1. The two principal catalysts for the Information Age have been
a) books and pamphlets.
b) computers and communication networks.
c) movie theaters and public parks.
d) newspapers and magazines.
e) the printing press and the telegraph.
answer
b) computers and communication networks.
question
2. Which statement best supports the conclusion that society can control whether to adopt a new technology?
a) No new nuclear power plants were built in the United States for 25 years after the
accident at Three Mile Island.
b) About half of all email messages are spam.
c) Despite decades of research, fusion power is an elusive goal.
d) People do not have to listen to Rush Limbaugh if they do not want to.
e) Some new technologies are simply too expensive to even consider adopting.
answer
a) No new nuclear power plants were built in the United States for 25 years after the
accident at Three Mile Island.
question
3. Tablets, abacuses, and manual tables
a) are no longer used, because of the proliferation of calculators and computers.
b) are examples of aids to manual calculating.
c) were developed in Western Europe in the late Middle Ages.
d) replaced Hindu-Arabic numerals as the preferred way to do calculations.
e) All of the above.
answer
b) are examples of aids to manual calculating.
question
4. The mechanical adding machines of Pascal and Leibniz were not widely adopted because
a) they were too expensive.
b) there were unreliable.
c) they were too difficult to program.
d) they could not handle fractions.
e) bookkeepers successfully lobbied the King, and he made the machines illegal.
answer
b) there were unreliable.
question
5. The calculating machine of Georg and Edvard Sheutz
a) computed the values of polynomial functions.
b) typeset the results of its computations.
c) performed calculations faster than they could be done manually.
d) performed calculations more reliably than they could be done manually.
e) All of the above.
answer
e) All of the above.
question
6. Which of the following phrases does not describe the Gilded Age in America?
a) rapid industrialization
b) economic expansion
c) widespread electrification
d) concentration of corporate power
e) corporate mergers
answer
c) widespread electrification
question
7. Which of the following was not a result of the adoption of mechanical calculators?
a) Less demand for "superstars" who could rapidly compute sums by hand
b) Higher productivity of bookkeepers
c) Higher salaries of bookkeepers
d) Proliferation of companies making calculators
e) Feminization of bookkeeping
answer
c) Higher salaries of bookkeepers
question
8. Which of the following was not a feature of cash registers in the early 1900s?
a) Ability to compute total of purchases
b) Ability to print itemized receipts for customers
c) Ability to print log of transactions for owners
d) Ability to compute amount of change to give customer
e) Ability to ring a bell every time cash drawer is opened
answer
d) Ability to compute amount of change to give customer
question
9. Punched card tabulation was invented by Herman Hollerith, an employee of
a) the Pennsylvania Railroad.
b) the Census Bureau.
c) the Pennsylvania Steel Company.
d) the Burroughs Adding Machine Company.
e) IBM
answer
b) the Census Bureau.
question
10. Which of the following phrases best describes a system that inputs data, performs one or more calculations, and produces output data?
a) manual calculator
b) digital computer
c) data-processing system
d) difference engine
e) cash register
answer
c) data-processing system
question
11. The first commercial electronic digital computers were produced just after
a) the Spanish-American War.
b) World War I.
c) World War II.
d) the Korean War.
e) the Vietnam War.
answer
c) World War II.
question
12. Programming languages were developed in order to
a) make it possible to program computers in English.
b) make programming faster and less error-prone.
c) speed translations between English and Russian during the Cold War.
d) improve the computation speed of computers, which were very expensive.
e) All of the above.
answer
b) make programming faster and less error-prone.
question
13. Which of the following was not an early programming language?
a) BASIC
b) COBOL
c) DATA-FLOW
d) FLOW-MATIC
e) FORTRAN
answer
c) DATA-FLOW
question
14. Software that allows multiple users to edit and run their programs simultaneously on the same computer is called
a) a data-processing system.
b) an intranet.
c) a microprocessor.
d) a programming language.
e) a time-sharing system..
answer
e) a time-sharing system..
question
15. A semiconductor device containing transistors, capacitors, and resistors is called
a) a difference engine.
b) a diode.
c) an integrated circuit.
d) a radio.
e) a transformer
answer
c) an integrated circuit.
