History

It's easy to imagine that computing sprang into existence with the advent of home computers in the late 1970's and 1980's, just as many people have the perception that the Internet sprang into existence in the mid- to late-1990's. In both cases, these technologies crossed thresholds that made them accessible to general consumers, leading to greatly increased usage that makes their pre-consumer existences seem quite meager. However, in the early days great minds were hard at work on developing revolutionary ideas that are so ingrained in computing today that they are largely taken for granted.