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Social Science Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

Social Science Academic Decathlon 2023

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Early Inform­ation Processing

Automated data proces­sing, as evidenced via Adam Smith pin example, was necessary precursor to computer develo­pment.
Automation assists with 3 tasks: 1) document creation, 2) inform­ation storage and revival, and 3) quanti­tative analysis.
Great Britain indust­ria­lized before US, but US adopted automated machinery faster.
Before WW2, comput­ation machines were mechanical or electr­ome­cha­nical, not fully electr­onic.
Modern computers are distin­guished from earlier comput­ation machines by: fully electr­onic, progra­mmable with condit­ional branching, and general purpose.
Charles Babbage designed the Difference Engine (a general purpose differ­ential calcul­ator) and the Analytical Engine (a machine that could perform any type of calcul­ation).
Ada Lovelace is credited with writing the first computer program (for the Analytical Engine), and popula­rized Babbage's work.
Herman Hollerith invented a tabulating machine used in the 1890 census, and his company eventually became IBM.
Alan Turing developed a theore­tical model of what a computer can and cannot do.
Vannevar Bush created the Differ­ential Analyzer, an early analog computer.
Howard Aiken designed the Harvard Mark I, an early electr­ome­cha­nical computer built by IBM.
John Atanasoff created the Atanas­off­-Berry computer, an early electr­ome­cha­nical computer.
Konrad Zuse was an engineer who created several early computers in pre- and postwar Germany; however, though his ideas had merit, Germany rejected his proposal due to war efforts.
 

General Purpose Electronic Computersf

Need for firing tables during WW2 provided the impetus to develop first fully electronic genera­l-p­urpose computer, the ENIAC.
John von Neumann wrote and distri­buted the descri­ption for the ENIAC's successor, the EDVAC.
Many computers built after the war were built based on the "­stored progra­m" design described by von Neumann.
ENIAC creators started the first computer company - the Eckert­-Ma­uchly Computer Corpor­ation.
The first commer­cially produced computer was the BINAC, followed by the UNIVAC.
UNIVAC predicted the 1952 presid­ential race on live televi­sion.
IBM passed UNIVAC in sales.
IBM's compet­itors were known as the "­Seven Dwarfs­" and later, the "­Bun­ch."­
Hardware innova­tions include: 1) processors - from vacuum tubes to transi­stors to integrated circuits, 2) memory - from vacuum tubes to delay lines to drums to core to integrated circuits, and 3) storage - from tapes to disks.
Software innova­tions include: 1) assemb­lers, 2) compilers and high-level languages (FORTRAN, COBOL, LISP).
IBM System/360 was a family of compatible computers at differing price points, and cemented IBM's industry leader­ship.
OS/360 was the flagship operating system for the IBM System­/360, and had many bugs, and followed Brooks's Laws (adding manpower to a late software project makes it later).
ENIAC patent was invali­dated in 1973, which placed the invention of the computer in the public domain where anyone was free to make and sell computers.
John Macuhly and J. Presper Eckert were inventors of the ENIAC (first genera­l-p­urpose electronic computer).
Herman Goldstine was an Army officer who helped secure funding for the ENIAC.
John von Neumann was a famous mathem­atician who joined the ENIAC team as a consultant and wrote a widely distri­buted report on the "­stored progra­m" concept.
The original six progra­mmers of the ENIAC were all women: Frances Bilas Spence, Jean Bartik, Ruth Lichterman Teitel­baum, Kathleen McNulty, Elizabeth Snyder Holberton, and Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer.
Grace Hopper was the computer programmer who invented the first compiler and promoted the use of high-level languages.
John Backus was the designer of FORTRAN, the first successful high-level progra­mming language.
Fred Brooks was the manager of the OS/360 project and coined Brooks's Law.
Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit. Noyce went on to become one of the founders of Intel Corpor­ation.
 

Toward "­Per­son­al" Computing

Before the 1970s, most computers were batch-­ori­ented (progr­ammers submit punched cards to an operator, and the computer returns output on paper)
Early intera­ctive computing includes: 1) Project Whirlwind used display screens rather than paper output and was capable of displaying graphical shapes instead of just text, 2) SAGE which was based on Project Whirlwind technology and distri­buted air defense system for the US Air Force, and 3) SABRE which was an American Airlines reserv­ation system, and was the first non-mi­litary applic­ation of intera­ctive computing.
Timesh­aring was a way of allowing common people to access computers by allowing multiple users on teletypes to be connected to a single computer, which switches rapidly between users' requests.
Notable examples of timesh­aring include: CTSS at MIT and BASIC at Dartmouth, which was a highly influe­ntial progra­mming enviro­nment.
Timesh­aring continued on a much smaller scale, as projects like multics were over-a­mbi­tious and delivered incomp­lete.
Digital Equipment Corpor­ation (DEC) created the minico­mputer. The PDP-8 was the first successful minico­mputer, could fit on a desk rather than take up a whole room, and led to the creation of the Original Equipment Manufa­cturing (OEM) industry.
PDP-11 was most popular minico­mputer of all time, and led to cost-e­ffe­ctive timesh­aring, the popula­riz­ation of BASIC language, and led to the develo­pment of UNIX.
UNIX, used heavily at univer­sities, was created at AT&T by former Multics progra­mmers, was built on PDP-7 and PDP-11, and was written in C progra­mming language made specif­ically for writing UNIX.