question
16. Which Cold War program played an important role in advancing integrated circuit technology?
a) B-52 bomber
b) Hydrogen bomb
c) Mark 37 torpedo
d) Minuteman II ballistic missile
e) NORAD radar network
answer
d) Minuteman II ballistic missile
question
17. Which company produced the System/360, a family of 19 compatible mainframe computers?
a) Fujitsu
b) Hewlett-Packard
c) IBM
d) Intel
e) Texas Instruments
answer
c) IBM
question
18. The company that invented the microprocessor is
a) Fujitsu
b) Hewlett-Packard
c) IBM
d) Intel
e) Texas Instruments
answer
d) Intel
question
19. Which of the following was not an activity of the People's Computer Company, a not-for-profit corporation in the San Francisco area?
a) Publishing a newspaper containing the source code to programs
b) Allowing people to rent time on a time-shared computer
c) Hosting Friday-evening game-playing sessions
d) Promoting a culture in which computer enthusiasts freely shared software
e) Developing the world's first graphical user interface
answer
e) Developing the world's first graphical user interface
question
20. Who wrote "An Open Letter to Hobbyists," complaining about software theft?
a) Stewart Brand
b) Bob Frankston
c) Bill Gates
d) Steve Jobs
e) Steve Wozniak
answer
c) Bill Gates
question
21. A key application that first made personal computers more attractive to business was
a) the spreadsheet program.
b) the World Wide Web.
c) desktop publishing.
d) video editing.
e) email.
answer
a) the spreadsheet program.
question
22. The software company that provided IBM with the operating system for its PC was
a) Apple.
b) Boeing.
c) Microsoft.
d) Novell.
e) Tandy.
answer
c) Microsoft.
question
23. The first electronic networking technology widely used in the United States was the
a) Internet.
b) radio.
c) telegraph.
d) telephone.
e) television.
answer
c) telegraph.
question
24. The Pony Express went out of business when
a) the Mexican War ended in 1846.
b) the Civil War began in 1861.
c) the transcontinental telegraph was completed.
d) AT&T completed the national telephone network.
e) the radio was invented.
answer
c) the transcontinental telegraph was completed.
question
25. Alexander Graham Bell invented the harmonic or musical telegraph, which enabled
a) more than one message to be sent over a single telegraph wire at the same time.
b) human speech to be sent over a telegraph wire.
c) music to be send over a telegraph wire.
d) B and C
e) None of the above.
answer
a) more than one message to be sent over a single telegraph wire at the same time.
question
26. Nearly all early telephones were installed in businesses, because
a) people were afraid that telephones were dangerous.
b) people thought that the government was using telephones as eavesdropping devices.
c) only men were allowed to use a telephone.
d) most homes did not have electricity.
e) leasing a telephone was expensive.
answer
e) leasing a telephone was expensive.
question
27. A typewriter that prints a message transmitted over a telegraph line is called a
a) computer.
b) monitor.
c) teletype.
d) terminal.
e) transponder.
answer
c) teletype.
question
28. Guglielmo Marconi originally conceived of the radio as a way to
a) transmit telegraph messages without wires.
b) transmit electricity without wires.
c) transmit votes in national elections.
d) transmit light without wires.
e) All of the above
answer
a) transmit telegraph messages without wires.
question
29. The power of radio as a medium of mass communication was demonstrated in 1938 when Orson Welles put on a dramatization of
a) War of the Worlds.
b) Hamlet.
c) Homer's Odyssey.
d) the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt.
e) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
answer
a) War of the Worlds.
question
30. ARPA Director J.C.R. Licklider conceived of a Galactic Network that would
a) control weapons from space.
b) guide spacecraft to distant planets.
c) become the world's most powerful number-crunching machine.
d) facilitate the exchange of programs and data.
e) All of the above
answer
d) facilitate the exchange of programs and data.
question
31. One of the first and most important applications of the ARPANET was
a) email.
b) voice mail.
c) spreading computer viruses.
d) disseminating anti-Communist propaganda to American citizens.
e) stealing secrets from the Soviet Union.
answer
a) email.
question
32. What term is used to describe a high-speed Internet connection?
a) broadband
b) hypertext
c) Internet2
d) the Matrix
e) World Wide Web
answer
a) broadband
question
33. Which country has the fastest broadband connections on average?
a) China
b) Germany
c) India
d) South Korea
e) United States
answer
d) South Korea
question
34. A common name for a wireless Internet access point is
a) broadband hub.
b) hotspot.
