...From the Abacus to the PC: A Selective History of the Computer Thousands of years ago, the abacus was invented; it was this seemingly simple device that aided a human with calculations, which would be used as the conceptual model to build the computer. Looking back, one of the earliest instances of computer technology in action was not found in a computer at all but in a loom. The Jacquard loom, patented in 1804, was programmed by punched cards to create patterns in woven cloth (Keats 72). Charles Babbage, the English mathematician and many others would eventually use punch cards to program the computers they developed. The computer has taken many forms through the ages, and it would not be until almost 100 years later that the first fully electronic computer, the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC), would be developed, ushering in the age of electronic computing. The earliest computing device known, the abacus, a tool for counting and calculating, was invented thousands of years ago, and it consisted of beads on a frame whose numerical value was indicated by their position on the frame (Fernandes). In addition to being beads on a frame, an abacus was a stone or an area on the ground with grooves in which pebbles were placed and then manipulated for calculating. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used (“Abacus”). The abacus used the biquinary numbering system, a numbering system used in some early computers...
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...improvement of wireless technology. John Palfrey, Professor of Law and Urs Gasser, Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, both employed by the prestigious Harvard Law School, have written about how the world has been reshaped because of this new digital world in Born Digital. They found that this period “is the most rapid period of technological transformation ever, at least, when it comes to information” (3). This transformation of digital media over the last twenty-five years and the introduction of tools like the iPad create a clutter of information that threaten the ability to think deeply and concentrate, which has made the current educational system obsolete and ineffective. This same technology can be utilized to create the school of the future, by improving learning in the Digital Age. Digital natives, ”born after 1980,” do not know the world without the Internet, cell phones, computers, tablets and everything else that networked digital technology has provided (Palfrey 1). They “study, work, write and interact with each other in ways that are very different from the ways” their parents and grandparents grew up. (Palfrey 2). Palfrey and Gasser found that digital natives are comfortable with this new technology and experts at multitasking by surfing, gaming, texting, face booking, tweeting and now “instagramming.” That’s why digital natives “have shorter attention spans than their parents, and this technology leads to a ‘copy-and-paste’...
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...vA Very Brief History of Computer Science Written by Jeffrey Shallit for CS 134 at the University of Waterloo in the summer of 1995. This little web page was hastily stitched together in a few days. Perhaps eventually I will get around to doing a really good job. Suggestions are always welcome. A translation of this web page into French has been prepared by Anne Dicky at the University of Bordeaux. Before 1900 People have been using mechanical devices to aid calculation for thousands of years. For example, the abacus probably existed in Babylonia (present-day Iraq) about 3000 B.C.E. The ancient Greeks developed some very sophisticated analog computers. In 1901, an ancient Greek shipwreck was discovered off the island of Antikythera. Inside was a salt-encrusted device (now called the Antikythera mechanism) that consisted of rusted metal gears and pointers. When this c. 80 B.C.E. device was reconstructed, it produced a mechanism for predicting the motions of the stars and planets. (More Antikythera info here.) John Napier (1550-1617), the Scottish inventor of logarithms, invented Napier's rods (sometimes called "Napier's bones") c. 1610 to simplify the task of multiplication. In 1641 the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) built a mechanical adding machine. Similar work was done by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Leibniz also advocated use of the binary system for doing calculations. Recently it was discovered that Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635)...
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...La’au Lapa’au In this current day and age, technological advancements like antibiotics and medical instruments have taken precedence over things like home remedies and herbal healing leaving them practically obsolete. Through technology, many argue that we’ve been able to “improve” our overall health and extend our longevity. But through technology, many have lost sight tradition, the ways of our ancestors, the “organic” way of living. Taking a look back at our history, it’s clear to see that Hawaiians survived thrived even, off the land. It provided much more than just food, water, and shelter, it provided other things like medicine and healing. With the Hawaiian Islands being the northernmost Polynesian settlement and the most isolated, a unique and diversified plant life was able to develop. According to Gutamanis, before the initial contact in 1778, the Hawaiian culture was oriented around these ideals of harmony and interconnectedness. Hawaiians placed high value on the Hawaiian plants and were even called “gardeners” instead of farmers by Dr. E. S. Craighill Handy, one of the first people to study La’au Lapa’au in depth. Nowadays, many would agree that Hawaiian medicine was skillfully developed as they recognized the importance of both mental and physical health. In the same way, Abbott speaks on how Hawaiians placed diseases into 2 categories, causes from forces outside the body and causes from forces within the body. She continues on by saying that the first category...
