Some computer facts!
Charles Babbage, an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the
concept of a programmable computer.
Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led
to more complex designs.
In November, 1971, Intel publicly introduced the world's first single chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004
In 1973 IBM shipped the model 3340 Winchester sealed hard disk drive, the predecessor of all current hard disk drives.
The 3340 had two spindles each with a capacity of 30 MBytes.
In 1980, Seagate Technology introduced the first hard disk drive for microcomputers, the ST506.
Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 predicted, a statement popularly known as Moore's Law, that
the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years.
A First Computer
In 1999 my daughters were given their first computer system for christmas, it was an Intel 486 microprocessor.
My first computer component purchase was a cdrom drive from Fraziers in the old Percy Brothers shop in Dumfries, the system
psu blew up soon after! From then on AMD and building from component level was all I did so the next system was a Socket7
motherboard and a K2/350 CPU. Having been through several Athlon variations over the years my current system is
based on an Asus M2N32SLI mobo, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+, 2Gb DDR2, GeForce 8800GTS and over a Terrabyte of HDD space!
During the years 2000 to 2005 I was ill with an unknown virus like symptom illness and decided a career change was needed so
I went to the local college and got an HNC and was working towards an HND but that was not completed.
The following is a list of my SVQ qualifications:
D75P 34 - Computer Architecture
D77A 34 - Computer Operating Systems
A6AJ 04 - Data Communications
A6AL 04 - Information Systems And Services
A6AM 04 - Information Technology Applications 1
A6B3 04 - Stand Alone Computer Systems Support
D76X 35 - Software Development: Procedural Programming
D4FB 34 - Publishing On The Internet
D75R 34 - Computer Hardware: Installation And Maintenance
D75X - Information Technology Applications 1
D76G 34 - Multi User Operating Systems
D76W 34 - Software Development: Program Planning
D77G 34 - Communication: Practical Skills
D77J 34 - Computing: Integrative Assessment 1
D77K 34 - Computing: Integrative Assessment 2
Also a City and Guilds Qualification (Radio Amateur Class B) in 1986
Other abilites include writing software in DOS, UNIX Scripting, Visual C++, Visual Basic 6, XHTML and CSS, I also have
experience of installing multiple operating systems from DOS, Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, W2K including Advanced Server and
Active Directory with DHCP, Windows XP, Home and Professional, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Vista through to Windows 2008 Server
and some Linux installation and use. My new job with Sims Recycling Solutions has also given me invaluable experience working
on Cisco and other network component manufacturers equipment as well as various servers from Sun to Dell and IBM, blades and cabinet
mounted hardware. Other hardware worked on includes NAS/SAN network storage systems from the likes of EMC and Compaq, large SCSI
arrays and hard drive types from EIDE, SATA, SCSI in including Fibre Channel to Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 15k drives.
