9781422283240

Introduction

build kit form and caught the attention of two technology enthusiasts, Paul Allen and Bill Gates. They offered to write software for the Altair and subsequently founded their own firm, Microsoft. In 1981, the first IBM personal computer, which used Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system, was introduced. It featured an Intel chip, two floppy disks, and an optional color monitor. For the first time, users in the know began referring to it as a “PC.” Exactly a decade later, in 1991, the world’s first website went online thanks to computer sci- entist Tim Berners-Lee, who conceived of the World Wide Web and designed and built the first Web browser. While people like Engelbart, Gates, and Berners-Lee are justifiably celebrated, many scientists and engineers made other advancements that contributed to computing as we know it today. Although the field has been long been dominated by white men, a handful of African Americans and people of African descent made their mark early on in the Information Age, and their ranks are slowly growing. Those ranks now also fittingly include women. Although our devices are getting smaller, faster, and in- creasingly more powerful, and things that once seemed the stuff of science fiction are becoming more common, there is advancement to be made. The future of computing is wide open and so are the opportunities for people from every background. (The final chapter in this book will discuss how to prepare for your computer science career.) •

Introduction

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