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...Information technology (IT) is the application of computers to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data,[1] often in the context of a business or other enterprise.[2] IT is considered a subset of information and communications technology (ICT). In 2012, Zuppo proposed an ICT hierarchy where each hierarchy level "contain some degree of commonality in that they are related to technologies that facilitate the transfer of information and various types of electronically mediated communications.".[3] Business/IT was one level of the ICT hierarchy. The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but it also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several industries...
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...Cabulay Dean – Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance Far Eastern University, Manila, Philippines dcabulay@feu.edu.ph Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” For most people, creativity is more easily associated with art than business. But the highest art form is business because one can be very creative, dynamic and revolutionary. Creativity is also related to innovation and change. I am fully aware that many of the things we see around us are products of minds of geniuses, creative thinkers. It is hard to imagine a business without a creative mind. A creative mind is essential in any type of business. When we get tired of the old product or technology, as it also becomes obsolete, we long to have, a better product or technology. This is the essence of innovation. It has to be more convenient to customers. The etymology of the word “create” indicates to make something; while “creation” is something that shows skill, imagination or ability; and to be “creative” means the ability to invent, design or develop original ideas. Even in the simplest businesses, creativity can happen. In Manila, for example, a typical bakery would operate from 5:30 a.m. to 9:00 pm. A bunch of students made a feasibility study to inject the idea of a 24-hour bakery. Hence, Pugon de Manila was born. This is an example of an incremental innovation to the traditional bakery. Likewise, another group of students from Far Eastern University...
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...How World War II Changed Warfare How World War II Changed Warfare A man wearing olive drab pants and jacket slowly props the muzzle of his Thompson .45 Caliber Sub Machine Gun on a window seal of a half decimated apartment building. He lines up his sights and waits for the signal. He wears the “Screaming Eagle” patch of the United States Army’s 101st Airborne Division. Inserted into Bastogne, France via aerial assault from a C-47 Sky Train, in December 1944. Barrels pointed downward onto the rubble covered road. Passing over the road is a German Panzer Tank followed by a platoon of German soldiers carrying MP-40 Machine Pistols. As, the 101st nervously prepares to engage a Panzer Tank, which has them outmanned and outgunned, they hear a whistling sound in the distance believed to be an aircraft. Before they know a P-51 Mustang fighter plane, also known as a “Tank Killer” swoops in and knocks the Panzer out. Unexpectedly, the airborne troops open fire. A few long seconds later, the Panzer Tank sits smoldering in flames and a platoon of Nazis lays dead all around. Never before has the world, scene such a vast arsenal of weapons and tactics used. This will be reflected on the amount of lives, military and civilian, lost in the short span of 1939-1945. The devastation that took place would not just be repaired and forgotten. There is still evidence all over the Europe, North America, and Asia, of World War II and the lives that were lost. Not only was this the...
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...Samuel Langhorne Clemens also known as “Mark Twain” was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida but was raised in Hannibal, Missouri. Son of John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens was the seventh child. His brother Orion, Henry, and his sister Pamela managed to survive through their childhood. The other three siblings died before they could reach the age of eleven. Margaret (1830 - 1839) died when Mark was only three and then three years later his brother Benjamin (1832 – 1842) died tragically. Mark’s other brother Pleasant (1828 – 1829) died after six months of being born. When Mark was four years old his family moved to the city Hannibal in Missouri also known as the “slave state” where he was raised. Also Mark noticed the institution of slavery, which was a topic he would use in his writing later in the future. Mark’s father John Marshall Clemens died on March 24, 1847 of pneumonia when he was 11. His father was a local judge and attorney. Soon after his father passed away he became a printers apprentice for a newspaper owned by his brother Orion. He would work on the Hannibal Journal as a typesetter. Later at the age of eighteen he left Hannibal, Missouri to work as a printer in New York City and other states. He also joined the union and studied in public libraries when he could and learning more in the libraries than he could at school. When he was twenty...
