AC 2003

Internet

History

AC 2003

From calculi to computers

• In prehistoric times men computed using small stones : calculi

• In the Orient 2000 more or less years ago appeared the Abacus (it uses little balls on metal strings encased in a wooden frame)

• Then we leap to the Pascaline (1641) : it used only cranked wheels

• Then the Jacquard mechanised weaving machine (1800) introduced the concept of cards to drive the machine :– To raise and lower the chain threads to throw the flying jenny through

them and create designs

– Jacquard must have gotten ideas from Vaucanson

– (All the 18th century was concerned with automatons)

– Jacquard introduced the cards to drive the machines : the first recorded memory devices

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From calculi to computers (cont’d)

• In the 19th century Babbage and A. Lovelace designed a computer using steam and weights to make calculations

• (It never worked)

• All the 18th and 19th centuries tried with their means at hand to store and treat information

• This is the consequence of the Industrial Revolution

• And in fact it also lead to a Social Revolution

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The consequences of Jacquard invention

• (Jacquard is a step in a long chain of inventions, that will go back to the Renaissance, to exploration, to the compass)

• It lead to the Technological Revolution of computers

• It lead to the Social Revolution of a tremendously new social order– Jacquard machine put many of the Lyon silk workers out of work

– This lead to the Canut upheaval : this is one of the first known proletarian revolution (in the first half of the 19th century)

– Later on the Commune, later on the October revolution, then Chairman Mao long march

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The ancestor to Deep Blue

• Around the end of the 18th century in all royal european courts circulated a famous automaton playing chess

• It beat many famous people

• It turned out a very good chess player also a dwarf was lodging into the box.

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From calculi to computers (cont’d)

• After Jacquard there appeared the street organs (the Limonaires)

• In the 1910’s Patterson created the National Cash Register (NCR) corp

• One of the best salesman of NCR was Thomas Watson

• Watson would make his yearly sales budget in the first two weeks of January

• He left NCR to create International Business Machines

• He sold machines for use in offices

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From calculi to computers (cont’d)

• In the 30’s the US Bureau of Census used tabulating machines to count the results of the census

• Hollerith had the idea of using Jacquard cards to pilot the machines

• The machines were mechanical

• Just around the beginning of WWII engineers had the idea of trying to put electronics to work.

• Why ?

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From calculi to computers (cont’d)

• Just around the beginning of WWII engineers had the idea of trying to put electronics to work.

• Why ?

• Because electrons are much faster than weights or calculi• Maxwell had explained waves at the end of the 19th century. Branly

had used them rue Cassette Paris 6e to transmit information without wires (TSF : transmission sans fil). And the first TV sets appeared in the 30’s.

• Engineers had started to master electricity and electrons to create all sorts of devices (including the telephone : beginning of the 20th century. A Graham Bell « Watson I want you »)

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From calculi to computers (cont’d)

• Atanassof and Zuse created the first electronic computers, right before WWII

• Then Eckert & Mauchly created the ENIAC with an architecture designed by Von Neumann with ideas from Turing

• Engineers have tried to use things faster than electrons to make faster computers : photons.

• It does not work well yet, but photons are not disturbed by electromagnetic waves

• They would be very fast AND resist electromagnetic bombs.

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Internet is the new revolutionary tool to gather and exchange information

• E-mail sends mail within seconds to any corner of the planet

• Access to any public information takes seconds : « Alienor death date ? » : 1204.

• The quality of the information must be evaluated by the user – just like for books and newspapers

• Relieving us from the chore of finding information Internet will spurr our autonomy and thinking and evaluating capacity (our critical mind) : it will change for the better the attitudes of the young generations in face of social and political problems.

• « It will make us smarter » « It is a fantastic tool for freedom » That’s the reason why some world regions try to thwart it.

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The power of Internet

• Internet is so powerful it creates new behaviors and new communities

• Some people play 20 hours per day on the Net

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Let’s turn to the history of the Net

• Internet is the child of modern computers• Modern computers were invented around WWII –

like many other inventions that changed our lives.• They used cards derived from the cards of

weaving machines of Jacquard (1800)• The same kind of cards are used on street organs

(Limonaires), they are the first memory devices.• Hollerith thought of using them for computing

machines (in the 30’s)

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Electrons and faster things

• Electrons replaced little balls (that is calculi) to make computation

• Because they are much faster

• Engineers tried to use even faster things than electrons to no convincing avail so far : photons

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Electronic computers

• Atanassof, Zuse

• Eckert & Mauchly with the help of a famous mathematician : John von Neuman

• Von Neuman introduced the present core architecture of the CPU (central processing unit, with a so called sequencial processing principle)

• A bit like our car engine : it violates all sorts of mechanical principles and yet it’s the best design

• Turing, another scientist, contributed some ideas (He had cracked Enigma during WWII)

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From the CPU to the Memory

• In the early 60’s a computer scientist would tell us that the most mindblowing part of his machine was the CPU

• Then some other scientists (visionaries) thought that the memory function was as important

• As often it is such an « upside down » approach that lead to fantastic new inventions

• That’s why education should encourage creativity (and creativity cannot be planned, it can only be encouraged)

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The Education dilemma

• Education is torn between two logics :– 1) produce people that are educated according to a

model– 2) produce creative people

• These two goals are in conflict• The art of the educator is to conciliate them• Business schools do encourage creativity, for a

technical reason : because the business world which is highly competitive requires creativity

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How to get a great job ?