c) Internet access-ory.
d) Internet café.
e) wap.
answer
b) hotspot.
question
35. The first alphabet to represent vowels as well as consonants was developed by the
a) Babylonians.
b) Egyptians.
c) Greeks.
d) Romans.
e) Syrians.
answer
c) Greeks.
question
36. In the fourth century the codex replaced the scroll because
a) it was more durable, and it was much easier to look up a particular passage.
b) it was much lighter, and it could be made much more rapidly.
c) Gutenberg's printing press had just been invented.
d) there was a worldwide shortage of papyrus.
e) All of the above
answer
a) it was more durable, and it was much easier to look up a particular passage.
question
37. Hypertext is supposed to mimic
a) the associative memory of human beings.
b) the way that creeks flow into streams and streams merge into rivers.
c) constellations in the night sky.
d) road networks.
e) the way that some people "channel surf" with a remote control
answer
a) the associative memory of human beings.
question
38. What visionary invented the computer mouse and demonstrated windows, email, and live network
videoconferencing at "the mother of all demos" in 1968?
a) Vannevar Bush
b) Douglas Engelbart
c) Al Gore
d) Alan Kay
e) Ted Nelson
answer
b) Douglas Engelbart
question
39. The first popular personal computer with a graphical user interface was the
a) Apple Macintosh.
b) Compaq Presario.
c) IBM PC.
d) NeXT workstation.
e) Tandy TRS-80.
answer
a) Apple Macintosh.
question
40. The World Wide Web is the creation of
a) Tim Berners-Lee.
b) Vannevar Bush.
c) Douglas Engelbart.
d) Alan Kay.
e) Ted Nelson.
answer
a) Tim Berners-Lee.
question
41. A Web browser enables you to
a) view Web pages.
b) edit Web pages.
c) create Web pages.
d) delete Web pages.
e) All of the above
answer
a) view Web pages.
question
42. What is the name of a program that follows hyperlinks, collecting information about Web sites?
a) daemon
b) hacker
c) spider
d) trawler
e) worm
answer
c) spider
question
1. Three important aids to manual calculating are:
answer
the tablet, the abacus, and mathematical tables.
question
2. Blaise Pascal and Gottfried Leibniz are remembered as computer pioneers for their invention of:
answer
mechanical adding machines.
question
3. Demand for mechanical calculators increased tremendously in America in the late 19th Century
due to the increase in size of:
answer
corporations and government agencies.
question
4. The adoption of mechanical calculators in offices changed the profession of bookkeeping.
Employers:
answer
lowered wages and replaced men with women.
question
5. The invention of the _____________ addressed two challenges faced by department store owners in
the late 19th century: creating detailed sales records and embezzlement by employees.
answer
cash register
question
6. Herman Hollerith invented ______________ to help the U.S. Bureau of the Census tally
information about tens of millions of residents.
answer
punched card tabulation
question
7. A series of inventions led to the creation of the electronic digital computer shortly after this war:
answer
World War II.
question
8. In the earliest digital computers every instruction was coded as a long number. People invented ______________ to make coding faster and less error-prone.
answer
programming languages
question
9. In the 1960s the invention of _____________ allowed multiple people to interact more-orless
simultaneously with a single computer.
answer
time-sharing systems
question
10. In the first half of the 20th century, AT&T used vacuum tubes to construct amplifiers that made
long distance telephone calls possible. AT&T funded research to develop a semiconductor
replacement to the vacuum tube. The research resulted in the invention of the:
answer
transistor
question
11. In 1957 eight key employees of Shockley Semiconductor left to form their own company. The
company founded by "the traitorous eight" was:
answer
Fairchild Semiconductor.
question
12. A single semiconductor device containing transistors, capacitors, and resistors is called:
answer
an
integrated circuit.
question
13. In 1964 IBM announced the System/360, a series of 19 compatible computers. What advantage
do compatible computers have for a business wishing to upgrade its systems?
answer
It does not
have to rewrite its application programs.
question
14. An integrated circuit that can be programmed to perform a wide variety of tasks is called a:
answer
microprocessor.
question
15. The development of the personal computer was influenced by the power-to-the-people, do-ityourself
movement around _____________ in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
answer
San Francisco / Silicon Valley
question
16. What two significant developments made personal computers more attractive to businesses in
the late 1970s and early 1980s?
