4000 - 1000 B.C. 4th millennium B.C. In Sumer writing is invented. Writing and calculating came into being at about the same time. The first pictographs carved into clay tablets were used for administrative purposes. As an instrument for the administrative bodies of early empires, which began to rely on the collection, storage, processing and transmission of data, the skill of writing was restricted to only very few. Being more or less separated tasks, writing and calculating converge in today's computers. Letters are invented so that we might be able to converse even with the absent, says Saint Augustine. The invention of writing made it possible to transmit and store information. No longer the ear predominates; face-to-face communication becomes more and more obsolete for administration and bureaucracy. Standardization and centralization become the constituents of high culture and vast empires as Sumer and China. 3200 B.C. In Sumer the seal is invented. About 3000 B.C. In Egypt papyrus scrolls and hieroglyphs are used. About 1350 B.C. In Assyria the cuneiform script is invented. 1200 B.C. According to Aeschylus, the conquest of the town of Troy was transmitted via torch signals. About 1100 B.C. Egyptians use homing pigeons to deliver military information.

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"Stealth Sites" "Stealth sites" account for a particular form of hidden advertisement. Stealth sites look like magazines, nicely designed and featuring articles on different topics, but in reality are set up for the sole purpose of featuring a certain companies products and services. "About Wines" for example is a well-done online magazine, featuring articles on food and travel and also publishes articles on wine, which surprisingly all happen to be from Seagram.

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Central processing unit A CPU is the principal part of any digital computer system, generally composed of the main memory, control unit, and arithmetic-logic unit. It constitutes the physical heart of the entire computer system; to it is linked various peripheral equipment, including input/output devices and auxiliary storage units...

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Vacuum tube The first half of the 20th century was the era of the vacuum tube in electronics. This variety of electron tube permitted the development of radio broadcasting, long-distance telephony, television, and the first electronic digital computers. These early electronic computers were, in fact, the largest vacuum-tube systems ever built. Perhaps the best-known representative is the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, completed in 1946).

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