IBM305 RAMAC

IBM 305 Ramac (Random Access Method of Accounting and control) was the first computer that had a disk drive. It was released in 1956. A long time back. Its success defined the IT industry that we see today. In all these years, the computers have become an industry and a pillar of cultural change.

There are two schools of thought. One who see a computer as a miracle piece of hardware. Its components and what can make it faster, reliable, secure and long lasting. The others see only the software aspect. The way software has revolutionized the way we do business. The software people also look at reliability, security and long lasting feature, but more of their software. Both are correct and both are wrong.

The non IT people who have no idea on how this computers work either at the hardware or the software level (the end users) see it differently. Some see it as a source of power, some as a threat, some as a friend and companion, some as a research place, some see it as a time pass, some see it as a source of money. Have I left any other categories.

Virtual Box

Innotek created the VirtualBox. It is a virtualization engine. Acquired by Sun, it has gone through a lot of changes. I have installed it on Windows XP and am running Solaris, Ubuntu and Fedora on it. Virtualization that was a distant dream a decade back, has now become a standard. How come?

Thanks to Virtualization instructions now within the CPU, things have simplified. So where are we going now from here? Already we have yesterday's OS becoming Guest OS of today. Will that become a standard for home based PC's and laptops?

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Computer Data Communication.

Since early times effort was put to ensure transmission of data. We all know that the first successful demonstration was by Samuel Morse. He invented the telegraph, and the Morse Code. It was the first time data was transmitted using electric power. This was 1844 when Morse did the first transmission from Washington DC to Baltimore (around 60 Kms).

But all successful models are based on earlier models that were proposed but somehow were not viable. In 1753 there was a proposal printed in a Scottish Magazine. The idea was to have 26 wires (one for each alphabet) run from town to town. A prototype was built. But somehow it never proved to be economical or more clearly, a business model could not be developed.

Scotland has been the land of so many firsts. We have Scots who have had numerous achievements like

- Adam Smith, "Wealth of Nations" was a Scot.

- Sir Arthur Conan Dyle, "Sherlock Holmes"

- Robert Louis Stevenson, "Treasure Island"

and now Sir Alex Ferguson of "Manchester United" are just a few names on the top of my head.

So moral of the story is IT Data Communication is not a 30-40 year thing. The ideas have been coming since 400 years.