Sohini Bagchi - Techtonic Shift: A Brief History of Computing and the Web

Techtonic Shift: A Brief History of Computing and the Web — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Techtonic Shift: A Brief History of Computing and the Web" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...54

Techtonic Shift

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTING AND THE WEB

Sohini Bagchi

Techtonic Shift: A Brief History of Computing and the Web
Copyright Sohini Bagchi

Publisher
Orange Publishers #101A, Ground Floor, 98/37 Gopal Lal Tagore Road, Kolkata - 700036, W.B., India.

Cover Design Arabinda Paul
Digital Composing, Layout & Printing JIPL Pre-Press www.pre-press.in
First Published: March 2021
ISBN: 978-93-90505-26-5

Distributed by
purushottam-bookstore.com flipkart.com
amazon.in

Printed on recycled paper. No trees were cut for the production of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author and publisher.

The views, theories, postulates and recommendations expressed in this book are entirely those of the author. The publisher is not in any way responsible for the views, theories, postulates and recommendations expressed in this book. The publisher of the book has taken care to ensure that the contents of the book do not violate any existing copyright or other intellectual property rights. Please notify the publisher in writing for corrective measure if any copyright has been found infringed. All legal actions related to this publication are subject to the jurisdictions of the courts of Kolkata, India.

Dedication

To my beloved son Kush and every tech enthusiast who can learn about computers splendid past in a simple and concise manner

Acknowledgement

I owe my deepest gratitude to my publisher Orange Publishers for recognizing this books potential and making my dream come true; a big thanks to Joyita Bhowmick and the editorial and design team for their constant cooperation and assistance.

I wish to express my special thanks to my dear friend and senior journalist and author, Shantheri Mallaya, for her invaluable support and encouragement and being a part of this journey.

I am thankful to my editors, mentors and colleagues for supporting me in my career path from time to time, and challenging me to learn something new every day.

Finally, my deep and sincere gratitude to my parents for their unparalleled love and support - without them this book wouldnt have been possible.

FOREWORD

Technology is the old new and new old a juggernaut that has now come to stay. From the moment we wake up, to the moment we go to sleep, technology is omnipresent in our lives. The highly digital life we live and the development of our technological world have become the new normal.

Recent research indicates that almost 50% of the worlds population uses the internet, leading to over 3.5 billion daily searches on Google and more than 570 new websites being launched each minute. And even more mind-boggling? Over 90% of the worlds data has been created in just the last couple of years.

I may venture to reel out many more mind boggling trivia. So, needless to say, when Sohini - who is a peer, a former colleague and above all a dear personal friend -shared her vision for The Techtonic Shift, I couldnt but help echo her sentiments in wanting to pen something on technology for readers across all age groups. Sohinis desire to put the story of computing in one place stemmed from the fact that she was looking for authentic information sources to educate her pre-teen son, whose innate curiosity drove her to dig up more and more and then she discovered, to her surprise, that there were very few or no consolidated, composite sources of interestingly written stories about the journey of technology. And, thus, started her quest to pool these pieces into a compelling book for the tech and the non-tech readership.

A senior journalist and editor in the enterprise technology space, a published author, and as a professional who has nearly two decades rich journalistic and editorial experience to her credit, Sohini is, in my opinion, perhaps the best person to take a birds eye view as well as deep dive into the interesting

vii
milestones, achievements and failures that encompass the world of technology.

All along the process of writing the book, it was quite evident that Sohini had adopted her quintessential meticulousness to demystifying some of the lesser known facts combining it with academic rigour, while retaining a distinctly personal style of writing. This book - the making of which I have had the privilege of being privy to - attempts to give the reader a quick overview to the What about of technology. It seeks to chronicle in a condense manner, the eventology of the global and Indian tech landscape. Reading through the manuscript at its drafting stage was quite a re-education to someone like me, who professes to have written about technology and driven discussion among CXOs, albeit, in the enterprise. The whole exercise and journey made me realize the simple truth that we tend to let slip by the fundamental stories in the quest of complex narratives, jargons and clichs.

Aptly titled, Techtonic Shift, a cleverly used pun that I absolutely loved, this book brings back context - in a simple format - to those forgotten anecdotes, heroes, heroines and legends of computing, whose contributions have long since been forgotten or unsung. It also very organically leads you into what we have today and what the future beholds for the globe as well as in India. Since India is now a well acknowledged force in shaping tech storylines, this book devotes significant coverage to driving home the point, without being over-the-top about it.

While the entire manuscript left me highly impressed for its precision and objectivity, I would choose to discard my neutrality and particularly root for the chapters on The History of Computers, The Female Champions of Computing, Tech Leaders of All Time, A Short History of Internet Securityand India Born Technology Titans as my favourites for the sheer fluidity of the stories captured within them, as well as the painstaking research that went into piecing them together.

viii

Right from the story of the pioneer Charles Babbage to the enigmatic Ada Lovelace who would have otherwise passed off as just a daughter of the British poet Lord Byron - but for her mathematical genius - to the story of tech giants who have changed the course of our lives, these themes, in particular, make for gripping reading. While the whole world is grappling with cybersecurity, hacks, breaches and attacks that are sometimes even geo-political in nature, A Short History of Internet Security delves into giving the reader a glimpse of the timeline of key developments in cybersecurity.

All in all, personally, I would wish for this book to be read by as many readers as it is possible and for this to reach as many people as it can - it has the making of a nifty repository that can address the interest of the student, professional and the reader next-door with effortless ease.

Best Wishes,
Shantheri Mallaya

1 Shantheri Mallaya is a senior journalist, having led the editorial operations for India in a global media company. She serves as honorary trustee for a Bangalore based NGO, besides being a published author, podcaster and theaterperson

Authors Note

At the time of writing this book, the deadly coronavirus or Covid-19 tightened its grip across the globe. Quiet streets, empty public places, closed schools and college campuses, social isolation and locked-down cities had become part of those strange couple of months. The idea of this book came to me when my 12-year old boy was bored to the bone and we were almost done with every other form of in-house recreation.

Next page

1234567...54

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Techtonic Shift: A Brief History of Computing and the Web»

Look at similar books to Techtonic Shift: A Brief History of Computing and the Web. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Dr. Patanjali Kashyap

Applied Quantum Computers: Learn about the Concept, Architecture, Tools, and Adoption Strategies for Quantum Computing

Steve Lohr

Digital Revolutionaries: The Men and Women Who Brought Computing to Life

Eduardo Reck Miranda (editor)

Quantum Computing in the Arts and Humanities: An Introduction to Core Concepts, Theory and Applications

Thomas Haigh

A New History of Modern Computing (History of Computing)

Nihal Mehta Ph. D.

Quantum Computing: Program Next-Gen Computers for Hard, Real-World Applications

Hillis

The pattern on the stone: the simple ideas that make computers work

Irena Cronin

The Infinite Retina: Spatial Computing, Augmented Reality, and how a collision of new technologies are bringing about the next tech revolution

Tony Hey

The Computing Universe: A Journey through a Revolution

Ince

The computer : a very short introduction

W. Daniel Hillis

The Pattern On The Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work

Riley Tipton Perry

Quantum Computing from the Ground Up

Robert St. Amant

Computing for Ordinary Mortals

Discussion, reviews of the book Techtonic Shift: A Brief History of Computing and the Web and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.