Computer Research

Book: The story of Microsoft
PCs became a vital tool of managing information. Bookkeepers and scientists needed many days or weeks to calculate numbers with pen and paper. PCs do that in 1 second with no error, as long as the user puts the information in correctly.
Microsoft was the world leader in the computer industry since 1975.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8
They have 96% of the market share.
Book
Cave people carved notches into the wall to keep track of days and stories.
4000 BC - Egyptians made the decimal (base 10 system)
2000 BC - multiplication tables invented
1500 BC - India made the concept of zero
500 BC - the Babylonians invented the abacus
1642 - French mathematician Blaise Pascal invented the Pascaline, a machine that adds and subtracts numbers using a wheel
1673 - Binary arithmetic was invented by Gottfried Leibniz, a system where every number can be represented by bits (0 and 1) The Leibniz wheel could add, subtract, multiply and divide. Every computer system since 1679 was using the binary system!
19th century - Charles Babbage made the Analytical Engine. His friend, Augusta Ada suggest it takes programmed instructions with punch cards. She was one of the first programmers. However, Charles never made it work.
1939 - Physicist John Atanasoff, with the help of graduate student Clifford Berry made the ABC or Atanasoff-Berry Computer. It is considered the forerunner of today's computer. This is the first digital computer.
1943 - during World War 2, the British made a machine called Colossus to break Germany's codes. It fills the room of a small warehouse. It had over 2,400 vacuum tubes.
1945 - The US Army made ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrator and Computer) that solves 5,000 addition problems per second. It was 30 tons (27 metric tons), 100 feet long by 10 feet high (30 meters long by 3 meters high)
1949 - Popular Mechanics predicts that one day computers would weigh less than 1.5 tons
1960 - "Mini computers" cost $120,000.
1962 - Vacuum tubes replaced with transistors, computers much smaller
1963 - Two scientists from Dartmouth University created BASIC (Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)

Sample BASIC code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC)

INPUT "What is your name: ", UserName$
PRINT "Hello "; UserName$
DO
INPUT "How many stars do you want: ", NumStars
Stars$ = STRING$(NumStars, "*") 
PRINT Stars$
DO
INPUT "Do you want more stars? ", Answer$
LOOP UNTIL Answer$ <> ""
Answer$ = LEFT$(Answer$, 1)
LOOP WHILE UCASE$(Answer$) = "Y"
PRINT "Goodbye "; UserName$

1964 - Cost was down to $18,000 and the mini computer was the size of a refrigerator.
1965 - Microsoft earned $16,000, but the two founders were sure it would change quickly
1969 - Ted Hoff, a researcher from Intel made tiny chips of silicon, placed on circuit boards.
1973 - First PC was made by Intel. It has hardware only, requires software, keyboard and monitor
1975 - MITS in New Mexico made a fast computer called Altair, costs $350. It was a metal box with flashing lights and switches, still no keyboard and monitor. The only thing they could play was Tic-Tac-Toe. They took 400 orders in one afternoon. 3 weeks earned them a quarter of a million dollars.
1976 - Bill Gates and Paul Allen registered the tradename "Microsoft" with the Secretary of State in New Mexico
1977 - Microsoft earned $381,715, a year later they earned $1,355,655
1979 - Microsoft moved to Bellevue, Washington
1982 - Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease and left Microsoft the following year due to  his health
1986 - Microsoft had 1,153 employees and 4,000 employees a year later.