Posted on 30 April 2012. Tags: computer software patents, mathematician alan turing
In 1935, English mathematician Alan Turing proposed the first known theory about software in his essay ‘Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungs problem (Decision problem)’. The actual ‘software’ term was first used and printed by statistician John W. Turkey in 1958. It was used in computer science and software engineering studies to refer the information processed by a computer system, computer programs and their data.
The most popular historical trace of the first outputs of computer software is found in the first software bug found in computer systems in 1946. Later, in 1970, the term ‘Moore’s law’ was coined to explain the basic elements of a computing system, where the first element was computer software, which then joined the devices in computer hardware.
Computer software was originally offered in conjunction with hardware by Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Popular OEMs of the time were Data General, Digital Equipment and IBM. Since computer hardware companies originally bundled their software, they were not able to claim the software as an asset. Data Gen then introduced Data General Nova, and the company Digidyne pursued Data General Nova for its RDOS operating system for its own hardware clone. Data General refused to license their software and subsequently claimed ‘bundling rights’. This set a distinct precedent in the history of software – in 1985 The Supreme Court, with Digidyne v. Data General, ruled that Data Gen must license their operating system software because restricting the license was an illegal tying arrangement. This decision increased the value of software, making it possible to purchase computer software patents. Data General was eventually taken over by EMC Corporation. Then, in 1986, IBM released Disk Operating System (DOS) for free, and Microsoft was created. Continue Reading
Posted in Computer Software
Posted on 25 April 2012. Tags: application, keyboard driver, Software, text editors
Computer software is the phrase used to describe a set of instructions, or a program, that lets a computer know what it is supposed to do. Hardware refers to things like the computers themselves, monitors, printers, disk drives and other pieces that are hard, meaning solid and tangible. Programs are not tangible and are given the name software. There are several types of software but the three most common are application, programming and system.
Operating systems, device drivers and utilities are all examples of system software. An operating system is basically like the commander of the computer and organizes all the activities that take place. One of its many jobs is to act as an interface between the user and all the hardware. Also, it distributes system resources for the application software.
Printers, monitors, keyboards and mice are devices that require a device manager. Each device has its own driver that stores all the information that the computer needs to run the device properly and to its fullest capacity. For instance, a keyboard driver gives the computer all the necessary info to recognize and properly carry out the function of each keystroke.
Utility programs have many functions. They are used to maintain and configure computers as well as optimize performance. Cleaning the registry, defragmenting, managing files, portioning the disks, compressing data and backup are common utility tasks. Utility software is almost always already installed on a computer before you buy it. Continue Reading
Posted in Software
Posted on 20 April 2012. Tags: disk cleanup, speeding up computer
Eventually most PC users will want or need speed up computer software. The longer and more extensively you use your computer the greater the need for speeding up computer software.
Why? In layman’s, over time your PC’s heart – the registry – becomes clogged with so many unwanted files and commands that it takes longer for new commands to be processed. Eventually errors occur regularly, files become fragmented, and severe cases, your PC freezes or crashes all together.
That is why if your computer is starting to run slower than normal you really need software to clean and speed up your computer.
So how do you get this software?
Speed up computer software is sourced from Two Main Sources. Each of these will only take around 10 minutes to fix your PC speed problems.
1. From Your Computer – that’s right – there is normally software already installed on your PC to help you improve its performance.
a. Run Disk Cleanup will get rid of all the unwanted and rarely used programs you have accumulated your PC. The result is more storage space on your hard disk. With Vista open your Control Panel, go to System and Maintenance then look for Performance Information and Tools and lastly choose Disk Cleanup. Disk clean up is easily found on earlier Windows applications.
b. You can also Defrag Your Hard Drive. Whenever you write, create, or copy a new file, Windows will assign space that is needed for that file. Automatically it will be put into that assigned empty space. Eventually the available spaces run out, so Windows will fragment the file and put parts of it in any available space on your hard drive. Continue Reading
Posted in Software
