Title:
2000 Years of Computing History at a Museum in
California
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Silicon Valley in Northern California is home to
many of the world's largest technology companies.
These include Apple, Google, Oracle, Intel, Cisco
Systems and Hewlett-Packard. The valley is also home
to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. It
reopened in December after nineteen million dollars
worth of improvements.One of the additions is a
permanent exhibit called "Revolution: The First 2000
Years of Computing."Alex Bochannek is a curator at
the museum. Mr. Bochannek says the new exhibit tells
the story of more than one thousand historical
objects. He said: "Some of the oldest items are
actually not computers. They are devices that helped
people calculate. And the first object people see
walking into the exhibit is an abacus from the
eighteen hundreds. Because the abacus is a daily-use
device made from wood, few of them have survived."
Mr. Bochannek says people have the chance to handle
some of the objects in the exhibit. He says one of
the more popular items is a portable computer from
nineteen eighty-one. The Osborne One was about the
size of a sewing machine and weighed more than ten
kilograms. So, just being able to pick one of those
up will help visitors understand how difficult
portability was about thirty years ago. Visitors to
the Computer History Museum can also see parts of
one of the earliest large-scale electronic computing
devices. The ENIAC or Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer was designed during World
War Two. There are also pieces from the guidance
computer that was used during the Apollo space
missions. Mr. Bochannek says the "Revolution"
exhibit is about more than the history of modern
computing. He says it tells a much larger story
about how these developments have affected society
and culture, especially in recent years. He said the
revolution to most people is that computers are
everywhere. If you are crossing the street, there
probably is a computer controlling the traffic
light. Computers surround us. In some cases they are
even inside us, like the cardiac pacemaker device in
the exhibit. The Computer History Museum plans to
launch an online version of the exhibit in March.
The museum has one hundred thousand items in its
complete collection. Only two percent of them are
currently on display. But officials say seventy-five
percent of the items will be viewable online. For
VOA Special English I'm Alex Villarreal.
Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
To post a comment:
• Click "Comment using..." in
the window below
• Click your favorite service: Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail
• Login to the service
• Click "Add a comment..."
• Post your comment in the window
Students: Please post a
comment stating what you found interesting about this video. You are
welcome to include links to your English study blogs and any
other materials you think might be useful for learning
English.
Teachers: Please post your
thoughts about this video. You are welcome to include links to
your sites, blogs, and any other materials you think might
be useful for learning English.
Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
