The history of computers has its roots much closer to modern times compared to writing. Believe it or not, due to accounting needs the Babylonians in 500 B.C. and not the Chinese, who had theirs only in 1300 A.D, first used the calculator or the abacus. Since then, the world had to wait some two thousand years before Charles Babbage invented the Analytical Machine and the Difference Machine in 1823. However, both machines were too complicated to be built (although attempt was made in 1832) - but the theories worked. Again the world had to wait many years for the next breakthrough- in 1943, when The Harvard Mark I (originally ASCC Mark I, Harvard-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator) was built at Harvard University by Howard H. Aiken (1900-1973) and his team, partly financed by IBM - it became the first program-controlled calculator.

However, the explosion age of computer technology should be said to have begun in 1951, when UNIVAC-1 was first completed. Being the first commercially successful electronic computer, it was also the first general-purpose computer - designed to handle both numeric and textual information. Since then, computer technology has grown at an alarming rate. In 1943, then chairman of IBM Thomas Watson remarked, "there is a world market for maybe five computers". In 1964 the smallest computer developed occupied an entire room. In 1981 August, IBM launched the world's first desktop personal computer. Subsequently, computer programmers such as Bill Gates came into being, being among the elite few who truly knew the magic and mystic behind computer programming and technology. Today, thanks to the widespread understanding of the importance and advantages of computer technology, nearly every family in every industrialized nation can afford or already has a personal computer installed. According to Time magazine writer Joshua Quitter, today nearly 150 million people log on to the Internet each week (127)!

Today, we have advanced from desktops to laptops to palmtops. Decreasing prices and increasing hype have fuelled this revolutionary change. With increasing demands for speed and space, people have turned to palmtops to meet their business and personal needs. Businesses, big and small, have begun to equip their employees with personal palmtops instead of laptops; students have discarded their personal organizers for palmtops. Being compact and lightweight enough to fit a pocket, it has slowly begun to take its place in the running of everyday lives. It is as if we suddenly have been able to make freeze-dried cappuccino which is so good that by adding water, it comes back to us as rich and aromatic as any freshly-brewed in an Italian café (Negroponte 17). While e-mail was relatively unheard of in 1990, millions of people now surf the Internet using palmtops!