You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks, But With New Technology Maybe Conversational English

There has been a lot of research on Dolphins, it turns out the sounds they make have certain patterns. Some of the sounds they make actually signify an individual dolphin, or an individual object, and they even have words for actions. They are communicating just like human beings, but in our arrogance we didn't realize it until we put the puzzle together. Dolphins, humans, chimpanzees, and several other mammals all communicate using sounds which they create. That is the basis for language.

Many people ask if we will ever travel to another planet and find an intelligent species like us. They are most certain that we are not alone in the universe. I'd say that's about right, considering that Dolphins and chimpanzees are also intelligent, and in many ways more intuitive, and much better at some things that we are and they are here on this planet. Perhaps in the future you won't have to be Dr. Doolittle to talk to the animals.

Perhaps, you caught an article in the science news recently, as some researchers had created an app that allows the user to communicate with various primates and translate the language into something meaningful. No, it's not perfect, but it's definitely a major step and a great start for those involved in linguistics and translation technologies. It's also a big boost for speech recognition and being able to communicate even on a rudimentary basis with another species; priceless. Okay so, let's talk about this shall we?

Luckily for us, other animals use a simpler language than humans, and many of the humans that speak English, speak simple English, meaning they only know about 750 words. If an orangutan, guerrilla, or chimpanzee can identify 150 to 400 words, heck, they're almost there, do you see that point? How many words do Dolphins know, and how do they teach each other what those words mean? If they all start using the same words to describe the same objects, other Dolphins, human trainers, or verbs, then they are using their own language, the one they created.

How many words are in those languages, and how can we know? Are there groups of Dolphins living in different parts of the world that may have extremely extensive vocabularies? Indeed, I'd say we have a lot to learn. And perhaps we should be talking to our own pets, and teaching them Conversational English, as we learn to adapt and find ways to understand their form of communication with us. Maybe they think that we are pretty stupid, because we don't understand them?

Maybe the Dolphins are looking for intelligence on this planet too, but they haven't found any yet, because they aren't too impressed with you humans out there. Indeed, it is my job to provoke a reaction and make you think. Hopefully I just did that. Please consider all this and think on it.

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How to Publish Your Own Science Journal?

One of the reasons why mankind is able to enjoy the amenities of modern life is due to constant advancements in science and technology. Through the various developments in science and technology, mankind has learned the ability to understand the universe some extent. If it wasn't for the scientists and researchers who have worked since the time of Aristotle, many of the amenities of modern life such as TV would not have been invented. All of these scientific advancements are documented for future generations through the utilization of scientific journals.

A science journal is a publication that contains various scientific papers that have been written after proper research. Many scientists and researchers use appropriate science journals to publish their own work in the form of a short scientific paper that consists of 5 to 30 pages. Then, other scientists and researchers who are working in a similar field can also look at that particular scientific paper, in order to see whether the research can be improved. As a result, one advantage of publishing a scientific paper is to trademark your work before anyone else, while the second advantage is to help build upon the knowledge that already exists. This way, new scientists and researchers can also advance their work by utilizing these scientific papers.

Of course, there may come a time, in which you may also decide to create your own science journal or technology journal. Creating a scientific journal is a difficult process, which requires the journal to be designed and made in a systematic way. First of all, a scientific journal should have a good and unbiased editorial board. This is very important, as the editorial board should govern the process of the submission of scientific papers and it should regulate double blind reviews for the submitted scientific papers. In addition, the process of editorial review should be clear to the scientific community in the beginning, when the science journal is first established. Thus, if you are establishing your own science journal, you should approach respected colleagues who can help you to establish your editorial board.

Once you have chosen the editorial board, you should also set the standards that you will accept for a scientific paper. For example, do you require computational simulations in your technology journal or do you just want analytical studies to be published. As another example, do you need to see some experimental proof before you allow the publication of a research paper or will it be enough to have calculations without proof. When you are establishing your own science journal, these criteria should be explored in detail by your editorial board, so that appropriate reviewers can then be chosen to carry out this process.