• To succeed in your first job interview– 1) master the ESCEM syllabus– 2) have a business culture : read newspaper

several times a week (one article, chosen more or less at random, let’s understand some of it)

– 3) nurture your creativity, be forthcoming, self-assured, and proposition capable, and creative

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Arpanet

• In the late sixties after the first linking experiments, and the conception of the packet switching principles

• Arpanet was created

• Instantaneousness became familiar to computer users

• This lead to e-mail

• Also a need for protocols (that is common languages, rules as to how to send and receive messages) arose : Telnet, and FTP

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Internet from the 70’s to today

• The 70’s : main frames, and the invention of microcomputers

• The 80’s : TCP/IP and preWeb indices

• The 90’s : HTML, and HTTP, Mosaic, and Netscape and Explorer

• The 90’s : Altavista

• 1999 : Google

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Names and logos

• In marketing names and logos play a very important role :– They are the first information that potential

clients get about our product– BEFORE they start to think

• Names and logos carry gestalt information (information perceived BEFORE we start to think ; aka « first impression »)

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Mosaic logo

• Mosaic logo represented the Earth with two arrows curling around it

• It was a bad logo– Esthetically imbalanced– Conveyed no clear information– Looked vaguely like a sect picture

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Mosaic name

• Typically and engineer name• The Web, in the view of an engineer (Andreessen) looked like a

mosaic of information : each HTML page being one tile• Whence : Mosaic• But « naming » is a subtle science :• Mosaic is not a good word, because the gestalt perception of Mosaic is

not a powerful software : it is a « broken down » thing• It does not evoke Power, it evokes tiny things unrelated• Then, the new name of Mosaic was NETSCAPE : it is a better name

(even though it’s not as good as EXPLORER)• Microsoft has always had a knack at chosing names• OPERA is an OK name : for general purpose, just like Excel

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Microsoft logo

• It used to have a butterfly on its main logo

• It got rid of it some years ago : it’s likely that they were disturbed by the gestalt perception conveyed by a butterfly, an animal that lives only one day (thanks to B.P.)

• Yet they kept it for MSN

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Microsoft name

• In theory Microsoft is not a perfect name

• It is good in as much as it signifies clearly the business of the firm

• But it is a puny name

• However for extremely well known names (like IBM) the question becomes irrelevant

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Some examples of esoterism

• Look for the white moon and luna blanca

• Look for http://www.thewhitemoon.com

• Within this site look for Demeter : James Anderson something

• Daisy

• Etc.

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An ideally good name

• Ideally a good name should be an entire story by itself

• Therefore it should address the three brains :– Pulsions– Emotions– Reflexions

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An ideally good name (cont’d)

• It should address the three brains :– Pulsions

– Emotions

– Reflexions

• « Access » is a remarkably good name :– It addresses the cortical brain : it tells us we shall be able to get

something

– It addresses the limbic brain : it is sympathetic ; it says « Yes », « OK », « Come in »

– It addresses the reptilian brain : it evokes contact, possibility, power

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Databases : other names

• Oracle : OK, clear, but a bit esoteric

• Paradox : ?

• 4th Dimension

• DB2

• FoxPro

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Netscape

• Why Netscape is not a perfect name, even though it’s much better than Mosaic

• Netscape is a pun

• Net and escape : it carries the idea of freedom and the energy to flee

• But fleeing / escaping is negatively loaded

• Puns are rarely good names : they become stale very quickly

• Next to my home there is a hair dresser named : Hair France

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Marketing

• Marketing is concerned, in particular, with good names and good packaging

• (Other branches are concerned with analysing markets, forecasting markets, influencing markets)

• In naming and packaging we have two possibilities :– Be as close as possible to the actual product we signify– Mislead the customer

• Aside from moral considerations the first way has more L.T. possibilities

• (Pierre Bergé said : « Marketing and creation don’t go well together »)

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Explorer

• It evokes looking for information

• It evokes freedom

• But it evokes randomness

• It is not loaded with Energy

• For instance : Access is a better name, PowerPoint…

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Gestalt perception

• Gestalt perception is the VERY FIRST information we get from a word or a picture, before the brain has the time to think

• This first perception given by a sign must correspond to the signified

• Otherwise it creates confusion, wrong interpretation

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Altavista

• Since december 2002 : new logo and new page design

• Still same name. A better name would have been Vista.

• Dzang would not have been OK

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Monopolies

• History tells us that monopolies never last

• Standard Oil, ATT, etc.

• Likewise Microsoft monopoly on Operating Systems will not last : Linux will play an increasing role

• Linux is special in the sense that it is non-commercial as well, it is difficult to apprehend

• Google will have new competitors that will replace it. At the moment one of the candidate to be a future replacement is Fast

• The competition is still open

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Google : strengths and weaknesses

• Strenghs :– Very fast– Rather complete– Cache function– Relevancy (PPI)

• Weaknesses :– Too much information– Not very structured

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Future search engines

• They focus on the weaknesses of Google

• The general direction of research is : – Some artificial intelligence– Better understand natural language– Better understand the exact search that the web

user has in mind– Less information, still more pertinent

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Technological revolutions

• A generation ago, the main technological revolutions were: TV, airplanes, medicine

• TV contributed to broadcasting information

• But it tends to make people passive, and to encourage zapping (anti-concentration)

• Internet is THE revolution of the present times

• It also broadcast information

• It makes people active

• It will have a very positive impact on making people autonomous, responsible

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Technological revolutions (2)

• Earlier revolutions : there were many since the Industrial revolution– Railways

– Radio

– Cars

– Telephone

– Etc.

• Fridges, Health / Medecine, etc.

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Technological revolutions (3)

• Other present day revolutions :– Mobile phones

– Virtuality

– Genetic medicine

– Genetically Modified Food

• Have an opinion on GMF