Why the “professional day” of computer scientists all over the world was suddenly combined with the Catholic St. Valentine’s Day, as well as some other interesting features of the holiday, read in our material.
When celebrated
As is usually the case with many holiday calendar dates, February 14th is associated with an important historical event. On this day, in 1946, the ENIAC I was first presented in America – the first electronic computer that actually works on practical tasks.
Of course, there were earlier computers, but that’s all – experimental options that do not bring practical benefits. But ENIAC I became the progenitor of the current modern computer, which is used today by almost every inhabitant of the planet. A fundamentally qualitative change in computers has taken place literally before our eyes in just half a century! A path has been made from bulky, multi-ton machines called up for secret service to the military department, to weightless laptops and tablets, which are now easily controlled even by small children.
A variety of smart machines have tightly entered our lives, and now not a single field of activity is unthinkable without them. So computer scientists, no doubt, have earned the right to their professional holiday!
History
ENIAC was designed to solve serious and necessary army tasks – calculation of ballistic tables for artillerymen and aviation, weather forecasting, modeling of a thermonuclear explosion and other engineering calculations. Until that time, people in the relevant departments of the Pentagon worked for days to get the necessary data, and it took the created machine some 30 seconds to calculate. True, the Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator occupied an area of 135 square meters. meters and was entangled with a lot of wires, weighed as much as 27 tons, he did not have the usual monitor and keyboard, and the memory was only 4 GB, which by today’s standards is the “absolute minimum”, but, as they say, the beginning of trouble is the beginning.
“ENIK” worked until the beginning of October 1955 – the grateful American military recorded exactly when the electronic heart of the machine stopped: 2.10.1955/23/45 at XNUMX hours XNUMX minutes. Subsequently, the first “from the Mohicans” was dismantled and sent to the museum.
And the computer sphere, meanwhile, continued to develop actively.
Traditions
Every year the Day of the Computer Engineer becomes more and more relevant and is celebrated by a huge number of PC connoisseurs. It is celebrated by computer engineers and programmers, system administrators and typists, web designers and teachers of specialized educational institutions. These are the “name days” not only of the technical geniuses of the digital world, but also of representatives of many creative professions – bloggers, photographers, press service specialists and just freelance artists. After all, each of us spends several hours a day at the computer, so we all also have a relationship with this holiday.
But with the traditions of this day, we are not so rich yet: it apparently affects that in Our Country there are already other – fixed in the calendar – similar dates, for example, Programmer’s Day – on the 256th day of the year, September 12 or 13. Or System Administrator’s Day, celebrated on the last Friday of July. The title of “computer” belongs to them by right … There is also the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
And while in the Western countries Computer Science Day is celebrated on a large scale, s mainly organize corporate events – receptions, trips to cafes, honoring employees in teams. Well, if you have an acquaintance from among advanced IT specialists, do not forget to congratulate him on February 14th. After all, without his knowledge and work, your computer would be a pile of useless piece of iron – no more!
Interesting Facts
- The first computer mouse was made of wood. It was somewhat larger than modern, but it still fit in the hand. It owes its name to a wire that reminded its creator, the American inventor Douglas Karl Engelbart, of the tail of a real mouse.
- For a full 15 years, from 1984 to 1999, sales of personal computers in the United States vastly outpaced sales of automobiles.
- In 1982, according to the American magazine Time, the computer was recognized as “Person of the Year”.
- One in eight marriages in the United States is now done through dating sites.
- Cyberphobia is the name given to the fear of computers and computing technology in general.
- Many prominent specialists in the field of computer technology do not have a special education.