Naturally, a newly established science journal should have an automated submission system. It is essential to create a system that allows for a paper submission process, which is unbiased, automated and systematic at the same time. Luckily, there are several software that allows you to publish your own science journal online. Naturally, some professional help will be needed to install the journal software. Most of the science journal automation software that is available on the net is an open source software, so it is essential to choose one that has the least number of bugs in it. You might want to try out a couple of science journal submission programs before deciding the most suitable one for your journal.

In addition, a newly published science journal or a technology journal will need an ISSN number, which will be the number that registers the journal internationally as a periodical publication. It is completely free to get an ISSN number and you can get it by applying online from the international ISSN site. Hence, once you have formed your editorial board and once you have received your ISSN number; then with the assistance of your science journal publication software, your science journal will be ready for immediate publication. This way, your newly published journal can also serve as a beacon of knowledge to the scientific community.

Teaching Seasons With Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms - Integrating Science and Technology

A Michigan radio commercial announces that the "Greatest Show on Earth" happens every fall. I ask children to identify this show. You don't need a ticket. It happens outside. You can probably see part of the show from your bedroom window. There's no age limit. This show is enjoyed by people of all ages.

Reinforcing the concept of seasons is often found in the autumn months of early childhood classrooms.

Using a drawing program such as KidPix, children can show their understanding of seasons while improving their concentration, dexterity with the mouse and knowledge of drawing tools.

We begin with the line tool to cut the screen into quadrants. Then with the alphabet stamper we put one season name into each quarter. With the "wacky paintbrush" bare branch trees can be added to each section. Finally, using the spray can in the "wacky paintbrush" tools we can add the proper leaves to each section. Lots of colors for the autumn trees. No leaves for winter. Bright green leaves for the new emerging leaves of spring along with some pink for all the flowering trees, and then full green for the summer.

I encourage writing the names of the seasons in a location where children can see them from their computer work stations.

With first graders, each season can be elaborated upon with the background, by adding some seasonal stamps and some common weather.

While this project can be difficult for kindergarten students at the very beginning of the year I often begin the week prior by just making a collection of fall trees all over the screen and spray painting them with the proper fall leaf colors. This helps the students be able to easily create the trees when having to segment them for each season.

After printing in color, I staple each paper to construction paper to emphasize how important our work on the computer has been. Regularly I hear from parents who hang the matted work on the refrigerator and around the house. As this becomes the practice, I see children putting in extra effort in order to have a work of art to proudly take home with them.

Why Traditional Leadership Development Programs So Often Fail to Make a Difference - And What to Do

The Need for Leaders:

The importance of science and technology to our way of life is generally taken for granted, however in a world where it has been said that the general population is nearly scientifically illiterate, the various roles that science based professionals are called on to fulfill are increasingly significant. In our complex global society our scientific and technical communities are facing new challenges, whether it be moving beyond the bench into leadership roles within an organization, starting up their own company to take their technology to the market, or providing credible information to non-scientists for government policy making decisions, to name just a few examples. Yet to often their scientific training has done little to adequately prepare them for the transition from technical expert to a leader required to influence others.

The Challenge:

The solution most often used In the past was to send the science professionals to courses to learn how to become better leaders. But traditional leadership development programs, heavily weighted to 'learning how to lead', have too often failed to produce the level of leadership behaviour needed for success in to-day's society. In a large part this is because the hurdles that scientists and technical specialists must overcome to become better leaders have been under-estimated, and therefore under-addressed.

At the heart of the matter is the fact that they must change their behaviour if they want to see the results that they desire - and this is one of the most difficult things to do, especially when all their training has been counter-productive to improving leadership, a group activity versus individual effort.

