World Computer Literacy Day, observed on 02 December, aims to encourage everyone to make full use of information and communication technology. It also wants to promote Digital Literacy among people, especially among children and youths.
Computers are now an essential element of human life due to the digital revolution in today’s modern era. They can perform massive calculations in just a fraction of a second and bring information from around the world in the blink of an eye.
Evidently, we can see computers in all parts of life, from education to shopping, banking to entertainment, medical to daily routines, etc.
Historically speaking, Computer Literacy Day was first organized by the famous Indian cooperation NIIT on its 20th anniversary to raise computer literacy awareness.
It has been a long journey from the first typewriter to the most recent computer technology. From the typewriter, computers evolved into desktop PC, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. The computer is the centre of the office where almost all the work is done.
Computer Literacy Day is sometimes also called Digital Literacy Day.
Digital Literacy is a set of skills that enables individuals to create, use, evaluate, modify, and share digital information, products, and services. It involves using new information technologies to achieve or maintain professional and personal goals.
Additionally, the internet has revolutionized life in many ways. It has reduced the time needed to get information. It has made education available at anytime and anywhere. It has provided a means for people to communicate with other countries easily.
However, it has also increased the amount of misinformation and hoaxes used to spread malicious content.
Computer literacy has many benefits:
- It helps you to stay updated about the latest trends.
- It improves problem-solving and critical thinking abilities.
- It also helps in the improvement of your career opportunities.
- Improves our skills in using social media, the internet, and other electronic devices.
- Besides that, it also reduces stress by doing hours of work in minutes if used correctly.
We now live in a world where technology has completely seized control of our lives. We depend on it to connect, find answers to our questions, make our businesses run smoothly, and much more.
If you can understand computer language and skills like programming, you can fully benefit from technology. According to one report in 2021, more than 60% of the world’s population is connected to the internet.
With such rapid growth, making everyone a computer-literate person is crucial. In short, we cannot survive without computers.
Here are some interesting facts regarding computers;
There are more than 700 programming languages.
The first computer game was created back in 1961. The name of the game was ‘Space War’. Steve Russel along with his team spend around 200 hours making the first version of the game. The game didn’t earn any money.
The first computer virus was created in 1982 by a 15-year-old kid.
The first programming language was FORTRAN (Short for FORmula TRANslation). It is a general-purpose programming language especially suited to numeric and scientific computations.
A computer understands everything in the form of 0’s and 1’s. For example, the word ‘hello’ is understood by a computer something like 0110100001100101011011000110110001101111. It is known as the binary language, and it is a one of the types of programming languages that the computer can understand directly (without the need of any language processor).
In the future, learning how to code would be as common as basic literacy! If you learn to code, it will improve your analytical thinking ability, problem-solving skills, and ability to make quick decisions.
The first computer did not use electricity!
If you learn one programming language, it would be much easier to learn the other ones on your own.
The language is named ‘C’ just because it succeeded another programming language named ‘B’!
The language Python was not named after the snake ‘Python’.
Over 70% of the programming jobs are not in the fields of technology. Rather they are in the fields like medical, banks, finance, etc.
A programmer is always a coder, but a coder may not be a programmer!
PHP was not meant to be a programming language. Its founder, Rasmus Lerdorf created it just to manage his web pages!
People who create malware to commit cybercrimes are known as Black Hat Hackers while those who write programs to protect against malware are known as ‘White Hat Hackers’.
A computer bug is a part of the code that makes the program wrong. However, the first computer bug was an actual bug! In 1947, Admiral Grace Hopper of the US Navy observed that something was hindering the computer’s operation. He found a moth stuck in the relay of his computer!
There is an esoteric programming language (essentially a compiler language) called ‘INTERCAL’ which has predefined keywords like PLEASE, FORGET, IGNORE etc. If the programmer doesn’t use, PLEASE enough times while coding, the compiler would reject the code!
The history of computer is almost 700 years old from today. And no one is credited with making it. The word computer was first uttered by a man in 1613. Initially, the computer was like a wooden cupboard called Abacas.
Computers were introduced in India in 1952 by Dr. Dwijish Dutta founded the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. But this computer was ordered from outside.
Siddharth was the first computer to be made in India and the Param 8000 was the first supercomputer to be made in India. This super computer was made by Vijay Bhatkar in 1991.
The sound that comes when starting Windows is created using Apple Mac.
The world’s first hard disk was made in 1979. In which only 5 MB of data was being stored. Nowadays only one photo of this size is taken.
The first hard disk of 1 GB weighed the same as a crocodile and cost $ 40000. And it was made in 1980.
Hitachi was the first company to make 1TB or 1000GB hard disk. Which was built in 2007.
