When was the first computer invented? There is no easy answer to this question because of all the different classifications of computers. However, the person generally accepted as the father of computing, and the designer of the first mechanical computer, is Charles Babbage of Totnes. Bear in mind, though, that there were earlier inventions that helped lead up to the computer such as the abacus. The word "computer" was first recorded as being used in 1613 and was used originally to describe a human who performed calculations or computations. The definition of a computer remained the same until the end of the nineteenth century when people began to realize machines never get tired and can perform calculations much faster and more accurately than any team of human computers ever could. In 1822, Charles Babbage proposed and began developing the Difference Engine, considered to be the first automatic computing engine that was capable of computing several sets of numbers and making hard copies of the results. Unfortunately, because of lack of funds he was never able to complete a full-scale functional version of this machine. (In June, 1991, the Science Museum completed the Difference Engine No. 2 for the bicentennial year of Babbage's birth and later completed the printing mechanism in 2000.) Later, in 1837, Charles Babbage proposed the first general mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine contained an Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), basic flow control, and integrated memory and is the first general-purpose computer concept. Unfortunately, because of shortage of money again, this computer was also never built while Charles Babbage was alive. In 1910, Henry Babbage, Charles Babbage's youngest son was able to complete a portion of this machine and was able to perform basic calculations. The first programmable computer was the Z1, originally created by Germany's Konrad Zuse in his parents' living room in 1936 to 1938, and is considered to be the first electro-mechanical binary programmable (modern) computer and really the first functional computer. But what were the first concepts of what we consider a modern computer? The Turing machine was first proposed by Alan Turing in 1936 and became the foundation for theories about computing and computers. The machine was a device that printed symbols on paper tape in a manner that emulated a person following a series of logical instructions. Without these fundamentals, we wouldn't have the computers we use today. The Colossus was the first electric programmable computer and was developed by Tommy Flowers and first demonstrated in December 1943. The Colossus was created to help British code breakers read encrypted German messages. Short for Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the ABC (the first digital computer) started being developed by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937 and continued to be developed until 1942 at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) in the USA. The ABC was an electrical computer that used vacuum tubes for digital computation including binary mathematics and Boolean logic and had no CPU. On October 19, 1973, the US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision that the ENIAC patent by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly was invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer. The ENIAC was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania and began construction in 1943 and was not completed until 1946. It occupied about 1,800 square feet and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighing almost 50 tons. Although the Judge ruled that the ABC computer was the first digital computer, many still consider the ENIAC to be the first digital computer because it was fully functional. The early British computer known as the EDSAC is considered to be the first stored program electronic computer. The computer performed its first calculation on May 6, 1949 and was the computer that ran the first graphical computer game, nicknamed "Baby". The first computer company was the Electronic Controls Company and was founded in 1949 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same individuals who helped create the ENIAC computer. The company was later renamed to EMCC or Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and released a series of mainframe computers under the UNIVAC name. First delivered to the United States Government in 1950, the UNIVAC 1101 or ERA 1101 is considered to be the first computer that was capable of storing and running a program from memory. In 1942, Konrad Zuse begin working on the Z4, which later became the first commercial computer after being sold to Eduard Stiefel a mathematician of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich on July 12, 1950. On April 7, 1953 IBM publicly introduced the 701, its first electric computer and first mass produced computer. Later IBM introduced its first personal computer called the IBM PC in 1981. The computer was code named and still sometimes referred to as the Acorn and had a 8088 processor, 16 KB of memory, which was expandable to 256 and utilizing MS-DOS. MIT introduced the Whirlwind machine on March 8, 1955, a revolutionary computer that was the first digital computer with magnetic core RAM and real-time graphics. The TX-O (Transistorized Experimental computer) was the first transistorized computer to be demonstrated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956. In 1960, Digital Equipment Corporation released its first of many PDP mini-computers, the PDP-1. In 1968, Hewlett Packard began marketing the first mass-marketed PC, the HP 9100A. Although it was never sold, the first workstation is considered to be the Xerox Alto, introduced in 1974. The computer was revolutionary for its time and included a fully functional computer, display, and mouse. The computer operated like many computers today utilizing windows, menus and icons as an interface to its operating system.

ActiveX Controls
ActiveX controls are reusable software programs. Microsoft designed the Internet Explorer web browser to use ActiveX controls to add functionality to web pages. ActiveX Controls have been greatly criticized for their ability to be used by unethical developers to create computer viruses, trojans and spyware infections. ActiveX controls are unsafe for users of Internet Explorer. The problems occur when a user surfs to a non-trusted web page and that web page contains a malicious ActiveX control.

Adware
Any advertising software which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used.

Bandwidth
Bandwidth in computer networking refers to the data speed supported by a network connection. It is most often expressed in terms of bits per second (bps) or megabits per second (Mps). The term represents the total distance between the highest and lowest signals on the communication channel (band).

