TidBits

Bug

In 1947, the first time the word “bug” was used to describe a computer error was literally because of a bug (moth) that was shorting the electrical circuit on a Mark II computer.

Computer

The term was originally given to humans who performed numerical calculations using mechanical calculators such as the slide rule and abacus.

Brief History of the Internet

The internet was developed in 1969 by the Department of Defense for the aid of computer research with the intent of linking together widely separated computers while maintaining functional independency. In 1991, the World Wide Web was then created by Tim Berners-Lee, a computer programmer at the European Center for Particle Research, or CERN, in Geneva.

Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18 000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers of the future may have only 1 000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1½ tons. -- Popular Mechanics, March 1949