MEPA Circuit

Archive for the ‘Computer’ Category

As personal computers began to infiltrate more and more households in the 1980s, computer game companies began to flourish. By today’s standards, many of these early video games were rudimentary at best, but many are still revered today for their playability. In particular, the text adventures created by a small company called Infocom still have a cult following today.

Humble Beginnings

The founders of Infocom met at MIT, while they were working on their undergraduate degrees. After becoming friends, they wrote Zork 1, which went on to sell over a million copies. A text adventure, Zork had no graphics of any kind. Instead, the player read the words on the screen and typed in a command for his character, i.e., “walk north” or “kill troll with sword”. Zork required the player to solve many different puzzles by using maps, items, and in some cases, good timing. It was lauded for challenging the intellect and stirring the imagination of its players.

National Success

From its humble beginnings at MIT, Infocom grew, and over the next several years, it published many bestselling games in a variety of genres. Zork spawned two sequels and even a prequel, and games like Trinity, Sorcerer, and Planetfall were loved by millions of people. Infocom’s games were marked by witty, descriptive writing and brain-teasing puzzles. The company initially offered a phone number that people could call to get hints for these puzzles, but later began publishing “Invisiclues” – booklets for each game with clues written in invisible ink – so the reader could only reveal the hint she needed at the time.

Infocom’s Downfall

Though the matter is up for debate, most posit that the fall of Infocom was brought about by Cornerstone, a financial software product that the company spent a significant amount of time and money developing but that failed to bring in much revenue. Many think that Infocom’s investors pushed the company into producing the product, but perhaps the company’s leaders were overambitious. Regardless, Infocom’s games are still revered among many video gamers.

Computers are essential to life as we know it today. They are everywhere, but just who invented them? The computer is something that has evolved from many different designs and inventions, developed over time by various people over many years.

A mechanical calculator was built in Germany in the 1930’s. This was considered the first binary computer and was used to do mathematical calculations. It was refined by the 1940’s to use old movie film to store programs and data; the first not to use paper tape or cards. A 1941 version had a memory of 64 words.

What were referred to as personal computers from then through the 1950’s and 1960’s were able to do mathematical calculations. They weren’t able to do everything like the computers of today, but were sophisticated for the time. Their concept and the ideas of their builders were still visionary nonetheless. The different types that appeared throughout the time period featured switches and dials built into bulky large boxes.

The paperclip computer was a device in the late 1960’s based on a book that described a working computer built out of homemade supplies. Programs were stored on a magnetic drum and the device had units for input, output, control, and arithmetic. The main units of this system correspond to most modern digital computers, even though the machine looked nothing like a home computer.

Machines that began to take on the appearance of modern PCs in the early history of computers began to appear in the 1970s. The first successful mass produced computer was made by Apple in 1977, while IBM and Microsoft developed several computers in the 1980’s. Several entered the mainstream, such as Atari, as computerized video games became a cultural phenomenon, but it is also impossible to leave out the Commodore 64, since it was one of the most popular individual computer types on the market.

The reliance on more powerful gaming systems, as well as word processors, secured the high demand for better computers. Today, there are computers everywhere and inside just about anything electronic.

Every wonder why seemingly every website has an annoying blinking animation or game that asks to click here?

Well that answer is marketing, but wondering how leads to the answer of Wunderkind Jonathon Gay. As a child, Gay became interested and apt at working with computers. So much so that by the time he was in high school his science fair projects were sophisticated enough to earn the attention of professional programmers. By the time he was a senior in high school Gay was working for the company Silicon Beach, which released his first commercial product, Airborne! a black and white game for the Macintosh. Gay had bigger plans than building games for the Apple II or Mac. Before leaving home to attend Harvey Mudd College, Gay contributed to Superpaint 2, a revolutionary program that allowed both simultaneous bit map painting and vector drawing.

Foreseeing a market for graphics, Gay formed his own company. FutureWave Software company built a drawing program, before moving on to software for the emerging market of Internet programmers. Future Wave Software released FutureSplash Animator, which created vector based animations. As a vector based program the animations adjusted to screen size, unlike pixel based programs.

