Today, we’re going to take a look at computing’s origins, because even though our digital computers are relatively new, the need for computation is not.
Cabinet-sized electro-mechanical computers grew into room-sized behemoths that were prone to errors but they ushered in a new era of computation - electronic computing.
Learn how transistors can be used to perform complex actions. With the just two states, on and off, the flow of electricity can be used to perform a number of logical operations.
Today we’re going to build the ticking heart of every computer - the Central Processing Unit or CPU. The CPU’s job is to execute the programs we know and love.
Today we’re going to move from hardware into software! Using that CPU we built last episode, we’re going to run some instructions and walk you through how a program operates on the machine level.
Let's look at how CPU speeds have rapidly increased from just a few cycles per second to gigahertz! A number hardware designs have been implemented to boost performance.
Today, we’re going to look at the history of programming and the innovations that brought us from punch cards and punch paper tape to plugboards and consoles of switches.
Grace Hopper helped create the first high-level programming language A-0 and compiler to translate that code to machines. This innovation eventually lead to a golden age of computing languages over the coming decades.
Let's start an overview of the fundamental building blocks of programming languages. We’ll start by creating small programs for a video game to show how statements and functions work.
How are HUGE programs with millions of lines of code like Microsoft Office are built? They require teams of programmers using the tools and best practices that form the discipline of Software Engineering.
This session traces the development of operating systems from the Multics and Atlas Supervisor to Unix and MS-DOS, and takes at look at how these systems influenced popular OSes we use today.
Memory and storage are different things but both hold data in your computer. While memory is temporary, storage remains even in a system without power.
This session covers how some popular file formats like txt, wave, and bitmap are encoded and decoded giving us pictures and recordings from just strings of 1’s and 0’s.
Often files are way too large to be easily stored on hard drives or transferred over the Internet - the solution, unsurprisingly, is to make them smaller.
We'll talk about how the keyboard got its qwerty layout, and then we'll track its evolution in electronic typewriters, and eventually terminals with screens.
Today we're going to talk about the birth of personal computing. IBM completely changed the industry as its "IBM compatible" open architecture consolidated most of the industry except for, notably, Apple.
Let's learn how 3D graphics are created and then rendered for a 2D screen. From polygon count and meshes, to lighting and texturing, there are a lot of considerations in building the 3D objects
In the 3 episodes, we'll examine the rise of a global telecommunications network. First there were computer networks that grew from LAN networks to larger worldwide networks
Today we’re going to talk about how to keep information secret. From as early as Julius Caesar’s Caesar cipher, there's been a need to encrypt and decrypt private correspondence.
Robots are often thought as a technology of the future, but they're already here by the millions in the workplace, our homes, and pretty soon on the roads.
Let's learn about psychological considerations in building computers, like how to make them easier for humans to use, and how to make our devices work better with us.
In our series finale, we look towards the future! In the past 70 years computing has changed how we live our lives, and we believe it’s just getting started.
