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|                      The History of Computing                             |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware

People:
	Leonardo of Pisa a.k.a Fibonacci (1175-1250)
		Arabic Numerals
			* Studied under leading Arabic mathematicians
		Fibonacci Numbers
	Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635)
		Calculator
			* built the first automatic calculator in 1623 could add and subtract 6
			  digit numbers and indicate overflow
	Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
		Probability
			* gave probability its first real study with Pierre De Fermat
	Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695)
		Probability
			* Wrote the first book on probability theory
		Misc
			Accomplished astronomer
			Invented the pendulum clock
	Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716)
		Calculator
			* built the first mechanical calculator capable of multiplication and devision
		Binary
			* was the first to fully describe the modern binary numeral system
		Works
			(1666) De Arte Combinatoria (On the Art of Combination)
			(1703) Explication de l'Arithmetique Binaire (Explanation of the Binary Arithmetic)
	Thomas Bayes (1702-1761)
		
	Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
		Childhood interest in math
		Dissapointed with state of math at Cambridge in 1810
		"Difference Engine"
			* mechanical method of calculation
			* eliminate human errors in the calculation of mathematical tables,
			  such as logarithmic tables
			* previous work by Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal and Gottfried Leibniz
			* first communicated in 1822 in a letter
			* construction problems due to family troubles, money issues.
			* project officially abandoned by gov't in 1842
		"Analytic Engine"
			* world's first programmable calculator
			* two parts:
				* mill - analogous to modern cpu
				* store - memory
			* machine was huge and complex, 15 ft tall, could store 100 digits
			* huge amounts of drawings were made
			* failed funding attempts
			* Federico Luigi - an Italian general and mathematician published
			  a paper on the AE
			* Augusta Ada King translated paper to English, along with copious
			  notes. She had an insight into the machine's true potential;
			  some consider her the world's first computer programmer
			  http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html
		Second Difference Engine
			* based on experience designing the AE, Babbage designed a much
			  more simplified version of the original DE
			* a full-sized replica was built in 1991 and worked!
		Misc
			* cryptography - broke Vigenere autokey cipher and Vigenere cipher
	George Boole (1815-1864)
		Biography
			* led an uneventful life in academia
		Logic
			* argued that logic belonged to math, not philosophy
			* invented Boolean algebra - AND, OR and NOT
		Work
			* Mathematical Analysis of Logic
			* An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
			* Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities
		References
			http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boole
			http://www.kerryr.net/pioneers/boole.html
	Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
		Analytical Engines Notes
			* Wrote notes describing a method for calculating Bernoulli Numbers
			  using the AE
			* Recognized by historians as the world's first computer program
	Kurt Godel (1906-1978)
		Incompleteness Theorem
	Alan Turing (1912-1954)
		Turing Machine and Theory of Computation
			* Addressed the Entscheidungsproblem, substituting Kurt Godel's
			  arithmetics-based language with a Turing machine
			* Proved a Turing machine could solve any conceivable mathematical
			  problem
			* Proved there was no solution to the Entscheidungsproblem
			* Proved The Halting Problem was uncomputable
			* Hypercomputation
			* Oracle Machine
		Bletchley Park
			* Broke Enigma machine and the Lorenz SZ 40/42 during WWII
			* Invented Banburismus, an early form of Bayesian networks, in 
		First Stored-Program Computer
			* Ace, presented in a paper in 1946
		Turing Test
		Suicide
			* Died after eating a cyanide-laced apple after being persecuted
			  by the gov't over his homosexuality
		Work
			On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the
			Entscheidungsproblem
	Claude Shannon (1916-2001)
		Information Theory
			* Proved that electrical switchings could be used to perform Boolean algebra
			  and binary arithmetic, paving the way for modern computers
			* Developed information entropy
			* Sampling Theory
		Works
			A Mathematical Theory of Communication
				http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/paper.html
				http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf

	Dennis Ritchie
	Bill Joy
	
Tools:
	Abacus
	Slide-rule
	Calculator

Books That Look Promising:
	The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum
	Computer (Paperback) by Georges Ifrah


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