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...Revolution, defined as an, “overthrow or repudiation, and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.” For the moment, let’s change “government or political system” to “form of entertainment” and “the people governed” to “its’ viewers.” The Digital Revolution, more commonly known as the Information Age, is defined as an overthrow or repudiation, and the thorough replacement of an established form of entertainment by its’ viewers. The Information Age, beginning around 1975, was “characterized by the gathering and almost instantaneous transmission of vast amounts of information and the rise of information-based industries.” The 1970’s were a time of pivotal change in United States history and a time where people, women, African-Americans and the youth especially, became more active and generally busier. This Digital Revolution did not come to transform our lives, but was simply developed out of the understanding that our lives were changing already and that there was a need for constant contact and immediate information. Here in 2013, we have yet to reach the peak of the Information Age, however it has surely made a substantial impact on lives across the world. The rise of the World Wide Web has caused the decline of television. The days where families would gather around the TV screen has been replaced by individuals with separate schedules, who catch up on their favorite shows online at their leisure. Television...
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...v105 some people claim that the disadvantages of the car are more than the advantages,do you agree or dis the birth of cars have made an enormous change to our life.in the past,we travel from one place to another only by foot,nowaday,cars can do it .its goes withour saying that the invention of cars bring great benefit to all of us.but as proverb goes:no garden without weeds.car is not exception. owing a car has a lot of advantages.for one thing,car provide us the most convient way of transportation.we can get around freely without spenting a lot of time.emotionally,i always found driving is so exciting.for another,its the comfortable to drive a car.In winter.drivers always can stay warm and dry even in rainy whether,in addition,drivers are usually safe in their cars when they are out at night. Cars bring the human merits,their side-effects graudually come to the surface.firstly,to run a car need a lot of oil,which is getting less and less.the increasing number of cars contribute the lacking of energy.secondlly,as more and more cars are used,the traffic ecpecially in big cities is getting heaver and heavier,which lead to the serious social problem--traffic jam.in addition,the inceasing numbers of cars ,which excaust sent a huge quantities of carbon monoxide into atmosphere.it make the air of cities unbreathabe,it strip people contact with frensh air. therefore,the new energy should be explored to replace the oil so that our envionmental pollution can be avioded .and th...
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... Here are some examples of the trade in information goods and services: 1. A newly invented machine is patented, and the patent is licensed to a company that plans to build and sell the machine. 2. A new edition of a best-selling travel guide is published. 3. A public library buys 3 copies of the travel guide to lend (free) to its patrons. 4. A financial advisor offers his clients advice and opinions about profitable investments in return for a commission on their investment transactions. 5. An investor consults a World-Wide Web page for the values of "leading economic indicators" (key economic statistics) supplied by the U. S. Commerce Department. There is no charge. 6. A collection of photographs of great paintings in world museums is put on CD-ROM and sold by a computer software company. 7. A record company publishes a boxed set of CD's with a digital recording of a recent performance of Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro," with Bryn Terfel singing the role of Figaro. The set includes the libretto of the opera. What these examples have in common is that information goods and services are being sold (or given away). For the purposes of our discussion, information goods and services share these properties: a) An information product is a collection of symbols. b) Its utility depends on the arrangement of the symbols, not on the material form that they take. Thus, for example, the plans for the newly invented machine are an information good. They are symbolic (perhaps...
