Surfing the Net

By using a Web browser, a person can easily and quickly view information and colorful graphics that may be stored on computers in many different countries. Using a Web browser can be similar in some ways to actual travel, only easier. One can visit the Web exhibits of the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Holocaust Memorial Museum. This ability to move nimbly back and forth from one Internet Web site to another is

commonly called surfing the Net.

Businesses and other organizations have become interested in the Web as a means to advertise their products or services as well as to offer other kinds of information. They create a Web page, a sort of electronic storefront window. Once an organization's Web page address is known, potential customers can use a browser to go "shopping," or information browsing. As in any marketplace, however, not all products, services, or information provided on the Internet are wholesome.

Researchers are trying to make the Internet secure enough for confidential and safeguarded transactions. We will talk more about security later.

Ex. 18 Read the text and write the translation of it.

Babbage's Analytical Engine

In 1832, an English inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage was commissioned by the British government to develop a system for calculating the rise and fall of the tides.

Babbage designed a device and called it an analytical engine.

It was the first programmable computer, complete with punched cards for data input. Babbage gave the engine the ability to perform different types of mathematical operations. The machine was not confined to simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. It had its own "memory", due to which the machine could use different combinations and sequences of operations to suit the purposes of the operator. The machine of his dream was never realized in his life. Yet Babbage's idea didn't die with him. Other scientists made attempts to build mechanical, general-purpose, stored-program computers throughout the next century. In 1941 a relay computer was built in Germany by Conrad Zuse. It was a major step toward the realization of Babbage's dream.

The Mark I Computer (1937-1944)

In 1944 in the United States, International Business Machines (IBM) built a machine in cooperation with scientists working at Harvard University under the direction of Prof. Aik-en. The machine, called Mark I Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator, was built to perform calculations for the Manhattan Project, which led to the

development of atomic bomb. It was the largest electromechanical calculator ever built. It used over 3000 electrically actuated switches to control its operations. Although its operations were not controlled electronically, Aiken's machine is often classified as a computer because its instructions, which were entered by means of a punched paper tape, could be altered. The computer could create ballistic tables used bynaval artillery.

The relay computer had its problems. Since relays are electromechanical devices, the switching contacts operate by means of electromagnets and springs. They are slow, very noisy and consume a lot of power.