Blog
A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links. Blogs are short for weblogs.

Blu-ray
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a new optical disc format that is rapidly replacing DVD. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc.

Broadband
The term Broadband is usually used to describe any high speed connection to the internet.

Cable Modem
A modem designed to operate over cable TV lines. Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access to the World Wide Web.

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
A glass tube in which streams of electrons, known as cathode rays, are produced. These rays are used to display images in older television sets, computer monitors, etc..

Central Processing Unit (CPU)
A central processing unit (CPU), or often simply called a processor, is the component in a computer that interprets instructions and processes data contained in computer programs.

Complementary-symmetry/Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
CMOS stores information about your computer system as well as the current date and time. Like RAM, this memory needs electricity to keep working, but it only needs a very small amount. A small battery keeps it running for 4-5 years. If the CMOS battery dies, your computer may not start up correctly. You will have to have the battery replaced, and, you will probably have to re-enter the setup information about your computer system.

Dial-up
Refers to connecting a device to a network via a modem and a public telephone network. Dial-up access is really just like a phone connection, except that the parties at the two ends are computer devices rather than people. Because dial-up access uses normal telephone lines, the quality of the connection is not always good and data rates are limited.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
A technology for bringing high-bandwidth information to homes and businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines.

Downloading
The process of copying a file from an Internet site to a personal computer, or smartphone.

Dual Core CPU (Central Processing Unit - see above)
A dual core CPU refers to a CPU that includes two complete processors in a single integrated circuit (chip). Dual core processors are well-suited for multitasking environments because there are two complete execution cores (brains) instead of one.

E-mail program
A computer program which users use to create, send, read and store email messages.

E-mail virus
An email virus will use an email message as transportation, and will copy itself by automatically mailing itself to hundreds of people in the victim's address book.

Encryption
A way of coding the information in a file or email so that if it is seen by a third party as it travels over a network it cannot be read. Only the persons sending and receiving the information have the key and this makes it unreadable to anyone except the intended persons.

Firewall
A system that prevents unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be hardware or software, or a combination of both.

FireWire
FireWire, otherwise known as IEEE 1394, is a high performance connection used to connect computers to external hard disk drives and CD-R/RW recorders as well as consumer electronics devices like digital camcorders, televisions and game consoles. Firewire interfaces come standard on most Apple Macintosh systems and on some PCs.

Font
A design for a set of characters. A font is the combination of typeface and other qualities, such as size and spacing. The term font is often used incorrectly as a synonym for typeface. The font you're currently looking at is called Tahoma.

Geek
A person who is very interested in and knows a lot about a particular field or activity, usually computers.

Hacker
A clever programmer, usually bent on something illegal or harmful, but very occasionally a well-intentioned geek (c.f. previous entry) seeking to expose security flaws in a system to draw attention to a problem.

Hard Drive/Hard Disk
Most commonly used computer storage device which reads and writes one or more spinning disks. Hard drives are the storage medium in desktop and laptop computers.

Icon
An icon is a tiny picture on the screen that represents a program, file or folder.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
A method of accessing electronic mail messages that are kept on a mail server. It allows an e-mail program to access remote message stores as if they were local. E-mail stored on an IMAP server can be accessed from a desktop computer at home, a workstation at the office, and a notebook computer while travelling, without the need to transfer messages or files back and forth between these computers.

Internet Protocol (IP) Address
A string of four numbers separated by fullstops (such as 192.168.211.100) used to represent a computer on the Internet.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Internet Service Provider. A company that provides an Internet connection.

Key logger
Sometimes called a keystroke logger, key logger, or system monitor, it is a hardware device or small program that monitors each keystroke a user types on a specific computer's keyboard. A key element of hackers'/criminals' armouries.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
A low-power flat-panel display used in many computers. It is made up of liquid crystal that is sandwiched between layers of glass or plastic and becomes opaque when electric current passes through it. The contrast between the opaque and transparent areas forms visible characters.

Mail Server
A mail server is a program that receives incoming email from users and remote senders and forwards outgoing email for delivery. A computer dedicated to running such applications is also called a mail server.

Malware
Short for "malicious software" and is used as a term to refer to any software which causes damage to a single computer, server, or computer network.

Megapixel
A million pixels - picture elements - or tiny dots that make up a digital image. It is a measure commonly used to described the image quality that a digital camera is capable of - the more megapixels, the better.

Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
A standard that allows Internet users to exchange email messages enhanced with graphics, video, and voice as attachments to the body of the text.

Nerd
Technically bright but socially inept person.

Network Address Translation (NAT)
Network Address Translation is an Internet standard that enables a local-area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a second IP address for external traffic. A NAT box (router) is located where the LAN meets the Internet and makes all necessary IP address translations. NAT provides a type of firewall by hiding internal IP addresses.

Office Suite
A collection of powerful programs for business and home use. Suites make it easy for users to create and share information in databases, spreadsheets, and word processors, as well as other applications like presentation software.

