Historical Figures in Computing

James Russell

• developed CD  wasn't mass-produced until 1980

Blaise Pascal

(1623-1639) invented first mechanical calculator called Pascaline when her was 19 to help father with taxes: could only add and subtract, maximum of eight digits, very few produced since he lacked industry for mass production of such a complex device, you used dials to operate it; programming language named after him - not widely used today, but was at one point

Charles Babbage

Born in 1791, attended many schools and had many private tutors due to frequent illness, attended Trinity College in Cambridge in 1810, invented difference engine to compensate for inefficiencies of math done by hand: added and subtracted, could solve polynomial equations, and do multiplication, could go back to 31 decimal places, never finished due to money constraints; then invented analytical machine: far more complicated, operated using punch cards, could go back to 50 decimal places, could store equivalent of 625 bytes of memory, could do everything difference machine could do, he never started building it; model will be finished being built by 2021; designed most of these computer mechanism in the 1820s and 1830s; his brain was removed upon his death and is still preserved (cut in half); called father of modern computing

George Boole

Born in 1815, limited education due to lack of money, created Boolean logic or Boolean Algebra: primarily focuses on whether variables are true or false or not, Boolean Operators: and, or, not; invented this in 1850s; can be illustrated by a triple Venn Diagram, Boolean Logic is the basis of all modern computers, died in 1864 at age of 49

Augusta Ada Byron, the Countess of Lovelace

Born in 1815, mother took her away from her father (Lord George Gordon Byron AKA Lord Byron of Romantic Literature) and had her taught math and science (unusual for woman), meets Charles Babbage at age of 17, understood analytical engine better than Babbage, came up with idea of codes after translating paper that had been written about analytical machine from French and created more understandable summary of it, considered first computer programmer even though she never programmed, came up with idea of repetition and that computing could be used for many things other than math calculations, died in early 30s in 1852 from uterine cancer, programming language named after her: not widely known, but used by US government for more covert or secure things

Claude Shannon

Called father of Information Theory: in 1930s, invented Binary Code; used Boolean Logic to develop digital circuits which form the basis for all modern computers; invented Ultimate Computer, which basically a chest where, when you flip the switch, a mechanical hand pops out, flips the switch back, goes back into the chest, and the chest closes; other bizarre inventions include flame-throwing trombone, motorized pogo-stick, and roulette wheel, and motorized Frisbee

Don't forget to study the homeroom computer club at the bottom.

Good Luck.

Robert Metcalfe

• 70s - Invented Ethernet.

John Bardeen Walter Brattain William Shockley

• Bardeen  Born May 23, 1908  Thinker of group • Brattain  Born Feb 10, 1902 in Amoy, China  Attended Whitman College  University of Oregon  University of Minnesota  Tinkerer of group • Shockley  Born Feb 13, 1910  Attended California Institute of Technology and MIT  Visionary of group • Met after World War 2 at Bell Labs • Invented semi-conductor  Carries electricity through computer  Replaced Vacuum Tubes: could be turned on and off and more compact  Won Nobel Prize for physics in 1956  Group went separate ways soon afterwards: Shockley not very pleasant to work with - wanted to take credit for everything even though he usually just stood by and watched while the other two actually built semiconductor

Steve Wozniak

• Born August 11, 1950 • Created Apple I and Apple II  Apple II established Apple as successful company  Apple I was more of a collector's item: a rare commodity; made in Jobs' garage • Friendly, didn't always have a good relationship with jobs • Worked for HP  Quits after being laughed at HP company officials for his Apple II  Founded Apple soon after leaving • Between Apple and Mac type of computer was Lisa  Named after his daughter who he would not name for a while • more programmer technology guy • featured on The Big Bang Theory

Grace Hopper

• Born December of 1906 • Was an admiral in the US military • Graduated from Yale University with PHD in mathematics in 1934 • 3rd person to program Mark1 (type of computer at time) • Worked for Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation • Conceptualized how computers could be more versatile if more user-friendly and in English • Developed A-O series • Invented first compiler in 1949 - translates language of programming into language that computer can read  Primarily used and originally for computer language COBOL which she helped develop • Developed Univac Computer of B-O compiler, known as FLOW-MATIC (language) • Designed CODASYL • First woman in the British Computer Society • Coined term "debugging" - When she was working on the Univac or Mark 1 (unknown) she discovered a problem which was due to their being a bug in the computer • Huge Computer conference named after her