With the advent of Netscapes plug in features turned FutureSlash into a more viable product. Soon major sites such as msn.com and Disney’s Daily Blast were using FutureSplash. Gay had gone from high school standout to the big time. Soon major companies such as Macromedia were taking notice.

In December 1996 Macromedia purchased FutureWave. With a team of developers behind it Flash animations would soon become an Internet staple. Flash enjoyed the advantages of being vector based, bandwidth friendly and browser independent with those advantages, Flash spread. Some would say like a weed.

Back to those annoying, “look at me” animations. Those are almost certainly Flash, but so are useful tools again. The tutorial that showed how to make a Bobbie Flay style meal or the YouTube video showing the after effects of visiting the dentist both probably used Flash Media Player. Much like the Internet Flash has greatly evolved. And like any technology it has been abused. But with out Flash the Internet would be, well, less Flashy (or not as animated).

Having access to the Internet is pretty much a necessity nowadays. There are many ways to get online, in regards to the providers that offer deals for accessing the Web. You can even use the Net itself to search the websites of providers, where you can find detailed information on what each offers, and even find reviews and forum comments about the quality of the service.

Even if you don’t yet have access, you can always use a friends’ computer, go to a library, or visit an Internet café if one exists near where you live to do your research. The type of information you want to look for is whether you get enough features and perks to justify the cost. Most of the time, they are relatively inexpensive because of the competition; there are almost countless providers out there.

If you are lucky, you can even have Internet access included in your cable TV and/or telephone plan. Various top named cable providers offer high-speed access; speed being one of the top features to look for. You can easily get a fast service and connection, and there is no reason to have long wait times for websites to load or to send email.

Email is another feature that you can no longer do without. In addition to reliability, you also want to know how much storage space you have, and whether the provider’s system experiences any significant downtime. This is something you want to assess about the system overall before you buy into the service. You can also consider extras such as website hosting and domain registration, if you’re inclined to get into the technical side, as affordable additions or standard features of the service.

With so much information online, you can use the Internet to find Internet deals. Don’t hesitate to browse forums, blogs, review sites, or your favorite trusty search engine to find information. If something is worth talking about it, you can be sure someone is out there to post useful information that you can use in your decision.

The Internet has arrived as the Age of the Video. While the Internet goes through various phases and transformations, it seems that the hottest trend now is the idea of online videos. From video blogs to behind the scenes clips of televisions favorite shows it seems that every has gotten into the act of uploading videos to the Internet. And while people understand the rules about releasing pornographic or sexually explicit images on sites like YouTube, they may not be paying attention to the laws about copyright infringement. This may not seem like an issue but it’s best to be aware of the pitfalls before deciding to use copywritten images.

The first thing you need to know is that the law states that copywritten images or sounds are only to be used with expressed written consent of the people who own the rights to them. This means if you wanted to make a five minute short film and use a popular bands music for your soundtrack you could be in violation of the copyright law unless you get their written permission and usually that comes with a fee.

Now, sites like YouTube are generally passive about copyright infringement for 2 reasons: 1.) The sheer volume of videos that exist with copywritten images are huge and unless the company that owns them complains it would be very difficult to remove them, not to mention time consuming. 2.) In most cases the companies themselves don’t care because the images are used as good advertisement for the show or in some cases they are tribute videos from fans. This makes it in bad form to ask them to remove them from the site.

So what does all this mean for you? Well it means that first and foremost you should be aware that when you are making a video and setting it to popular music that there may implications for you financially and legally. And while it is unlikely that anything would happen to you it doesn’t mean it couldn’t so it means you should be very careful before doing it.

The internet is a great place to learn about a variety of things you may not have had access to years ago. You can learn about medicine, world news, and the latest in movies and music. But perhaps you didn’t know that you can use the internet to begin to retrace your own family history. There are various companies that can trace your family history for you and while they do a good job they can also set you back a pretty penny.

