Modern Marvels - The Creation of the Computer (2005)

The machines at the center of the information age have revolutionized our lives and digitalized our world, making previously unthinkable tasks automatic and linking people from around the planet. MODERN MARVELS® presents a fascinating exploration into the history of the computer. See Charles Babbage's Victorian "counting machine," a mechanical computer that produced perfect results for any mathematical problem of six figures or less, and discover how IBM was launched through a punch-card counting machine built to accelerate the 1890 census. Trace the technological advancements that led to the first modern computers and witness the rapid progress that allowed them to shrink from room-sized monsters to the desktop units that revolutionized life in the '90s. THE CREATION OF THE COMPUTER journeys into the fast-paced world of technology and innovation to expose the phenomenal history of the most influential invention of modern times. DVD Features: Interactive Menus; Scene Selection

good history of comptuers, but dated info

I used this video for many years in my introductory computer class at the high school level. The history of computers portrayed is interesting, and I like that the development of the technology is put into a social perspective. I ask my students to identify key social/cultural developments that led to the development or advancement of the computer, and this video shows many: counting the census, artillery firing tables for war, breaking the Enigma Machine in WWII, the Space Race, election predictions, and more. However, the non-history parts were getting dated. The newer compilation from the History Channel called "Computers" includes some of the same history footage, but substantially condensed, as well as more about future computer developments. This version has better history if that is your primary interest. September 27, 2008

Good Overview of an Important Topic!

"The Creation of the Computer" takes viewers from pre-computer days (hand-calculated tables of tides, logarithms, artillery calculations) through early developments by visionaries such as Charles Babbage's "Difference Engine" (working model available in 1832), to Herman Hollerith's punched cards developed in 1880s responding to the Census Bureau's overload, to WWII's use of an early computer to break the Nazi's Enigma code, to the eye-opening (for business applications) 1952 Univac computer that quickly predicted the 1952 election outcome.

Computers at this point weighed tons and required extensive maintenance and cooling - not helpful for applications such as space flight. Fortunately, 1947 brought the development of the transistor, then came the integrated circuit, followed by the microprocessor invented at Intel in response to a Japanese firms request for calculator circuits.

Apple then assembled a package that introduced the desktop computer, this was refined per Xerox' development of the mouse and graphical interface, Bill Gates added Microsoft's operating system, and the personal computer soon became omnipresent. July 4, 2008

Reaaly fun.

It is a really fun video with great information. It gives a lot of insight into why the computer works the way that it does today. I have watched a several times and find things that I missed on previous viewings each time. January 14, 2008

Get the Computers version instead

This is 95% identical to The History Channel "Computers" but I like the other one better than this because it goes more into PC's. The other DVD "Computers" covers the history of computing as well - same footage and narration, so you won't miss anything by just getting the other DVD and not this one as well. August 16, 2007

Interesting but DATED

This video was somewhat interesting. However, be warned that it is actually from 1995, not from 2005. It is extremely dated and goes over many things that would seem silly to most viewers today, such as the difference between hardware and software. Many close-ups of aged hardware (i.e., early 1990s) take away from the more interesting, earlier events -- although the historical development of computing is covered well. May 16, 2007

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