Meet Osborne 1 - a 23 lb, sewing machine sized computer with a 5" display. What's so special about it? It was the first commercially available "laptop" computer. Or rather "portable" computer, because no one in their right mind would actually put this monstrosity on their lap - at least not without it causing some permanent damage.
I usually devote a lab session to an exercise programming in LOGO. Why? Well, a lot of the lecture materials revolve around software, so it is only logical to show students a very rudimentary example of how it is written. It helps to demystify software development and reveal it as something mundane and ordinary rather than an arcane art practiced only by the select few.
Many students come into this course thinking that computers are a recent invention. Because personal computing exploded, and became mainstream only in the last two or three decades they thing that's when all of this has started. Few students realize that computer science started much earlier. It started with Charles Babage and Ada Lovelace.
While working on this blog I have noticed a strange issue with MSUWEB - sometimes it locks access to files and prevents them from being deleted or modified. Has anyone else noticed this issue or am I the only one?
Many people mistakenly credit either Apple or Microsoft for inventing windows, icons and mouse driven graphical interfaces that are a staple of modern software design. The truth is that neither of these companies had anything to do with this revolutionary paradigm shift in computing. They have both copied these ideas from elsewhere. The true inventor of the GUI as we know it, was Xerox.
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