Abstract: So ubiquitous has the
computer become, that life without it seems almost unimaginable.
And yet, it is only 50 years since the first electronic digital
computer was constructed. Scientific curiosity, combined with the
military necessities of World War II, provided the imputous for
its development. In the late 1940's, computers occupied entire
rooms, consumed enormous amounts of power, were slow, singularly
unreliable and very expensive. After the war, they may well have
vanished into obscurity, were it not for a few far-sighted, if
rather unlikely, individuals, deciding to invest in them. The story of the computer's faltering progress from the laboratory into the world of business, is the subject of this week's video. Required viewing for all CS students, this documentary history traces the people and the technology that made it happen.
What has an American betting shop tycoon in common with a chain of London tea houses? Come along and find out!