The Hurdles:

There are four key areas that need to be considered and addressed to improve leadership development programs within the science-based communities. They are:

1) Their Natural Tendencies;
2) Their Training;
3) Academia and Workplace Culture, and
4) The Brain's Natural Hard-wiring

1) Their Natural Tendencies:

People who enter the science and technology fields tend to:

* be highly task oriented and analytical in nature;
* have a strong belief in the superiority of logic;
* be objective and rely on hard data,
* think they need more data when in doubt, or maybe they don't have the right data
* get caught in 'analysis paralysis'
* be deeply committed to their work
* become so focussed on their work that they loose contact with the people around them
* become frustrated by what they see as the illogical actions of others, and
* often see people as obstacles

One scientist, after becoming an Executive Director, remarked that she loved the job - if only she "just didn't have to deal with people!"

Traditional leadership development programs, rooted in providing facts and information in a typical classroom setting where scientists 'learn' new skills, are easy for them - they 'get' the information on a cerebral level. However moving it into action isn't necessarily on their radar screens. The lack of action around new information is not uncommon and Pfeffer and Sutton (2000) have referred to it as the "knowing-doing gap", a not uncommon situation in knowledge based industries that limits performance even when the knowledge is present. Without a strategy and support to move knowledge into action back in the workplace, it is unlikely that behaviour will change and therefore few beneficial results will occur. This is a major factor in the often reported low R.O.I. identified from 'soft skills' training.

2) Their Training

Not only does the traditional scientific training not adequately prepare science based professionals for dealing with others, it often results in widening the chasm between them and the rest of the population.

Academic training in the sciences has a tendency to:

* promote the superiority of the logical approach
* discount feelings and emotions, since science deals with 'facts'
* place high reliance on case studies and theory based learning, the essence of education being talk and writing, not action
* gauge success by mastery of the facts, not taking action
* promote the superiority of whatever disciplines one is in
* create the impression of the superiority of science based disciplines over non-science ones
* promote the development of 'independent' thinkers
* create an atmosphere of competition, not co-operation

One scientists told me that even when he was working on a collaborative project, he was not really collaborating - he was always looking for the advantage, that 'something' that would give him an edge over his colleagues.

Once a science trained professional moves into a leadership role, or has to deal with people not like him, all his training works against the very actions that he now must take to succeed in achieving results with and through others.

3) Academia and Workplace Culture

When people enter the sciences, whether in an educational or workplace setting, they discover a culture that:

* supports traditional pay, promotion and recognition systems based on individual excellence
* sees science as serious business - with little time for idle chit-chat or relationship building
* places high value on technological fixes, discounting non-analytical approaches to problem solving
* places a high value on mental activity, reaching conclusions and making presentations (of a very technical nature of course)
* too often sees peer reviews as an opportunity to raise ones own profile rather than provide constructive feedback
* looks for individual excellence, where working on a 'team' is avoided as a potentially career limiting move.

The atmosphere created is definitely not conducive to the development of a people centric leadership approach. It is also not conducive to helping them understand the role feelings and emotions play in the workplace, not just in achieving better business results and attracting and retaining top talent, but also in things such as higher morale, motivation and commitment. Goleman (2002) has said that the best leaders are set apart from the rest by their ability to understand the powerful role played by emotions in these areas.

4) The Brain's Natural Hard-Wiring

Research has shown that our brain functions pretty much the same way it did a thousand years ago, with much of what we do the result of unconscious decisions our brain is hard-wired to make to reduce the pressure that comes from constant change and adaptation. Cooper (2006) explained that this inherent reaction to such pressure is a deeply embedded survival mechanism "designed" to have us "do whatever is necessary to avoid stress, minimize pain, eliminate surprises, fend off uncertainty, and resist change.".

This ancient survival response shows up as:

* a strong resistance to change - anything that will move one out of their comfort zone is seen as a threat by our brain
* a continuing reliance on years of training in analytical skills as the basis of a science professional's automatic response
* discounting of new information that does not support previous learning
* a search for evidence to support the existing way of doing things and current beliefs
* a tendency is to operate on automatic pilot, relying on what worked in the past.

