Learning about Computers

If someone was just starting to learn about computers now at this point in life whether they are young, old or in between somewhere I'm not sure what I would tell them to do.

I started learning about computers and software in the 1960s. I started in college a Computer Science major but that isn't what they called it then. I think it was called Computer systems engineering or something like this then.

So, there have no only been 20 or more generations of technology and software there might have also been 20 generations of the way you name and terms for things. So, even though some people might understand the original words regarding computers in the 1960s there are many new ones now that you might want to learn.

If you have enough time and interest I would learn about how all computers are basically just one and off switches (millions or billions of them) depending upon the computer and the systems you are connected with worldwide. And these switches are usually put into groups of 8, 16, or 32 bit or even 64 bit. groups.

By grouping these switches you can create one switch on and the off and the next on to represent a number or letter of the alphabet. So, computer languages were first created around these 8 or 16 or 32 bit or even 64 bit or larger groupings of switches.

When I first started each switch looked like a ferrous ring that had I think three or four non insulated wires going through the center of each ferrous ring. This way you could make the switch on or off or reset it to zero which was off. So, On would be magnetized and off would be non-magnetized and the ferrous rings were the size and diameter of my little finger.

But then came the microchips so instead of having a warehouse full of these rings in sequence you have as many as we would have in a warehouse full of computers only right in the laptop of smartphone you are using now. And instead of costing millions of dollars like they did in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s they only cost 1000 to 5000 dollars for pretty much the exactly same thing only you can have that laptop computer or smartphone and take it literally anywhere on earth and use it and connect online to literally any other place online. So, it's all changed quite a lot since I entered college as a computer major in 1966 now.