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...ENGL 1020 Never Judge a Book by its Cover: For many years the public would say that when asked to visualize a person with tattoos their first thoughts would be of criminals, sailors, bikers, or gangsters. Not anymore! Tattoos have become culturally acceptable in today’s society. They have a rich history that dates back to 2000 B.C. before any kind of negative stigma was formed. Because of that stigma, however, tattoos and people with tattoos have developed a bad reputation. Many concerns such as the procedure, health risks and career complications are what have caused some of the negativity towards tattoos. In today’s society these are no longer the case and thus, the art has become mainstream. The act of tattooing started in early civilizations and was most evident in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians’ wall writing showed evidence of the body being used as a canvas around 2000 B.C. (“All About the”). Throughout many different cultures tattoos are used as a part of their religious practices. A tattoo can represent ones authority or a particular responsibility within the practice. However, during biblical times, tattoos were considered an act of mythological worship. Some experts believe that Moses viewed tattoos a little differently, viewing them as a way to commemorate devotion rather than paganism worship. Years later, during the Roman Empire, slaves and criminals began to bare tattoos causing them to develop a negative connotation. They were also used negatively to brand...
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...tool. But, with the exceptions of outsourcing and reengineering, these tools are designed primarily to do differently what is already being done. They are "how to do" tools. Yet "what to do" is increasingly becoming the central challenge facing managements, especially those of big companies that have enjoyed long-term success. The story is a familiar one: a company that was a superstar only yesterday finds itself stagnating and frustrated, in trouble and, often, in a seemingly unmanageable crisis. This phenomenon is by no means confined to the United States. It has become common in Japan and Germany, the Netherlands and France, Italy and Sweden. And it occurs just as often outside business-in labor unions, government agencies, hospitals, museums, and churches. In fact, it seems even less tractable in those areas. The root cause of nearly every one of these crises is not that things are being done poorly. It is not even that the wrong things are being done. Indeed, in most cases, the tight things are being done - but fruitlessly. What accounts for this apparent paradox? The assumptions on which the organization has been built and is being run no longer fit reality. These are the assumptions that N Feter F. Drucker is the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California, where the Drucker Management Center was named in his honor. This is Drucker's thirty-first article for HBR. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1994...
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...tool. But, with the exceptions of outsourcing and reengineering, these tools are designed primarily to do differently what is already being done. They are "how to do" tools. Yet "what to do" is increasingly becoming the central challenge facing managements, especially those of big companies that have enjoyed long-term success. The story is a familiar one: a company that was a superstar only yesterday finds itself stagnating and frustrated, in trouble and, often, in a seemingly unmanageable crisis. This phenomenon is by no means confined to the United States. It has become common in Japan and Germany, the Netherlands and France, Italy and Sweden. And it occurs just as often outside business-in labor unions, government agencies, hospitals, museums, and churches. In fact, it seems even less tractable in those areas. The root cause of nearly every one of these crises is not that things are being done poorly. It is not even that the wrong things are being done. Indeed, in most cases, the tight things are being done - but fruitlessly. What accounts for this apparent paradox? The assumptions on which the organization has been built and is being run no longer fit reality. These are the assumptions that N Feter F. Drucker is the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California, where the Drucker Management Center was named in his honor. This is Drucker's thirty-first article for HBR. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1994...
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...descipline. The process of wholeheartedly altering a building is often called “ Adaptive Re-use”. It is known that adaptive re-use helps extend the life of Historical buildings and prevents them from becoming foresaken and derilict. The Gotiaoco building which is situated at the M.C Briones Ave. Behind Cebu City hall is one of the significant architectural building that is currently proprosed to be reuse as a Chinese Heritage Museum under the supervision of Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum Inc.. In contemporary conservation theory and practice, adaptive re-use is considered to be an important strategy towards conservation of cultural heritage. It preserves buildings by changing outdated functions into new uses to meet contemporary demand. However, it is known that the affected community is one of the external factors that affects the sucessful planning and decision making on the implementation of Heritage preservation program. Hence, a study is conducted by the researchers in order to evaluate the implications of adaptively re-using the Gotiaoco buillding as a museum, as a strategy towards tourism and heritage preservation. This study...
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