Phishing
Phishing is e-mail fraud where the perpetrator sends out legitimate looking e-mails that appear to come from trustworthy web sites in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from the recipient.

Podcast
A pre-recorded audio program that is made available for download (manually or automatically) so people can listen to them on personal computers or mobile devices.

Portal
A web site that the user sets up as an entrance to other sites on the internet. A portal typically has search engines, e-mail, news, etc..

Post Office Protocol (POP)
A set of rules by which a computer can retrieve electronic mail from a mail server. The POP server holds the email until the user can retrieve it. POP does not provide for sending email which is usually done via SMTP. POP3 can be used with or without SMTP.

Presentation Program
A computer program used to create and display presentations, usually in the form of a "slide show". Microsoft Powerpoint is one of the most popular presentation programs.

QWERTY
The QWERTY keyboard is the standard typewriter and computer keyboard in English-language countries. There there are other keyboards such as AZERTY, which is used in much of continental Europe. QWERTY (or indeed AZERTY) refers to the first six letters on the upper row of the keyboard. The QWERTY key arrangement was devised by Christopher Latham Sholes whose Type-Writer, as it was then called, was first mass-produced in 1874.

Random Access Memory (RAM)
The best known form of computer memory. RAM is considered "Random Access" because you can access any memory cell directly. RAM is volatile memory: its contents are lost as soon as power to the computer is turned off.

Read Only Memory (ROM)
This memory holds all the basic instructions the computer needs to do very simple stuff, such as making the letter "X" appear on the monitor when you press the "X" key. This memory cannot be changed, so losing power does not affect it.

Ripping
Ripping (also referred to as digital audio extraction) is the process of copying the audio or video data from one media form, such as DVD or CD, to a hard drive. To conserve storage space, the copied data is usually encoded in a compressed format such as MP3 or WMA for audio, or MPEG-2, or MPEG-4 for video.

Root kit
A rootkit is a collection of programs that enable administrator-level access to a computer or computer network. Typically, an attacker installs a rootkit on a computer after first obtaining user-level access, either by exploiting a known vulnerability or cracking a password. Once the rootkit is installed, it allows the attacker to mask intrusion and gain root or privileged access to the computer and, possibly, other machines on the network.

RSS
A format for information syndication, enabling the publishing of data which can then be reused in other contexts. RSS sources are often called feeds, meaning that new information is produced and published regularly and can be obtained from these feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Pronounced as separate letters and short for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL uses two keys to encrypt data - a public key known to everyone and a secret key known only to the recipient of the message. Many Web sites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http:.

Server
A computer system that provides client workstations with access to files as shared resources on a computer network .

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
This is a set of rules used for sending email over the Internet. Your email program uses SMTP to send a message to the mail server and the mail server uses SMTP to relay that message to the correct receiving mail server. SMTP is a set of commands that authenticate and direct the transfer of electronic mail.

Sniping
The practice of bidding in the last few seconds of an auction in order to prevent other bidders from outbidding you. The truth is, if you really want an item, sniping will almost always allow you to be the highest bidder, assuming you bid high enough. Many smart bidders, however, simply bid the maximum amount they are willing to spend on an item and don´t worry about it.

Software
Operating instructions for specific task-based applications. The computer processors (CPU) carry out these instructions. These include all packaged programs such as word processing, image editing, databases, games, etc.. Software has to be written for a specific computer operating system (OS) like Windows, Apple or Linux.

Spam
An inappropriate attempt to use email as if it was a broadcast medium by sending the same message to many people who didn't ask for it.

Spreadsheet
A computer program that lets the user enter numbers or text into a table with rows and columns. These numbers can be manipulated using formulas.

Spyware
Computer software that collects personal information about users without their informed consent. The term is often used interchangeably with adware and malware. Personal information is secretly recorded with techniques such as logging keystrokes, recording browsing history, and scanning documents on the computer's hard disk. Some spyware attempts to track the web sites a user visits and then send this information to an advertising agency. More malicious variants attempt to intercept passwords or credit card numbers as a user enters them into a web form or other applications.

Trojan horse
A Trojan horse is a computer program that pretends to do one thing (like claim to be a picture) but actually does damage when one starts it (for example, it can completely erase one's files). Trojan horses do not replicate automatically.

Uploading
Moving or copying a file from a local computer to a remote network or Web server.

USB
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is used to connect many types of peripherals to a computer including joysticks, mice, keyboards, printers, scanners and external CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW recorders. Computers do not have to be rebooted when a USB device is attached because these devices are automatically recognized by the system. Most modern PCs come equipped with several USB connections.

Virus
A virus is a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer.

Word Processor
A computer program designed to replace the typewriter. A word processor can create, edit, print, and store documents.

Worm
A worm is software that uses computer networks and security flaws to create copies of itself. It replicates itself to new computers using the flaws and then begins scanning and replicating again.