Steve Jobs

• Born Feb. 24, 1955 in San Francisco , CA • Worked for Atari in 1974  When he first started working with Wozniak • Went to Homestead High School where he met Wozniak • Created Apple Computers after leaving Atari in 1974 • 1976 - CEO of Apple Computers • Into experimental drugs • Created Apple 2  First personal computer • Fired from Apple in 1976  Not very nice  Voted off from Board of Directors • Developed NeXT cube while working at NeXT Inc. in 1985  Basis for internet • 1986 - took job at Pixar and saved company with production of ToyStory • 1997 - Apple going into bankruptcy bought Jobs back by buying NeXT Inc.  Creation of ipod saved company • More business and marketing then computer science • Was a hippie

Paul G. Allen

• Born January 21st, 1953 • Befriended Bill Gates in the private school, Lakeside • Dropped out of University of Washington, convinced Gates to do the same at Harvard to found Microsoft with him • Created Altair BASIC (programming language) and simulator for 8800 microcomputer, which had been created by another company, but was incompatible with any previously created programming languages • IBM and Microsoft created operating system MS-DDS  Bought Q-DOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from an extremely small and obscure computer company for $50,000  Renamed it MS-DOS (Microsoft Digital Operating System), and released it in 1985  IBM funded them, and bought rights to use Microsoft in their products, but Microsoft still exclusively owned the program • Both Allen and Gates have pledged to bequeath half of their money to charity when they die

Gordon Moore

• Born January 23, 1929 in San Francisco • Graduated from CalTec with PHD in chemistry • Moore's Law: The number of components in a single silicon chip will double will every two years  Has proven mostly true  It's been predicted that this will no longer be accurate before 2020 because companies are beginning to experiment with substitutes to silicon rather than simply improving silicon chips • Started Intel Corp.  Leading company in microprocessor  Invented first microprocessor (4004)  Beginning of 70s • Still alive, gives lots of money to CalTec, lives in Silicon Valley

Jeff Bezos

• Born January 24, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico • Went to Princeton University to study electrical engineering and computer science • 1994 -- quit his job to start Amazon in his garage  Launched it on July 16, 1995  Originally an online bookstore  After two months, revenue was $2000 per week • While sometimes you are buying from Amazon's own cash of products, other times you buying products from other companies • Through Amazon, he pioneered online shopping • Company invented Kindle in 2007 • Wants to send people to live in Space • Amazon is currently working on a fleet of helicopter drones to use as a new delivery system

Douglas Engelbart

• Born January 30, 1925 • Attended Oregon State University, the University of California, and Berkeley • Created computer mouse (1964)  Extremely crude version • Created idea of online system • Two-dimensional editing system • Founding member of internet • Believed people should do more boot-strapping or collective IQ  Working together and improving on each other's creations and ideas  Cooperation over competition • Died July 2, 2013 at age 88 • Passed on many ideas to daughter/business partner Christina Engelbart

Alan Turing

• Born June 23, 1912 • Studied math at Cambridge • Finished education at Princeton • Worked for English military in WW2 breaking codes • Helped build Automatic Computing Engine - first all-purpose computer • Created Turing Test - early artificial intelligence  Asked computer question  Computer gave answer  If response seemed human, test successful • Created Truing Machine - first digital computer, never finished due to lack of funding • Tried in court for homosexuality in late 40s in London  Many of his awards taken away  Honors reinstated to his estate following death • Took testosterone injections to avoid jail • Died from eating an apple poisoned with cyanide  Suspected suicide, though many disagree  Based on his fascination with Snow White

Alan Kay

• Born May 17, 1940 • Invented Dynabook  Early version of tablet  Wanted to get kids to use computers more, so Dynabook geared toward kids  Never mass-produced, despite existence of working prototype  Had keyboard • Xerox PARK  Worked there  In Silicon Valley Area  Worked on GUI - program that created system of icons and visual displays that are used on computers today - which Apple appropriated • Created Smalltalk  First object-oriented computer language • Worked for ATARI • Kind and happy all the time • Still alive

Ray Tomlinson

• Born in Amsterdam, NY in 1904 • Began using @ symbol (original used in short-hand) to separate user from machine in e-mail address to illeviate confusion • Created basic e-mail system (not online)  First e-mails sent between computers right next to each other  1971-1972  Internet was already there, but not world wide web  First message was "qwertyuiop"

Tim Berners-Lee

• Born in London on June 8, 1955 • Worked for CERN beginning in 1980 • Proposed system of sharing and updating system using Hypertext Transfer Protocol  Delivers you to internet  Created HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) computer language for internet  This was free to people, so he didn't make a lot of money off of this (still makes million)  Basis of internet • In 1994, founded W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)  Regulate internet  Makes sure internet is for everyone  World Wide Web is the link between us and the internet: we get to the internet (collection of sites) through the World Wide Web • knighted