So often it matters little how 'good' a particular leadership development program is, since the majority of them are based learning facts and concepts - not in how to make changes and take action. And as one frustrated technical expert lamented to me - "I've taken all the leadership courses available but it hasn't made any difference - people still won't do what I want!". In fact, while he had excelled in the courses, he had not changed his behaviour - so he continued to get what he'd always gotten - low morale, little participation and increasing losses from wastage.

The Solution:

Many scientists and technical experts recognize the need to become better leaders, however programs that lack the crucial support needed to translate these new skill sets into appropriate behaviours in the workplace will continue to fail to produce the desired results. And while by nature excellent observers, many science-based professionals do not observe their own actions and reflect on the impact they have on others. This is where a program that combines learning new skills with support from someone with strong communication and leadership skills and experience, cognizant of the issues and challenges the scientific community faces, can have a major impact. This is why mentoring and coaching are becoming so popular in the workplace

Experience has shown that with the ongoing support that enables them to step back and observe and reflect on what is actually happening, versus what they want to happen, they quickly identify what behaviours need to be changed and what they need to do to get the results they want. While not every science professional will want to move beyond the bench the exponential growth of information limits what any one person can achieve on their own - to be successful, they must develop the ability to work interdependently with others. Additionally, to be more effective in taking their expertise to a wider audience requires an improvement in both leadership and communication capabilities. Without ongoing support, whether from a mentor or a coach, much of the money spent on programs to develop these areas will continue to fall short of achieving the hoped for results.

There is an opportunity here to help our scientific community take their performance to new heights by providing them with programs that not only help them learn new leadership skills, but also helps them put the new knowledge into action, building the new habits they need to bring people together and create the combined synergy that produces results that go beyond the merely additive. In doing so we can ensure that the people with the science and technology expertise needed by our society are not sub-optimized because of their natural leanings, their training, their workplace culture and their hard-wired brain reactions.

Recommended Reading:

- Pfeffer, Jeffrey, Robert I. Sutton. 2000. The Knowing-Doing Gap. How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
- Goleman, Daniel, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee. 2002. Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
- Cooper, Robert K. 2006. Get Out of Your Own Way: The 5 Keys to Surpassing Everyone's Expectations. New York: Crown Business.

Cool Mist Humidifiers - New Technology Versus Proven Designs

So you've decided to buy a humidifier, and you would prefer cool mist to warm. Great! But that's not the end of the decision making process.

There are actually three different types of cool mist humidifier available, and they each use a different technique to get water into the air.

The most common method is by evaporation. Water is absorbed into a pad or filter, and a fan is used to speed the evaporation process. This method is very simple and natural, and has been around for a long time. It is a tried and tested process that has been perfected over the years, making these models very reliable. The only disadvantage is the noise of the fan.

Another technique that has been developed in recent years uses a spinning disk to encourage the water into the air. These 'impeller' models make a lot less noise than a fan, which is a big advantage.

The third type uses ultrasonic sound. This may sound like something from science fiction, but it is actually quite an effective method. To the human ear, these models are effectively silent!

The two most recent methods of humidification have now been in production for some time, but if you read consumer reviews of individual products, you will soon see that the technology is not yet perfected. Some break far too easily, and in extreme cases you can even end up with a puddle of water on the floor. Don't let this put you off! You just have to be careful which brand you buy.

It is always the case with any new technology that the cheaper models will not deliver everything they promise. These new humidification techniques are here to stay, and their noise free operation will undoubtedly make them very popular in the future. For now, you have to decide what sort of person you are. Do you love the cutting edge, or prefer the safety and comfort of a tried and tested design?

Science As Career

Education in science opens up new vistas for students. Nanotechnology would really take over from micro electronics & grow tremendously. Nanotech simply put is scientific ability to play around with molecules & use them for any application. So, miniaturization would go to the Nano level (10 -9 m)

Similarly robotics is an area where lot of development is going to take place.