So how do you trace your own family history with the whole world wide web to navigate through? The answer is simple and can have you discovering cool and interesting things about your family in no time.

The first is to start at home. Get on your computer and write out a comprehensive list of everyone you know in your family. Don’t forget to include your mothers maiden name as well as your grandmothers maiden name. Any woman who came through your family could be a descendant of another family. At some point you’ll have a pretty long list. Once you get far enough down make sure you try and keep everything straight. Things can get confusing once you branch out. When you get to far enough back that the memories and the history become fuzzy, then it’s time to get online.

As you go farther back it will help to find information about where someone lived. This will help you narrow your search down. Perhaps a person lived in Chicago, Illinois, then you can search through the city of Chicago database to find any information you can on that person. It could have an address, social security number, or copy of their birth certificate or death certificate. From there you can do a google search to narrow down the person’s name based on their city. This should pop up any other relevant information there. Then it’s a game of connecting the dots. You have to be patient but if you are then you can reap the rewards of a rich family history.

Around the time folks at CERN invented the Web so that scientists across the world could work together watching the birth of taus, muons and antihydrogen, another smaller invention was popping up in small pockets: bulletin boards. Most common modems were 300 baud rate. In simple terms, the speed was reminiscent of an ant pulling a barge across dry land. You could actually see the text build . . . a single letter at a time. Later, if you decided to invest in the cutting edge upgrades, you could purchase 1200 and 2400 baud rate modems. Lightning fast, you witnessed full lines building so quickly that the letters almost blurred. Stunning technology.

Many bulletin boards were sites run by various university science departments. These departments were often more than willing to allow public access, wanting as much good press as they could get. Others were privately run by computer savvy individuals with fanatical streaks ranging from social deviant to political activist. Their bulletin boards were the next generation underground. To gain access you needed only to apply.

The more eccentric sites were the most interesting. Each site had “rooms” where clusters of computer aficionados lived with their software egos hanging on flag poles for everyone to see. These sites were an amusing place to go when there was nothing good to watch on TV—the forerunner of Facebook. It was often most informative to enter a site room mute, simply watching the verbal interplay of self-proclaimed geniuses jousting their opponents with words of sarcastic wit—somewhat like watching a bad afternoon soap opera where post adolescent self-professed geniuses flexed their muscles.

All good things eventually end or are reinvented. Baud rates moved to 56K, and CERN’s invention spread. Bulletin boards went the way of the dinosaur. Eventually the internet of today will be seen in the eyes of nostalgic mental wanderers as a departed old relative, as muons and quarks become old hat and ch’i driven webs allow Facebook and Twitter to become myth. As Einstein and Dirac well knew, the only constant is change.

Everyone who uses a computer knows the importance of having good antivirus software installed. There are many reasons why antivirus software is important. The most important is to keep your computer safe from infections. Another consideration is to prevent other computers from being affected whether on a network or by email.

The Economic Impact of Computer Viruses

Many companies rely heavily on the integrity of their data for their daily operations. By itself, a computer represents an investment but there is so much more to think about. Personal and business financial records, operating systems and other software; all this represents an investment. It makes sense to protect these from the destructive actions of malicious software.

On the business side, viruses can result in the loss of man hours. Non-functioning computers can be a serious blow to productivity. This is even more acute with small businesses that do not have their own IT department. They have to rely on outside help to resolve virus issues, which can further strain their already meager budgets.

Antivirus Software Options

Today there is really no excuse for not having some level of protection for your computer. While antivirus software usually has to be purchased there are many free options available. They are still efficient at preventing infection, as well as searching for and removing most viruses from computers.

With so many providers of antivirus software searching for software reviews helps when trying to choose one. It is also possible to download trial versions and protect your computers while assessing them. It makes sense to set the program to automatically scan at certain times. The frequency of scanning really depends on how much the computer is used. Free software options generally provide prompts to upgrade to paid versions. Clearly, there is no obligation and this depends on the budget, but this small expenditure can save you greater costs down the road.