David Karp

• Born on July 6, 1986 • Grew up in New York City • Attended Bronx High School of Science  Dropped out at age 15 • By age 14, intern for producer Fred Seibert  Producer for Frederator Studios • Launched Tumblr in February 2007 • In 2013, he sold Tumblr to Yahoo for $1.1 billion with the provision that he remain CEO

Jack St. Clair Kilby

• Born on November 8, 1923 in Jefferson City, Missouri • 1958 - begins working for Texas Instruments • Invented first microchip or integrated circuit in 1958  Combination of many computing elements in single object half the size of a paperclip  First used in 1958 in calculators • Pioneered uses for microchip in industry, military, an commercial settings • Invented first pocket calculator using integrated circuit • Invented first thermal printer and worked on solar power • 2000 - won Nobel Prize • Founded Kilby Awards Foundation • Revolutionized computing

Marcian Hoff

• Born on October 28, 1937 in Rochester, NY • Went by Ted • Came up with architectural design for microprocessor  First used in microprocessor  First microprocessor had 2300 transistors • Named first Intel fellow • Worked for Atari as VP of technology • Worked as chief technologist at Teklicon • Given US National Medal of Technology

Bill Gates

• Born on October 28, 1955 • Dropped out of Harvard • Founded Microsoft on November 2nd, 1985 with Paul Allen • 2nd richest man in the world

Jack Dorsey

• Cofounder of Twitter • Born November 19, 1976 • Began programming at Bishop High School • Attended Missouri University of Science and Technology  Dropped out • Then attended New York University  Dropped out again, this time just a few months before graduation • Launched Twitter in 2006  Extremely successful from the very beginning, and is believed to have played a key-role in campaigning for presidential election  First tweet made by Dorsey on March 21 "Just setting up my Twitter" • Twitter went public in 2013 • Twitter is currently the world's second largest social network • Started Squares in 2010 - easy way of conducting credit card transactions CHECK ON THAT

Alan Shugart

• Created first floppy disk  First was 8 inches in diameter: around 1971 (he was an IBM engineer at the time), only held 100 Kilobytes  Next was 5 and quarter inch: 1976, held 1.2 megabytes  3.5 inches: 1981, several versions - 400 kb, 720 kb DD (Double Density), 1.44 mb HD (High Density)

Ted Nelson

• Eccentric • Born June 17, 1937 • Still alive • Slightly nihilist cynic • Parental issues since both were famous and rarely around • Hated 7th grade teacher - tried to stab her with a screwdriver • While growing up with grandparents, found at he had ADHD • Tried to think of ways to link documents together (before internet) - early 60s • Hypertext - text linked to another document or, today, to another website • Xanadu - program based around hyperlinking  Essentially simplified internet  Early concept of Word Wide Web  Never completed • Kind of crazy - thinks everyone stole his ideas • Didn't actually know how to program a computer

Adam Osborne

• born in Thailand on March 6, 1939 • started publishing company Osborne Publishing which made easy-to-understand computer manuals; bought by McGrath • started Osborne Computer Corporation  created first portable computer • successful until 1983 when Osborne prematurely announced that two new models would be released, causing people to stop buying his products that were currently being sold, resulting in the company declaring bankruptcy • founded Paperback Software International which specialized in cheaper computer software  sued by Lotus in 1987  Lotus won in 1990  He then stepped down • Worked in software until 1992, when he returned to India • Died in 2003 at age 6 of Cancer

Mark Zuckerberg

• Invented Facebook • Born May 14, 1984 in White Plains, NY • Began programming at early age, inventing games and very early form of Facebook called Zucknet • Created Synapse while attending private school which was early form of Pandora  Apple and Microsoft wanted to buy it, but he refused to give it to them • Enrolled in Harvard in 2002  Known there as go-to programmer • Created programs such as Course Match (helped you find courses you may like) and Face Match (determined who in the student body was the best-looking) • Began making Facebook during sophomore year • Original version of Facebook launched in 2003  Shut down shortly afterward due to copyright issues (they stole other peoples' pictures)  Re-launched in 2004 originally just for the Harvard Server, but was then extended to other universities; this version was called "The Facebook": later shortened • Sued many times for allegedly taking other peoples' ideas in creating Facebook • Eventually dropped out of Harvard  Had a friend who he wanted to do it with him, but when the friend told his father, the father made it clear that he could not drop out, resulting in the friend losing out on billions • Youngest billionaire in 2008 • Facebook went public (began being sold on the stock market) in 2012 • Facebook bought Instagram • He's taken The Giving Pledge, in which a large portion of ones fortunes are given to charity after death

