Understanding Better what computers actually are and what they do

I am in a unique position compared to most other people in this in that I have studied this technology off and on since I was a child in the 1950s. Then in college starting in 1966 I studied computer operations and computer programming and worked in the field by ages 19 and 20. I worked for the Glendale Board of Education at first part time while I was a student at Glendale College. My best friend didn't want to be drafted in the army to die on the front lines of the Viet Nam War so he studied Jet Engine maintenance there at Glendale College as well and then joined the Air Force so he was stationed in Thailand in the Air Force maintaining fighter jets and B-52 Bombers at that time that were flying into Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos.

Also, because I had had a concussion and seizures from age 10 to 15 at night I was given a 4F classification so I wasn't drafted into the Army and didn't have to worry about dying on the front lines of the Viet Nam War anymore. So, I could concentrate on getting a college degree and studying about programming computers and computer operations then in 1966.

My first experience there at Glendale College was with Keypunch machines because then everything was done by Batch because we didn't have RAM (Random Access Memory) I think only NASA and the space agency then had Random Access Memory which requires a whole lot of memory and memory was very expensive then. In fact, I worked later with millions of dollars of computer equipment but your laptop or desktop computer far exceeds now what I worked on then even when the millions of dollars of equipment was the size of a whole warehouse full of computers made then by IBM. So, I became proficient with the IBM Mainframe 1620 computer and all the models of the then IBM 360 mainframe computer. 

Then there usually was a Mainframe with many dumb terminals which looked like computers but were really mostly just like a regular TV set that could access information from the Mainframe computer. So, a Mainframe computer would have anywhere from 5 dumb terminals to 100s or 1000s of dumb terminals (basically a dumb terminal is a TV with a keyboard plugged into a mainframe somewhere.

However, it was possible then likely that you could have dumb terminals in New York City connected to a mainframe in California and some companies did this even though it would have been slow doing this. It was much better if your dumb terminals were in the same room or building as the mainframe computer just because of the speed that it could get things done this way.

Later I worked on another Mainframe computer with many dumb terminals for a church I belonged to then around 1977 in Pasadena California. But, that was about 10 years later. IN 1966 I was 18 years old and still going to Glendale College and working part time for the Glendale School District processing IQ tests and other advanced testing at that time for the School System then.

However, this gave me a good understanding of how computers are basically like a big adding machine in some ways in that they ONLY are processing Zeros and ones and that's all. Or an even better way to say this is that computers are only electrical switches that are all individually either on or off in any given moment.

However, then if you take it out one level then everything had to be done using the Binary system instead of the decimal system that most people use in their everyday life because the binary system is a 2 based system (in this case) of on and off switches. a Switch on might represent 1 and a switch off might represent 2 or vice versa. 

So, when you convert series of switches to the binary system then you can create these switches to represent numbers in the decimal system or you can convert them to Alphabetic letters depending upon how you configure them.

Simply speaking this is what all computers are. And the more complicated of programs as you move up the chain of what computers can do is ALL based upon Zeros and Ones or OFF or ON Switches.

Usually a switch on means 1 and a switch off means ZERO and by how you configure all these switches you can create all sorts of complex ways for the computer to communicate with you. But, mostly it's all a trick sort of like a slight of hand card trick. Understanding this gives you a better more realistic idea of what all computer systems actually are at core.