answer
Computer spreadsheet program, IBM PC
question
17. By 1870 fire alarm boxes were in use in 75 major cities in the United States. Which popular communications technology enabled the creation of these alarm boxes?
answer
Telegraph
question
18. Which device resulted in the creation of the first "on-line" communities?
answer
Telephone
question
19. Why was the ARPANET designed so that the loss of any single computer would not prevent
the rest of the network from working?
answer
Fear of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union
question
20. How did the National Science Foundation stimulate the development of commercial, longdistance
Internet connections in the United States?
answer
It simultaneously (1) encouraged
regional networks to find commercial customers, and (2) banned commercial traffic on the long-distance, NSFNET Backbone.
question
21. Hypertext is a _______ of nodes containing _______.
answer
linked network
information
question
22. In January 1984 Apple Computer released the Macintosh. The Macintosh is notable because it
was the first commodity personal computer with a _________.
answer
graphical user interface
question
23. The two most popular applications of the Internet are:
answer
email and the World Wide Web.
question
24. Devices used in the creation, storage, manipulation, exchange, and dissemination of data,
including text, sound, and images, fall into the category of _______ technology.
answer
information
question
1. Think about a new computer or communication device you acquired in the past few years.
Describe how the use of this device changed your view of the world or the way you related to
other people.
answer
Bs it.
question
2. Give two examples of how a social pressure or need led to the development of a new information
technology. Give two examples of how the adoption of a new information technology changed
society.
answer
Bs it.
question
3. What major innovation in the Gilded Age stimulated the development of calculators and
tabulators? Explain.
answer
Adding and calculating machines increased productivity, lowered the wage for bookkeepers, reduced mistakes, and increased feminization of bookkeeping. The demand for fast reliable calculators to be developed.
question
4. How did the widespread adoption of punched card tabulation pave the way for commercial digital
electronic computers?
answer
Organizations with large data processing needs found punched card tabulators and calculators to be valuable devices and continually clamorous for new features that would improve the computational capabilities and speed of their systems. These organizations would be come a natural market for commercial electronic digital computers.
question
5. How did World War II stimulate the development of the modern computer?
answer
The ENIAC and the EDVAC proved so useful during the end of WWII, development continued.
Also not in book, random guess.
question
6. How did the Cold War speed the development of the personal computer?
answer
Increased government spending. Not in book, random guess.
question
7. How did the development of time-sharing help create a market for personal computers?
answer
Many users wrote their own programs and enthusiast freely shared software with each other.
question
8. How did the culture around San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s affect the
development of the personal computer?
answer
The San Francisco area was home to a anti war ant establishment community which emphasized do it yourself idealism and power to the people movement. The movement was very open sourced. Time sharing on computers was common and computer enthusiasts freely shared software with each other.
question
9. Describe three ways in which the widespread adoption of the telephone changed society.
answer
Traditional boundaries between private family life and public business life became blurred.
The implementation of the telephone eroded traditional hierarchies.
Enabled the first online communities with the introduction of the party line.
Brought the worry of loss of privacy.
question
10. Trace the key events in the history of the Internet from its origins as the ARPANET.
answer
Remote computing at Bell labs, teletype transmission from teletype in New Hampshire to a calculator in NYC.
In reaction to the USSR's launch of Sputnik. ARPA funded by the defense Department imagined a global computer network that would facilitate the exchange of programs and data.
A packet-switching network was adopted to replace circuit switching networks.
ARPA commissioned ARPNET, which was decentralized for a fear of nuclear attack. In 1972 software enabling email was developed.
Researchers realized the need to connect ARPANET with other networks and created open architecture called internet working architecture. TCP/IP protocol was then developed to divide a message into packets. The internet it's the network or networks that communicate using TCP/IP (transmission control protocol)
question
11. Describe the evolution of hypertext, from its original conception to its realization as a widely used
technology.
answer
Author Vannavar Bush published a paper noting the difficulty in looking up publications of new scientific discoveries. He noted the human mind doesn't work by indexing, but by associative memory. He suggested a machine that could stimulate to some degree the mind's ability to make associations between pieces of information. Ted Nelson furthered the idea and coined the term hypertext, which refers to a linked network of nodes containing information. The links allow readers to visit the nodes in a nonlinear fashion. Xanadu was a proposed worldwide network of connected literature, but the system was never completed.
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