Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

Hollerith, Herman 229embodying relationships between objects that are responsiblefor both private data and a public interface representedby methods, or capabilities offered to users of the object.Both structured and object-oriented methods attempted tokeep up with the growing complexity of large software systemsthat might incorporate millions of lines of code. Thefederal government adopted the Ada language with its abilityto precisely manage program structure and data operations.(See object-oriented programming and ada.)1990sBy the 1990s, the PC was a mature technology dominatedby Microsoft’s Windows operating system. UNIX, too, hadmatured and become the system of choice for university computingand the worldwide Internet. Although the potential ofthe Internet for education and commerce was beginning tobe explored, at the beginning of the decade the network wasfar from friendly for the average consumer user.This changed when Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher atGeneva’s CERN physics lab, adapted hypertext (a way tolink documents together) with the Internet protocol toimplement the World Wide Web. By 1994, Web browsingsoftware that could display graphics and play sounds wasavailable for Windows-based and other computers (seeWorld Wide Web and Web browser). The remainder ofthe decade became a frenzied rush to identify and exploitbusiness plans based on e-commerce, the buying and sellingof goods and services on-line (see e-commerce). Meanwhile,educators demanded Internet access for schools.In the office, the Intranet (a LAN based on the InternetTCP/IP protocol) began to supplant earlier networkingschemes. Belatedly recognizing the threat and potentialposed by the Internet, Bill Gates plunged Microsoft intothe Web server market, included the free Internet Explorerbrowser with Windows, and vowed that all Microsoft programswould work seamlessly with the Internet.Moore’s Law, the dictum that computer power roughlydoubles every 18 months, continued to hold true as PCswent from clock rates of a few tens of MHz to more than 1GHz. RAM and hard disk capacity kept pace, while low-costcolor printers, scanners, digital cameras, and video systemsmade it easier than ever to bring rich media content intothe PC and the on-line world.Beyond 2000The new decade began with great hopes, particularly for theWeb and multimedia “dot-coms,” but their stocks, inflatedby unsustainable expectations, took a significant dip in2000–2001. By the middle of the decade the computingindustry had largely recovered and in many ways was strongerthan ever. On the Web, new software approaches (seeAjax, application service provider, and service-orientedarchitecture) are changing the way services andeven applications are delivered. The integration of searchengines, mapping, local content, and user participation (seeblogging, user-created content, and social networking)is changing the relationship between companies andtheir customers.In hardware, Moore’s law is now expressed not throughfaster single processors, but using processors with two, four,or more processing “cores,” challenging software designers(see multiprocessing). Mobile computing is one of thestrongest areas of growth (see pda and smartphone), withdevices combining voice phone, text messaging, e-mail, andWeb browsing.)The industry continues to face formidable challengesranging from mitigating environmental impact (see greenpc) to the shifting of manufacturing and even softwaredevelopment to rapidly growing countries such as Indiaand China (see globalism and the computer industry.)Thus far, each decade has brought new technologies andmethods to the fore, and few observers doubt that this willbe true in the future.Note: for a more detailed chronology of significantevents in computing, see Appendix 1: “Chronology of Computing.”For more on emerging technologies, see trendsand emerging technologies.Further ReadingAllan, Roy A. A History of the Personal Computer: The People andthe Technology. London, Ont.: Allan Publishing, 2001.Campbell-Kelly, Martin. From Airline Reservations to Sonic theHedgehog: A History of the Software Industry. Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press, 2004.Ceruzzi, Paul E. A History of Modern Computing. 2nd ed. Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press, 2003.Chandler, Alfred D., Jr. Inventing the Electronic Century: The EpicStory of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries,with a New Preface. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 2005.Computer History Museum. Available online. URL: http://www.computerhistory.org/. Accessed June 10, 2007.Ifrah, Georges. The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacusto the Quantum Computer. New York: Wiley, 2002.NetHistory. Available online. URL: http://www.nethistory.info/index.html. Accessed August 7, 2007.Hollerith, Herman(1860–1929)AmericanInventorHerman Hollerith invented the automatic tabulating machine,a device that could read the data on punched cards and displayrunning totals. His invention would become the basisfor the data tabulating and processing industry. Hollerithwas born in Buffalo, New York, and graduated from theColumbia School of Mines. After graduation, he went towork for the U.S. Census as a statistician. Among other taskshe compiled vital statistics for Dr. John Shaw Billings, whosuggested to Hollerith that using punched cards and somesort of tabulator would help the Census Department keep upwith the growing volume of demographic statistics.Hollerith studied the problem and decided that he couldbuild a suitable machine. He went to MIT, where he taughtmechanical engineering while working on the machine,which was partly inspired by an earlier device that hadused a piano-type roll rather than punched cards as input.