Computer


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Computers and the Internet **

By Ari

Who invented the computer? Do you know who invented the first computer? Or what it was made of? Well read on to find out. In 1964, Douglas Engelbart from the United States invented the computer mouse. But can you believe that it was made out of wood? Well it was. In 1941, Great Britain and the United States were fighting a war against Germany. They thought computers could help. In 1943, the Harvard Mark 1 was invented. England built the colossus computer in the same year, 1943. It was the first electronic computer. The colossus could read messages in secret code. In 1975, Bill Gates began a company called Microsoft to make and sell computer programs. They wrote programs, programs told a computer what to do. Computers that have computer programs can do many jobs. In 1976, Steve jobs and Steve Wozniak, both from the United States, started Apple Computers. In 1984, Apple Computers added a mouse to their computers, soon other computers came with a mouse. In 1989, Tim Berners Lee, of England, made a special computer program. The program made it easier to send words and numbers between computers, he called his program the World Wide Web (also called www).

How computers work

One of the basic parts of a computer is the software. The software contains electronic directions that tell the computer how to do very specific things. A computer without software is like a human body without a brain. A computer doesn’t come with software built in. It must be loaded onto the computer where it is stored in the memory chip or on the hard drive. You can’t see or touch software, what you do see is the packaging the software comes in and the disks and cd-roms on which computer instructions are encoded. Software doesn’t exist on its own, people called computer programmers write it. They are people who create instructions that are on a disk or cd-rom. They make sure computers will understand the different types of languages that are written on the computer. Computer programmers are responsible for just about everything you can do with computers.

About the internet

The internet is the biggest computer network. It contains millions of users using cables, telephone lines, radio signals, and satellite systems. People connect to the internet at schools, businesses, government offices, research centers, and homes. People even connect to the internet using cell phones. The idea for it was invented in 1969 in theU.S. Department of Defense, the nation’s chief military agency. The internet means interconnected network.

Computers have changed our lives completely. The computer has changed the way we work in businesses, and in schools. It even helps us at home with our homework. It makes us think that the world is smaller when we use the computer. We are so lucky that we have computers. Works Cited Kazunas, Charnan, and Thomas Kazunas. __The Internet for Kids (True Books)__. New York: Children's P (CT), 2000. Lockman, Darcy. __Computers (Kaleidoscope:Technology)__. New York: Benchmark Books (NY), 2000. Michael, Woods,. __History of communication__. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2006. Raum, Elizabeth. __The History of the Computer (Heinemann First Library)__. New York: Heinemann Library, 2007