Inventions and Innovations in Computing Technology While Essay

Inventions and Innovations in Computing Technology

While the argument can be made that as the backbone of the computer industry, the Jacquard loom and Charles Babbage's computing engine represented the two most important inventions and innovations in computer technology, the past 200 years have witnessed the introduction of numerous inventions and innovations in computing technology that compete for the title. Although singling out the most important is a highly subjective enterprise, a convincing argument can also be made that out of these many inventions and innovations, the two that stand out as being the most significant are the introduction of a user-friendly computer interface in the early 1980s and the World Wide Web in 1991 as described further below.

Prior to the introduction of Windows by Microsoft in the early 1980s, personal computers were limited in their usability. At best, most personal computer users during this period were restricted to an "A:>" prompt that defied their best efforts to use effectively. A few years later, a new prompt was added ("C:>") to personal computers that added additional memory but did little otherwise to clarify things for most users.In fact, according to the editors of Forbes, "By the early 1980s, Bill Gates and his merry band of Silicon Valley nerds had devised the progenitor of Windows, a user-friendly interface that inspired the personal computing revolution" (Most Important Technological Innovations 2012:3).

Once computer users learned how to use their computers to actually do useful things, there was a corresponding demand for more useful things do with them and fortunately, about this time, the Internet and its star child, the World Wide Web (WWW) were introduced. In this regard, the Forbes editors add that, "By 1991, with the birth of the World Wide Web, computer users worldwide were effectively granted digital visas to travel through cyberspace" (Most Important Technological Innovations 3). Likewise, Wood and Smith (2005) emphasize that, "With the growth of the 'wireless web,' liberated from the miles of cable and wires that….....