require computers as part of their general curriculum continues to grow, and many college dormitories are now wired for high speed Internet access.

Thousands of college classes depend on the Internet for reading materials and course research, and the number of complete courses on the Internet now totals several hundred-thousand. Several institutions grant degrees solely on the basis of Internet coursework.

Another indication of the popularity of the Internet is that millions of people no longer make out checks, address envelopes, and lick stamps to pay their bills - they simply do it all by mouse clicks.  

Some banks exist only on the Internet, which often means that the money they save on offices, facilities, etc., can not only be passed on to users in the form lower fees, but these institutions can also pay higher interest rates on accounts.

Although Internet advertising trails the other media in total revenue, as you can see on the right, it is showing the most rapid growth.

Advertising on the Internet has a controversial history. Many purists originally felt that the Internet should be free of advertising clutter and influence. (The same views were originally lodged against broadcast advertising.)

Of course without advertising these media would not have developed as rapidly and as impressively as they did.

The Internet in Education

Research dating back to the 1980s shows that students can do just as well, and often better with well-designed Internet courses as they can in a typical classroom.

By "well designed" we are talking about interactive elements and the ability to correspond with the instructors and classmates by e-mail, Internet chat rooms, and instant messaging.

Although a full-size screen on a desktop or laptop computer is always best, students are now reviewing the materials on this site on their cell phones, PDAs, and the larger BlackBerry-type devices.  This link has more information on that.

The, article, "Will Colleges Become Obsolete?" traces some developments in the area of Internet education.

The Future of Internet Education

Most innovations are driven by economics.  Corporations have found that rather than tying up personnel repeatedly training new batches of employees, computer courses - generally on the company's web site - are most cost-effective way of instruction.

Although schools sometimes lag behind in innovations, again economics seem to be dictating change. Today, there are many "colleges" and even law schools that exist entirely on the Internet.

Instant Messaging

Although thousands of people are familiar with the AOL, MSN or Yahoo versions of real-time chat or instant messaging programs, one of the first and still the largest is ICQ.  One of the advantages of IM services such as ICQ is that while you are doing other things on your computer a message indicator will tell you when someone wants to "talk."

When you join you are assigned an ICQ number, and to this you add your own password that you will need when you log on.

Once you join the service and load the program, anyone can contact you that knows your ICQ number. You can add the numbers of your contacts to your address book.

Although the program and service are both free, ads of various types will appear - but, that's the price you have to pay for this free service. Text messaging to cell phones and the exchange of files are also possible with many types of instant messaging software.

The basic ICQ interface is shown below. The text you type is shown in one window and the real-time reply from the person you are "talking to" comes up in the other window.

Emoticons (shown below) can be added to your messages to spice things up - a step up from the ;- ) versions you type from your keyboard.

There is a great variety of add-on software for most of the basic Internet chat software that will allow you to hit a key to enter complete phrases, add emoticons (see below), etc. Check out the shareware and freeware options at sites such as ZDnet.com, download.com, tucows.com, and Jumbo.com.

A problem arises when you have different friends using different services, each of which use different software. This can be solved with a program such as Trillian, which can be downloaded free here.

There is also a $25 "pro" version of Trillian with more features that can be downloaded from the same site. If you happen to have some friends on the MSN, some on AOL and some on ICQ, for example, this program, and a few others like it, can be used to simultaneously log onto multiple IM (instant messaging) sites, which means you don't have to load new software for each person.

At the same time, at least one of the largest services apparently doesn't like people using other people's software to talk to their members, so they reportedly change things regularly to try to prevent this. This may require that you periodically update a program such as Trillian to keep up with these changes. Fortunately, the updates for the free Trillian program are also free.

The best way to learn about any of these programs - and there are dozens - is to run one on your computer and get a friend to log on with you and explore the options.

In the next section we'll look at some of the internal workings of computers - especially things that govern speed and efficiency.

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