Biotechnology is influencing two main areas - agriculture & health care. In agricultural sciences, biotechnologists work in improvement of crops(bigger size, better yield), development of bio-insecticides, tissue culture and in pharmaceutical research, they work in development of new vaccines & diagnostic procedures. These are research based jobs and individuals work with research organizations like Department of Biotechnology, IGIB, hospitals like AIIMS and pharma companies like Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy's, Cipla, Monsanto etc. This is a fast growing field as lot of research work is flowing to India from countries like US.

Astrophysics is the study of the physical nature of stars, galaxies & universe. Astronomers/astrophysicists find work in defense and space research organizations, with electrical and electronic equipment and search navigation equipment manufacturers.

Bio-medical engineering involves the application of engineering techniques and principles to medicine and biology. Most bio-medical engineers are employed in hospitals or by companies manufacturing medical equipment.

Geographic Information Systems Specialists: GIS is a technology that attaches a database to an electronic map. The map is in electronic format, where it can be scaled up and down as per requirement. GIS technology can be used for scientific investigations, resource management and development planning.

Bioinformatics performs two critical roles: it develops tools embodying novel algorithms and analytical techniques, or applies existing tools to achieve new insights into molecular biology in testing, documentation, running operating procedures and database administration, programming, software development, algorithm creation and scientific visualization.

Food Technology in the study of science related to processing of food stuffs. This processing involves preservation of fruits, sea food, meats, cooked foods, vegetables, juices and beverages and the manufacturing of confectionery, snacks, food stuffs as well as packaging of these & marketing.

Gaming Technology is hot & exciting area which lets individuals work on programming, creative & complete creation of computer games.

Agriculture has become a major industry and is going to grow by leaps & bounds after 2005 when GATT (General Agreement on Trade & Tariffs) forced other countries to relax their restrictions on agricultural import. Individuals with a background in agricultural science (engineering or BSc) work as agricultural scientists, agri-machinery industry, agricultural education, banking(technical officers), farming, conservation, agricultural management.

This sector also receives a number of inputs(capital, electricity, tax exemptions) from the government and hence would continue to grow fast.

Homeopathy & indigenous medicine areas like Ayurveda, Unani have been prevalent for a number of years. Though jobs are available in hospitals & nursing homes, this can present good entrepreneurial opportunities wherein one can start on one's own.

Hospital & big nursing homes utilize sophisticated diagnostic & therapeutic equipments to assist the medical practitioner. Medical Lab Technology courses equip an individual to pursue careers in this field.

With growing awareness of quality of life, Nutrition & Dietetics assumes great importance in day to day life. Career opportunities are available in hospitals, nursing homes, specialized clinics like VLCC & others or one can practice on one's own also. They might also work with food companies in their research & development departments.

Hot New Technology Gadgets

Let me tell you about some of the hottest new technology gadgets out there right now. First which seems promising is the Automatic Make up camera by Casio, the Smart Pen, and Computer Cool School by Fisher Price, The Swanky Theater, and the Glowing Gloves. I will tell you about the product, the great features, and if available when it comes out and how much.

So first we have the automatic Make up Camera, the Exilim Zoom Z300, which is 10.1 Megapixels and the Z250 which is 9.1 megapixels made by Casio. It has a built in Photoshop, for the makeup savvy women. The makeup setting goes from 0 through 12, and you can add as little or as much make up as you need. You will be able to cover wrinkles, frown lines, even out your skin tone. It was released, Aug 29 at a price of $249.84.

Next we have, the Smart Pen. If you are like me and you write a lot and then forget what you wrote down and cannot find the paper, this is the pen for you! It writes with ink, and just like a regular pen. It records audio and links it to what your writing, and plays audio back when tapped on paper. You can also put the notes onto your laptop or desktop computer, you can even leave your laptop at home and if you have the special dot paper (about $5 for a whole notebook) you can easily transfer all your notes onto the paper from your pen. The pen costs $149 for 1GB and $199 for 2GB.

