Technology Reference: Overview & History

The use of tools, power, and materials, generally for the purposes of production. Almost every human process for getting food and shelter depends on complex technological systems, which have been developed over a 3-million-year period.

From Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology
Computing in the 21st century is characterized not by a few streams of incremental and new developments in each decade, but by a multifaceted shift across all aspects of daily life, with computer capabilities integrated into virtually everything people use.

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
Electrification and other technological innovations aided in the commodification of leisure and entertainment.

From Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology
Distributed computing involves the creation of a software system that runs programs and stores data across a number of different computers, an idea pervasive today. A simple form is the central computer (such as in a bank or credit card company) with which thousands of terminals communicate to submit transactions.

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present
History has been divided into ages and eras defined by the new technology being used at the time.

The developmental stage of humans in prehistory before the use of metals, when tools and weapons were made chiefly of stone, especially flint.

Stage of prehistory and early history when copper and bronze (an alloy of tin and copper) became the first metals worked extensively and used for tools and weapons.

Developmental stage of human technology when weapons and tools were made from iron. Preceded by the Stone and Bronze ages, it is the last technological stage in the Three Age System framework for prehistory.

Tthe pace of technological and social change accelerated exponentially in the 18th and 19th centuries with the Industrial Revolution.

The wartime effort to design and build the first nuclear weapons (atomic bombs).

US computer and electronics company, manufacturer of the iPodMP3 music player, iPhone multimedia mobile telephone, Macintosh range of computers, and iPad tablet computer.

Google can be found in almost every domain of Internet computing and media provision.

Multinational company, one of the world's largest technology companies (as of 2011). The company is a descendant of the Tabulating Machine Company, formed in 1896 by US inventor Herman Hollerith to exploit his punched-card machines.

US corporation, one of the world's largest software suppliers, based in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. Its first major product was a version of BASIC, written for the first personal computer, the MITS Altair, in 1975, and adopted by most of the desktop computer industry.

One of the most successful examples of internet-based organization, this ‘free encyclopedia anyone can edit’ has (at the time of writing) over 5 million articles in 200 languages.

English mathematician and inventor, who built a calculating machine that anticipated the modern electronic computer.

English mathematician and writer who created the first program for Charles Babbage's analytical engine – she is known as the first computer programmer.

The mathematician John von Neumann made important contributions to many areas of mathematics and quantum physics before turning to computers and developing the theoretical foundations of digital electronic computers.

English mathematician who worked in numerical analysis and played a major part in the early development of British computers.

US electrical engineer and computer inventor. With Steven Jobs he formed Apple Computer in 1976 to make the Apple I. He played a major role in designing the later Apple models, Lisa and Macintosh.

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, California on 24 February 1955.

US computer entrepreneur. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation in 1975, with school friend and fellow entrepreneur Paul Allen, and succeeded in converting a passion for computers into a globally dominant software business.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
US computer entrepreneur who founded the PC manufacturing company Dell Computers. He founded the company as a student with US$1,000 and the idea to sell custom-built computers directly to the consumer, cutting out the selling stages between.