ECT - Vacuum Tubes

This week's Emerging Communications Technologies class focused on the history of computers. While I admit, once again, that this is not the most interesting subject, I was once again fascinated by certain concepts. For instance, we spent 20 minutes talking about vacuum tubes that made up computers in the 1950's, and our instructor even brought in an actual vacuum tube from that time period. Assuming how each computer was made up of tens of thousands of vacuum tubes, we could imagine how it would take an entire room to hold a computer.

So when the transistor was invented and reduced the size of computers by a factor of 1,000, I was really impressed. I learned that transistors changed electronics forever, in the same way that later inventions in the last decade also changed electronics forever. I like finding these parallels between past and present experiences, like when I compared the initial reactors to the telegraph vs. the internet.

I'm also continuously amazed that even today, computers are all about the same principle of "and" and "or" gates and circuits, just as they were in the 40's and 50's - simply smaller and faster than before. It's like the Introduction to Computer Science class I took one summer at USF in Tampa, Florida. Those rudimentary programs I wrote for class are still relevant!

We also spoke about encryption, and I was impressed by the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of codes. The basic idea is simple: Encrypt a message, send it as gibberish, and decipher it on the other end. But the complexity of the gibberish itself, when using a factor of 2, can be amazingly complex. And so it should be, if it's protecting my credit card number!

So I have to admit that I really appreciate what I'm learning in this class, and I find that I'm thinking about it all the time - when I see my computer, when I buy something online, I think about my ECT class. Which must mean that it's working...