One of the neatest hot new technology gadget, is the Computer Cool School, by fisher price. It's a keyboard that you hook up to your own computer and it teaches reading, writing, science, art and music. It is password protected so your little one doesn't print 500 copies of anything. It always keeps them from getting to the main hard drive on the computer as well as the internet. It came out in July and it costs $59.99.

Another hot new technology gadget is, The Swanky Theater. It's like a drive in wherever you place it. You can get a nine, ten or twelve foot inflatable screen, and it's so compact it folds down to duffel bag size! It is great for party throwers who want to be the talk of the town. At $ 1,499 it comes with the screen, projector, DVD player, sound mixer, and more. If you want just the screen its $399. But by far worth the price!

The last of the hot new technology gadgets is, The glowing glove. Innovative technology has led to having a flashlight at your fingertip, literally. It's a fiber optic glove made by Tilen Sepic of Slovenia. It can produce diffused and spot lighting. And if the power goes out it will most defiantly come in handy! Doesn't state how much or when it will be out.

History of the Computer - Computers and Technology

The volume and use of computers in the world are so great, they have become difficult to ignore anymore. Computers appear to us in so many ways that many times, we fail to see them as they actually are. People associated with a computer when they purchased their morning coffee at the vending machine. As they drove themselves to work, the traffic lights that so often hampered us are controlled by computers in an attempt to speed the journey. Accept it or not, the computer has invaded our life.

The origins and roots of computers started out as many other inventions and technologies have in the past. They evolved from a relatively simple idea or plan designed to help perform functions easier and quicker. The first basic type of computers were designed to do just that; compute!. They performed basic math functions such as multiplication and division and displayed the results in a variety of methods. Some computers displayed results in a binary representation of electronic lamps. Binary denotes using only ones and zeros thus, lit lamps represented ones and unlit lamps represented zeros. The irony of this is that people needed to perform another mathematical function to translate binary to decimal to make it readable to the user.

One of the first computers was called ENIAC. It was a huge, monstrous size nearly that of a standard railroad car. It contained electronic tubes, heavy gauge wiring, angle-iron, and knife switches just to name a few of the components. It has become difficult to believe that computers have evolved into suitcase sized micro-computers of the 1990's.

Computers eventually evolved into less archaic looking devices near the end of the 1960's. Their size had been reduced to that of a small automobile and they were processing segments of information at faster rates than older models. Most computers at this time were termed "mainframes" due to the fact that many computers were linked together to perform a given function. The primary user of these types of computers were military agencies and large corporations such as Bell, AT&T, General Electric, and Boeing. Organizations such as these had the funds to afford such technologies. However, operation of these computers required extensive intelligence and manpower resources. The average person could not have fathomed trying to operate and use these million dollar processors.

The United States was attributed the title of pioneering the computer. It was not until the early 1970's that nations such as Japan and the United Kingdom started utilizing technology of their own for the development of the computer. This resulted in newer components and smaller sized computers. The use and operation of computers had developed into a form that people of average intelligence could handle and manipulate without to much ado. When the economies of other nations started to compete with the United States, the computer industry expanded at a great rate. Prices dropped dramatically and computers became more affordable to the average household.

Like the invention of the wheel, the computer is here to stay.The operation and use of computers in our present era of the 1990's has become so easy and simple that perhaps we may have taken too much for granted. Almost everything of use in society requires some form of training or education. Many people say that the predecessor to the computer was the typewriter. The typewriter definitely required training and experience in order to operate it at a usable and efficient level. Children are being taught basic computer skills in the classroom in order to prepare them for the future evolution of the computer age.

The history of computers started out about 2000 years ago, at the birth of the abacus, a wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on them. When these beads are moved around, according to programming rules memorized by the user, all regular arithmetic problems can be done. Another important invention around the same time was the Astrolabe, used for navigation.

