drummyfish/less_retarded_wiki
5
1
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity

Update

Browse source
This commit is contained in:
Miloslav Ciz 2022-04-27 21:13:55 +02:00
parent 617f178d0c
commit 02b2c56764
7 changed files with 89 additions and 6 deletions
Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

11
history.md
View file

@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ By 1800 Alessandro Volta invented an **electric battery**. In 1827 André-Marie
In 1822 [Charles Babbage](charles_babbage.md), a great English mathematician, completed the first version of a manually powered **[digital](digital.md) mechanical computer** called the Difference Engine to help with the computation of [polynomial](polynomial.md) [derivatives](derivative.md) to create mathematical tables used e.g. in navigation. It was met with success and further development was funded by the government, however difficulties of the construction led to never finishing the whole project. In 1837 Babbage designed a new machine, this time a **[Turing complete](turing_complete.md) general purpose computer**, i.e. allowing for programming with branches and loops, a true marvel of technology. It also ended up not being built completely, but it showed a lot about what computers would be, e.g. it had an [assembly](assembly.md)-like programming language, memory etc. For this computer [Ada Lovelace](ada_lovelace.md) would famously write the Bernoulli number algorithm.
**Sound recording** with phonatograph was invented in 1857 in Paris, however it could not be played back at the time -- the first record of human voice made with this technology can nowadays be reconstructed and played back. It wouldn't be until 1878 when people could both record and play back sounds with [Edison](edison.md)'s improvement of phonatograph. A year later, in 1879, Edison also patented the **light bulb**, even though he didn't invent it -- there were at least 20 people who created a light bulb before him.
Around 1888 so called **war of the currents** was taking place; it was a heated battle between companies and inventors for whether the [alternating](ac.md) or [direct](dc.md) current would become the standard for distribution of electric energy. The main actors were [Thomas Edison](edison.md), a famous iventor and a huge capitalist dick rooting for DC, and George Westinghouse, the promoter of AC. Edison and his friends used false claims and even killing of animals to show that AC was wrong and dangerous, however AC was objectively better, e.g. by its efficiency thanks to using high voltage, and so it ended up winning the war. AC was also supported by the famous genius inventor [Nikola Tesla](tesla.md) who during these times contributed hugely to electric engineering, he e.g. invented an AC motor and Tesla coil and created a system for wireless transmission of electric power.
1895 can roughly be seen as the year of **invention of radio**, specifically wireless [telegraph](telegraph.md), by Italian engineer and inventor Guglielmo Marconi. He built on top of work of others such as [Hertz](hertz.md) and [Tesla](tesla.md) and created a device with which he was able to wirelessly ring a bell at a distance over 2 km.
On December 17 1903 the Wright brothers famously performed the **first controlled flight of a motor airplane** which they built, in North Carolina. In repeated attempts they flew as far as 61 meters over just a few seconds.
@ -34,11 +38,12 @@ Around 1915 [Albert Einstein](einstein.md), a German physicist, completed his **
Int 1907 Lee De Forest invented a practically usable **[vacuum tube](vacuum_tube.md)**, an extremely important part usable in electric devices for example as an amplifier or a switch -- this would enable construction of radios, telephones and later even primitive computers. The invention would lead to the [electronic](electronics.md) revolution.
In 1924 about 50% of US households own a car.
October 22 1925 has seen the invention of **[transistor](transistor.md)** by Julius Lilienfeld (Austria-Hungary), a component that would replace vacuum tubes thanks to its better properties, and which would become probably the most essential part of computers. At the time the invention didn't see much attention, it would only become relevant decades later.
In 1826 or 1827 French inventor Nicéphore Niépce captured **first [photography](photo.md)** that survived until today -- a view from his estate named Le Gras. About an 8 hour exposure was used (some say it may have taken several days). He used a [camera obscura](camera_obscura.md) and asphalt plate that hardened where the light was shining. Earlier cases of photography existed maybe as early as 1717, but they were only short lived.
In 1931 [Kurt Gödel](kurt_godel.md), a genius mathematician and logician from Austria-Hunagry (nowadays Czech Republic), published revolutionary papers with his [incompleteness theorems](incompleteness.md) which proved that, simply put, mathematics has fundamental limits and "can't prove everything". This led to [Alan Turing](turing.md)'s publications in 1936 that nowadays stand as the **foundations of [computer science](compsci.md)** -- he introduced a theoretical computer called the **[Turing machine](turing_machine.md)** and with it he proved that computers, no matter how powerful, will never be able to "compute everything". Turing also predicted the importance of computers in the future and has created several [algorithms](algorithm.md) for future computers (such as a [chess](chess.md) playing program).
In 1938 [Konrad Zuse](konrad_zuse.md), a German engineer, constructed **[Z1](z1.md), the first working electric mechanical [digital](digital.md) partially programmable computer** in his parents' house. It weighted about a ton and wasn't very reliable, but brought huge innovation nevertheless. It was programmed with punched film tapes, however programming was limited, it was NOT [Turing complete](turing_complete.md) and there were only 8 instructions. Z1 ran on a frequency of 1 to 4 Hz and most operations took several clock cycles. It had a 16 word memory and worked with [floating point](float.md) numbers. The original computer was destroyed during the war but it was rebuilt and nowadays can be seen in a Berlin museum.
@ -53,6 +58,10 @@ Shortly after, on 29 October 1969, another historical event would happen that co
In 1983 **[Richard Stallman](rms.md) announced his [GNU](gnu.md) project and invented [free (as in freedom) software](free_software.md)**, a kind of software that is freely shared and developed by the people so as to respect the users' freedom. This kind of ethical software stands opposed to the [proprietary](proprietary.md) corporate software, it would lead to creation of some of the most important software and to a whole revolution in software development and its licensing, it would spark the creation of other movements striving for keeping ethics in the information age.
August 12 1981 would see the released of **[IBM PC](ibm_pc.md)**, a person computer based on open, modular architecture that would immediately be very successful and would become the [de-facto standard](de_facto_standard.md) of personal computers. IBM PC was the first of the kind of desktop computers we have today. It had 4.77 MHz [Intel 8088](intel.md) CPU, 16 kB of [RAM](ram.md) and used 5.25" [floppy disks](floppy.md).
On November 20 1985 the first version of **[Windows](windows.md) operating system** was sadly released by [Microsoft](microsoft.md). These systems would become the mainstream desktop operating systems despite their horrible design and they would unfortunately establish so called [Windows philosophy](windows_philosophy.md) that would irreversibly corrupt other mainstream technology.
At the beginning of 1991 [Tim Berners-Lee](berners_lee.md) created the **[World Wide Web](www.md)**, a network of interlinked pages on the Internet. This marks another huge step in the Internet revolution, the Web would become the primary Internet service and the greatest software platform for publishing any kind of information faster and cheaper than ever before. It is what would popularize the Internet and bring it to the masses.
On 25 August 1991 **[Linus Torvalds](linus_torvalds.md) announced [Linux](linux.md)**, his project for a completely free as in freedom Unix-like [operating system](os.md). Linux would become part of [GNU](gnu.md) and later one of the biggest and most successful software projects in history. It would end up powering Internet servers and supercomputers as well as desktop computers of a great number of users. Linux proved that free software works and surpasses proprietary systems.