About Computers

Great Inventions
1.The electric furnace (1889) It was “the only means for commercially producing Carborundum (the hardest of all manufactured substances).” The electric furnace also converted aluminum “from a merely precious to very useful metal” (by reducing it’s price 98 percent), and was “radically transforming the steel industry.”
2. The steam turbine, invented by Charles Parsons in 1884 and commercially introduced over the next 10 years. A huge improvement in powering ships, the more far-reaching use of this invention was to drive generators that produced electricity.
3. The gasoline-powered automobile. Many inventors worked toward the goal of a “self-propelled” vehicle in the 19th century. Wyman gave the honor specifically to Gottleib Daimler for his 1889 engine, arguing: “a century's insistent but unsuccessful endeavor to provide a practical self-propelled car proves that the success of any type that once answered requirements would be immediate. Such success did come with the advent of the Daimler motor, and not before.”
4. The moving picture. Entertainment always will be important to people. “The moving picture has transformed the amusements of the multitude.” The technical pioneer he cited was Thomas Edison.
5. The airplane. For “the Realization of an age-long dream” he gave the laurels of success to the Wright brothers, but apart from its military use reserved judgment on the utility of the invention: “It presents the least commercial utility of all the inventions considered.”

Who is the Greatest Teacher in History?

Jaime Escalante refused low expectations for his students

Jaime Escalante was a Bolivian-American teacher who taught AP calculus at a high school in LA from 1974-91. 
When Escalante arrived at the school, it was low-performing and expectations for student success were minimal, but he refused to accept the status quo. He promised students that if they learned math they would be able to control their futures, and began teaching AP Calculus. 
School administrators initially opposed Escalante’s techniques and he was almost fired, but a change in management meant he could continue his experiment.
Before long the results started to show: During his first year teaching calculus in 1978, two students passed the AP exam. Five years later 30 students passed, and by the time Escalante left the school in 1991 the maths enrichment program had grown to 400 students. 
He was awarded the Presidential Medal for Excellence in Education in 1998.
Escalante said of his time as a teacher: “The key to my success with youngsters is a very simple and time-honored tradition: hard work for teacher and student alike.”