Toward "­Per­son­al" Computing

Before the 1970s, most computers were batch-­ori­ented (progr­ammers submit punched cards to an operator, and the computer returns output on paper)
Early intera­ctive computing includes: 1) Project Whirlwind used display screens rather than paper output and was capable of displaying graphical shapes instead of just text, 2) SAGE which was based on Project Whirlwind technology and distri­buted air defense system for the US Air Force, and 3) SABRE which was an American Airlines reserv­ation system, and was the first non-mi­litary applic­ation of intera­ctive computing.
Timesh­aring was a way of allowing common people to access computers by allowing multiple users on teletypes to be connected to a single computer, which switches rapidly between users' requests.
Notable examples of timesh­aring include: CTSS at MIT and BASIC at Dartmouth, which was a highly influe­ntial progra­mming enviro­nment.
Timesh­aring continued on a much smaller scale, as projects like multics were over-a­mbi­tious and delivered incomp­lete.
Digital Equipment Corpor­ation (DEC) created the minico­mputer. The PDP-8 was the first successful minico­mputer, could fit on a desk rather than take up a whole room, and led to the creation of the Original Equipment Manufa­cturing (OEM) industry.
PDP-11 was most popular minico­mputer of all time, and led to cost-e­ffe­ctive timesh­aring, the popula­riz­ation of BASIC language, and led to the develo­pment of UNIX.
UNIX, used heavily at univer­sities, was created at AT&T by former Multics progra­mmers, was built on PDP-7 and PDP-11, and was written in C progra­mming language made specif­ically for writing UNIX.
ARPANET was the first long-d­istance computer network and was enabled by store and forward packet switching. It was used for email, remote login, and file transfer. Protocols, like TCP/IP allowed different networks to commun­icate.
Other networks include CS Net, BITNET, NSFNET, and they all merged into the internet. Minitel was a French computer network that predated the WWW by several years. ALOHAnet was the first wireless computer network and provided inspir­ation for today's Ethernet.
Xerox PARC was the pioneer of many concepts of modern computing, and had graphical user interf­aces, laser printers, ethernet, and object­-or­iented progra­mming. Xerox's attempts to market its technology largely failed.
Invention of microp­roc­essor was a "­com­puter on a chip" and enabled the creation of small, inexpe­nsive computers.
MITS Altair 8800 was an inexpe­nsive personal computer in 1975 and led to the ubiquity of Intel hardware and Microsoft software.
In 1977, Commodore, Radio Shack, and Apple all release personal computers, and now only Apple remains.
Video games first created for minico­mpu­ters, then as custom machines in arcades, and then as software for personal computers.
VisiCalc was the first spread­sheet and led to the acceptance of personal computers by busine­sses.
IBM PC was a very successful product designed quickly from off-th­e-s­helf. It was soon supplanted by inexpe­nsive clones and the use of MS-DOS led to Microsoft, not IBM, dominating the personal computer industry.
Macintosh was inspired by GUI research at Xerox PARC and was the first affordable GUI/mouse computer.
Jay Forrester was the leader of Project Whirlwind.
John McCarthy was a computer scientist who promoted the idea of timesh­aring, and created the Lisp progra­mming language.
Fernando Corbato was the developer of CTSS, an early timesh­aring system at MIT.
John Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz were co-dev­elopers of the BASIC progra­mming language.
Kenneth Olsen was the founder of Digital Equipment Corpor­ation (DEC), an influe­ntial developer of minico­mpu­ters.
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were co-dev­elopers of the Unix operating system.
JCR Licklider helped create the ARPANET, the forerunner of today's Internet.
Leonard Kleinrock, Paul Baran, and Donald Davies indepe­ndently developed the concept of store and forward packet switching for computer networks.
Norm Abramson created ALOHAnet.
Robert Taylor was the director of the Xerox PARC research team.
Douglas Englebart invented the computer mouse.
Vint Cert and Bob Kahn created the TCP/IP, the protocol on which the Internet runs.
Robert Metcalfe invented Ethernet.
Alan Kay created object­-or­iented progra­mming and Smalltalk progra­mming language.
Barbara Liskov created the CLU progra­mming language, which, along with Smalltalk, helped popularize object­-or­iented progra­mming,
Robert Noyce founded Intel and co-inv­ented the integrated circuit.