Reports for History of Computing CS378
Joseph Lopez
2004 Sept 2

Part 1.

The abacus is one of the first devices in the world to progress mathematic computation. To quote the Encyclopedia Britannica the abacus is an “ancestor of the modern calculating machine and computer.” (1) The abacus was usually a board with areas designated for counting pieces, however as it progressed it included wires for which the counting pieces could be strung. The Encyclopedia Britannica dates the abacus back to the Babylonian age where one would use it to trace letters to be used for writing. Both the EB and Oxford Reference state that the main use of the abacus was for adding and subtracting numbers and that to this day many people in the East are still proficient with the abacus. One thing I would like to note is the fact that I did find a third source titled “A Brief History of the Abacus” (3). This article was laid out very well and stated the information in a most concise way, however upon finishing the article I decided to double check the references (I had found this site from yahoo) and found that one of the footnotes stated that since the article was published the author found evidence that the sources he used were miss leading. If I had not read the footnotes I would have most likely used this piece for my report. After finding this anomaly I decided to read the article the footnote referred to (4); it surprised me that someone would provide this information yet only note it and not rewrite the piece instead of possibly providing false information. In all of my writing assignments I have done so far in college (both undergraduate and graduate) I have never come across such a blatant example of scholastic irresponsibility.

Part 2.

My first interaction with PC’s was when I was 3 or 4 and my father brought home a PC junior, however it wasn’t until I came to college that I became a certified geek. My reason for falling in love with technology wasn’t programming (though I took two college level C++ courses in high school), but video editing. When I was a freshman in college (1999) the Digital Video (DV) format was not the standard. At the time there was no standard for recording video to your PC, the CODEC’s were very primitive and the hardware interfaces made me as a user learn a lot about hardware hacking and software integration. Ever since learning these skills I haven’t looked back, I now do technology consulting for UT and other businesses. This course interested me because I work in the technology sector and wanted to learn more about the history of the field I am in. I figure to know what has already been done will really help me take my work to the next level. I hope this course will help fill in the gaps in my own knowledge of the history of computing and show me new ways of thinking about computing.

Notes

1. "Abacus." Encyclopædia Britannica. http://80-search.eb.com.content.lib.utexas.edu:2048/eb/article?eu=3239, ( Encyclopædia Britannica Online, accessed 1 Sept. 2004) A web page.

2. “abacus.” World Encyclopedia. George Philip Ltd, 2002. http://80-www.oxfordreference.com.content.lib.utexas.edu:2048/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t105.e8&srn=1&ssid=971276242 - FIRSTHIT (Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press, accessed 1 Sept. 2004) A web page.

3. “The Abacus.” A brief history of the abacus, 2003. http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/abacus/history.html (A brief history of the abacus, accessed 1 Sept. 2004) A web page.

4. “The Universal History of Numbers and The Universal History of Computing.” Dauben, Joseph, 2002. http://www.ams.org/notices/200201/rev-dauben.pdf (Notices of the AMS, accessed 1 Sept 2004) A web page.