Gary Starkweather

• Invented first laser-printer  Originally very large relative to modern day printers  Did this while working at Xerox  Late 60s • Later worked for Apple  Created color management system (CMYK) for printers  C - Cyan  M - magenta  Y - yellow  K - black (used last letter so as not to conflict with RGB, which )

Pierre Omidyar

• June 21, 1967 in Paris, France • One night at dinner, pez-dispenser-collecting girlfriend complained that there were no more fellow pez-collectors in the neighborhood left to trade with • Solved problem by creating website called Auction Web in 1995 • Later renamed website eBay • Worked for Apple • Became billionaire by age 31 • PayPal was created by eBay  System that allows you to transfer from and receive money into your checking account digitally using your credit card • Innovative because each time you buy something from or sell something to someone, you rate them • Served as CEO, but eventually retired and is now his philanthropist • First thing that sold on eBay (then Auction Web) was broken laser pointer for $14 • Most expensive thing that ever sold on eBay went for $4.9 million

J. Presper Eckert John Mauchly

• Mauchly - student of Eckert at Moore Engineering School even though he was 12 years older • ENIAC - 1946, was used by military to help with artillery attacks (primitive missile targeting system), first general purpose digital computer  Pioneered use of vacuum tubes  Took up 1800 square feet and weighed 30 tons  1000 times faster than any computer built before then • UNIVAC - considered first commercial computer, finished in 1948, commissioned by National Census Bureau, not as big as ENIAC, funded by government and Remington Rand Company, only 46 made  Primarily a giant calculator  Faster than ENIAC

David Packard Bill Hewlett

• Met at Stanford • Then lost touch • Packard - Secretary of Defense for Nixon • Then renewed friendship • Started Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 1939 in garage with just $538 ($9000 in today's currency)  Flipped coin to see whose name would come first • Originally just took custom orders for electronic intruments  Worked for US government making electronic measuring devices • Later shifted to mass production of standard electronic instruments of all types  Calculators—created first Scientific Pocket Calculator  Printers - dominant in this industry, one of first companies to make printers, particularly color printers, commercially available to public to have at home

John Backus

• Mid-1950s:  IBM project leader  Invented computing language FORTRAN: considered one of first high-level programming languages

Sergey Brin Larry Page

• Sergey Brin  Born in Moscow on August 21, 1973  Left Moscow to escape Jewish persecution  Attended University of Michigan • Larry Page  Born on January 26, 1973  Worked on BackRub o A more efficient search engine than Google o Was discontinued when it took up too much room after a brief stint on the University System • Met in Grad School at Stanford • Know the origin of Google's name • The two created PageRank in 1998  Algorithm which searches the internet, finding the most visited sites, and then suggests them to researcher in that order  Companies can pay to be higher up on the list of presented sources • Created Google  one of the best places to work in the corporate sector mainly because of creative freedom given (unless you're an intern, in which case you are often treated like you are irrelevant)  major leading search engine • Date Mining - when you create a Gmail Account, you give Google permission to read your e-mail  Google scan for key words to see what you are interested in and show you adds based on that  Many companies have emulated Google and started looking at people's social media profiles to tell their financial demographic use

Steve Chen Chad Hurley Jawed Karim

• Steve Chen  Born August 1978  Attended University of Illinois • Jawed Karim • Chad Hurley  Born January 1977 • Group met at PayPal  Chad Hurley designed PayPal logo • Created YouTube in 2005 • First video on April 23, 2005 - 19 sec of Jawed Karim walking around a zoo, titled "Me at the Zoo" • YouTube bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion • YouTube won Peabody Award • Primary work done by YouTube employees currently is looking for copyright • Part of Contract that YouTubers agree to is that if a video contains copyright, YouTube can give the rights to it to whichever company who owns the copyright. This is lucrative for YouTube, since it is essentially a way of advertising, as well as for the company, for the same reason.

Linus Torvald

• born December 19, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland • purchased first computer in 1987, but was unsatisfied with it • enrolled in University of Helsinki o study computer programming • August 25, 1991 - released first prototype of Linux  Logo is a computer-generated penguin  Operating system  Alternative to Windows  Appears similar to Windows, but you can modify it and add new codes and programs  There are many sites that offer codes that one can upload to Linux to modify it, but Torvald has to approve these  Used to be free, but is still far cheaper than Windows  Also called Linux Kernel • Released first official version a few months later • Linux is run in almost every device • Completely open source  More stable then Windows  Constantly being modified by independent computer programmers, so that no two versions are ever the same • Git - software control and distribution system that Torvald invented, he uses it to monitor and approve Linux uploads