The world’s first microprocessor was built by Intel in 1971. Named Intel 4004, the processor was designed for a calculator.
Sanskrit language is considered to be the best language for making computer software.
So far, no computer has been built that will complete the captcha by itself.
Around 1950, computers were also called Electronic Brains.
The world’s first monitor was first used in 1980.
The first experiment of computer keyboard was done in 1968.
The world’s first web browser came in 1933 called Mosaic.
The world’s first domain name is registered under the name Symbolics.
The storage capacity of a computer is measured in Byte. And 1 kilobyte is 1024 bytes.
Hard disks were not used in laptops before 1980.
Wifi was introduced in laptops after 1999.
The keyboard and mouse were not to be added to computers built from 1832 to 1964. Douglas Engelbert is the first man to invent a mouse in 1964 using wood.
The father of computers is called Charles Babbage. He invented the mechanical computer.
The first computer was very spacious and heavy. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) weighed about 27 tons and occupied over 1800 square feet. Regardless of the size of ENIAC, it proved very useful then.
The first woman to earn a PhD in computer science in the U.S. goes by the name of Mary Kenneth Keller. Before receiving her PhD, she had a good background in physics and mathematics. Mary Kenneth Keller has been a motivation for many women who want to pursue a career in computer science because she achieved a lot during her time.
The Sasser worm, which hackers have used to cause atrocities to businesses and other computer users, mainly targets computers that run on Microsoft operating systems by exploiting a vulnerable network port. Once the worm completes infecting the system, it deletes itself to make it difficult for anyone to trace it.
Microsoft, H.P., and Apple started building their computers from a garage before they were able to advance. H.P. preserved their garage to tell a story of the humble beginning of now what many people consider as one of the top computer brands in the world. Further, they made their garage a private museum that does not allow tours.
In the year 2010, a high school in Pennsylvania used computers to spy on their students while they were at home. The school achieved these objectives by issuing MacBooks to the entire student body and linked them to the school. The school remotely activated the cameras in the students’ laptops to spy on them while they were at their home.
Although Amazon initial sold hardcover books; they are currently selling more eBooks than hardcovers. Notably, this is a clear indication that most people now prefer digital books to hardcover ones.
About 5000 new computer viruses are created every month. Unfortunately, this means that there are many hackers out there who are willing to reap when they did not sow. However, not every malware is malicious.
John McAfee admitted during an interview in 2012 that he does not use the antivirus that he developed, the McAfee Antivirus program. He seemingly agreed that the antivirus was too annoying. Nonetheless, millions of people are still using antivirus to curb virus attacks.
In 1969, it was tough to send the word “LOGIN” over the internet. It was so complicated that when a University Professor in Los Angeles tried to send it to another professor in the University of San Francisco, the internet collapsed. The first message sent over the Internet was: “lo.” The programmers were able to transmit the entire “login” message about an hour later.
The original name of the window operating system was interface manager. However, in 1982, experts saw it fit to change the name after various crucial considerations.
A computer is not as powerful as the human brain. If there were such a computer, it would have processed 38 thousand trillion operations per second and stored more than 3580 terabytes of memories. Notably, the ease with which a computer executes its operations is borrowed from the human brain.
A computer can interfere with the normal blinking of a human being. While a normal human being can blink up to 20 times a minute when not using a computer, things are different when a computer is involved, as one can blink only seven times a minute.
Intel first created a 4004 microprocessor that was meant for a calculator. Many people were unsure of the final destination of the invention.
The first computer programmer was a woman, Lady Ada Lovelace, also famous for working on the analytical engine, lived in England. Further, she worked as a writer and a mathematician. Nowadays, many women have ventured into computer programming and are making a fortune out of it.
“Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computer and Humans Apart “is the meaning of the term CAPTCHA. Although the creators of the concepts intended to differentiate between humans and machines, artificial intelligence has surpassed it.
The IBM 1311 was the first disk drive that used removable media. Most people would not believe it, but looking at the disk for the first time, one would get the impression of a washing machine.
In 1948, the first software to run on a computer was developed by University of Manchester researchers. Tom Kilburn, Frederic Williams, and Geoff Toothill made it possible to invent software technology.
Webb and Grimsdale were the first people to develop an early transistorized computer.
The internet came into existence in the 1960s, and the main objective was to share resources. Interestingly, it has grown to become an essential medium of the economy of the world.
The classification of computers is based on internal structures, features, applicability, and computer system. There are eight types of computers: mainframe computer, supercomputer, workstation computer, personal computer, Apple Macintosh, Laptop computer, Tablet and Smartphones.
Super Computers are the fastest and the most expensive types of computers. A supercomputer can solve complex calculations within the shortest time possible.
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