Blaise Pascal is usually credited for building the first digital computer in 1642. It added numbers entered with dials and was made to help his father, a tax collector. In 1671, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz invented a computer that was built in 1694. It could add, and, after changing some things around, multiply. Leibnitz invented a special stopped gear mechanism for introducing the addend digits, and this is still being used.

The prototypes made by Pascal and Leibnitz were not used in many places, and considered weird until a little more than a century later, when Thomas of Colmar (A.K.A. Charles Xavier Thomas) created the first successful mechanical calculator that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. A lot of improved desktop calculators by many inventors followed, so that by about 1890, the range of improvements included: Accumulation of partial results, storage and automatic reentry of past results (A memory function), and printing of the results. Each of these required manual installation. These improvements were mainly made for commercial users, and not for the needs of science.

While Thomas of Colmar was developing the desktop calculator, a series of very interesting developments in computers was started in Cambridge, England, by Charles Babbage (of which the computer store "Babbages" is named), a mathematics professor. In 1812, Babbage realized that many long calculations, especially those needed to make mathematical tables, were really a series of predictable actions that were constantly repeated. From this he suspected that it should be possible to do these automatically. He began to design an automatic mechanical calculating machine, which he called a difference engine. By 1822, he had a working model to demonstrate. Financial help from the British Government was attained and Babbage started fabrication of a difference engine in 1823. It was intended to be steam powered and fully automatic, including the printing of the resulting tables, and commanded by a fixed instruction program.

The difference engine, although having limited adaptability and applicability, was really a great advance. Babbage continued to work on it for the next 10 years, but in 1833 he lost interest because he thought he had a better idea; the construction of what would now be called a general purpose, fully program-controlled, automatic mechanical digital computer. Babbage called this idea an Analytical Engine. The ideas of this design showed a lot of foresight, although this couldn't be appreciated until a full century later.

The plans for this engine required an identical decimal computer operating on numbers of 50 decimal digits (or words) and having a storage capacity (memory) of 1,000 such digits. The built-in operations were supposed to include everything that a modern general - purpose computer would need, even the all important Conditional Control Transfer Capability that would allow commands to be executed in any order, not just the order in which they were programmed.

As people can see, it took quite a large amount of intelligence and fortitude to come to the 1990's style and use of computers. People have assumed that computers are a natural development in society and take them for granted. Just as people have learned to drive an automobile, it also takes skill and learning to utilize a computer.

Computers in society have become difficult to understand. Exactly what they consisted of and what actions they performed were highly dependent upon the type of computer. To say a person had a typical computer doesn't necessarily narrow down just what the capabilities of that computer was. Computer styles and types covered so many different functions and actions, that it was difficult to name them all. The original computers of the 1940's were easy to define their purpose when they were first invented. They primarily performed mathematical functions many times faster than any person could have calculated. However, the evolution of the computer had created many styles and types that were greatly dependent on a well defined purpose.

The computers of the 1990's roughly fell into three groups consisting of mainframes, networking units, and personal computers. Mainframe computers were extremely large sized modules and had the capabilities of processing and storing massive amounts of data in the form of numbers and words. Mainframes were the first types of computers developed in the 1940's. Users of these types of computers ranged from banking firms, large corporations and government agencies. They usually were very expensive in cost but designed to last at least five to ten years. They also required well educated and experienced manpower to be operated and maintained. Larry Wulforst, in his book Breakthrough to the Computer Age, describes the old mainframes of the 1940's compared to those of the 1990's by speculating, "...the contrast to the sound of the sputtering motor powering the first flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk and the roar of the mighty engines on a Cape Canaveral launching pad". End of part one.

Works Cited

Wulforst, Harry. Breakthrough to the Computer Age. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1982.

Palferman, Jon and Doron Swade. The Dream Machine. London: BBC Books, 1991.

Campbell-Kelly, Martin and William Aspray. Computer, A History of the Information Machine. New York: BasicBooks, 1996.