Our story begins in the early 2000s with two wizards of the Internet named David Baszucki and Erik Cassel. These visionary friends loved building and creating, and they dreamt of a place where everyone could let their imagination run wild. Together, they set out on an epic quest to create a platform where people could build their own games and play together.

In 2004, they used computer coding to create DynaBlocks. It was a virtual land where players could build and explore, creating their own adventures and challenges. 

Their chosen tool for their game idea was Lua, a scripting language known for its simplicity and versatility. Lua provided the foundation for David and Erik to weave the intricate code required to create a platform where users could unleash their creativity.

The development of DynaBlocks and its evolution into Roblox was no small task. David and Erik, armed with their coding expertise, spent several years refining and expanding their creation. The process was marked by many hours of dedication, trial, and error. As they encountered challenges and made changes, the two founders tirelessly worked to improve the user’s experience and build a platform that would capture the imagination of millions.

David and Erik hired a team of skilled programmers to get the job done. This collaborative effort brought many talents and perspectives into the mix, enriching the game design process. The team worked worked together to deal with technical challenges, optimize performance, and introduce new features that would contribute to the Roblox’s growth. As the team expanded, so did the complexity and depth of system, demonstrating the power of teamwork and innovation in the world of computer programming.

By 2006, Roblox officially became the digital space we know today, where players could build, play, and make friends from all corners of the globe.

As more adventurers joined the Roblox world, it started to sparkle with millions of games created by imaginative minds. You see, Roblox was designed so even the players could learn how to code and use graphic design to create their own games using the Lua programming language! How amazing is that? It means the possibilities for Roblox were endless! The popularity of Roblox soared, and soon it became a global sensation, enchanting players young and old alike.

In Robloxia, the virtual land of Roblox, players can embark on incredible quests and adventures created by fellow players. Some of the most popular games include “Adopt Me!”, where players can adopt virtual pets, and “Brookhaven,” a magical town where everyone can become anything they imagine.

The developers behind these games, like Adopt Me!’s DreamCraft and Brookhaven’s Wolfpaq, are like modern-day sorcerers. They spend hours waving their digital wands to create magical experiences for players to enjoy. These games became so beloved that they attracted millions of players, turning the once-small Robloxia into a bustling metropolis of creativity.

Now, let’s talk about some young adventurers who turned their dreams into impressive games. Players like Alex “builderman” Balfanz, made their fortunes by crafting games that captured the hearts of millions. Alex created “Jailbreak,” a game where players can choose to be cops or robbers in a thrilling chase. His creativity didn’t just entertain, but he was also able to earn money from his game, turning him into a legendary figure in the Roblox world.

In the magical land of Robloxia, some young creators have discovered a path to riches. Take, for instance, the young adventurer Andrew “badcc” Bereza. His game “Bad Business” became a sensation, and as players flocked to experience the excitement he crafted, Andrew found himself with a treasure trove of Robux, the currency of Roblox. 

Some of the young creators were able to earn enough to pay for their college education, which is pretty impressive!

In the world of Roblox, not all heroes wear capes – some wear headphones and sit in front of computers. Let’s delve into the tales of two creators who warmed the hearts of players everywhere.

One such gamer is EthanGamerTV, who started creating Roblox videos at a young age. His enthusiasm and love for the game resonated with many, turning him into a beloved figure in the Roblox community.

Another popular player is “Work at a Pizza Place,” Dued1. His game, where players can experience the joys and challenges of working at a pizza joint, became a beloved classic. Dued1’s journey from a humble creator to a celebrated figure in Robloxia showcases the power of imagination and hard work.

What do you think of the story of the creation of Roblox? It always amazes me to think of the small beginnings of projects like this. I mean, that’s how my podcast started, too. The idea for Roblox started in the minds of David Baszucki and Erik Cassel and with lots of hard work, talent, and determination led to the game we know today that is played by millions of creators and gamers around the world.

If you were to create your own game or app, what would it do? If you have an idea, write it down, draw some pictures to describe it, and use websites like Canva or Fiero Code or Scratch to learn how to design and code and bring your creation to life. Like Roblox, every big idea has to start somewhere!

The post History of Roblox for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

What you don’t realize is AI is part of your life and you may not even realize it. Many of the decisions made by computers are handled by Artificial Intelligence. Your Alexia is an AI and much of the new art you see or text you read now may be generated by AI. Humans are still an important part of this work, though, since they are giving the AI instructions, guiding it where it needs to go, and using their creativity to send it along different paths. 

Imagine you have a magic wand that can tell you stories, build you a recipe, and answer any question you ask. That’s a bit like what people dreamed of when they first thought about AI. The idea of creating machines that could think and learn like humans has been around for a long time. It’s like trying to build a robot that can chat like your best friend, solve puzzles like a detective, and even learn new things all by itself.

But AI wasn’t born overnight. It’s been a bit like a recipe that needed time to cook. Scientists have been working on AI for many years. They wanted to create computers that could do more than just follow instructions. They wanted to build machines that could understand and talk with us in our own language. And they’ve made amazing progress!

In the history of AI, there were brave pioneers in the world of machines. They were like the first adventurers in a new, uncharted land. One of these pioneers was Alan Turing, a genius mathematician. He created a special code-breaking machine during World War II, which was a bit like the ancestor of AI, helping to decode secret messages. Turing’s ideas and inventions are still inspiring AI wizards today.

Another remarkable pioneer was John McCarthy, who invented the term “artificial intelligence” in 1956. McCarthy was one of the first to teach computers to use logic and solve problems, like teaching them to be detectives in a mystery story. His work set the stage for many AI discoveries to come.

Marvin Minsky co-founded the first AI laboratory at MIT. He believed that machines could learn and think just like humans. Minsky’s work was like teaching machines to be curious explorers, always eager to learn and solve new puzzles. These pioneers paved the way for the explosive world of AI we have today, where computers can chat, understand, and even create stories.

Now, let’s talk about a special part of AI called Natural Language Processing (NLP). Imagine your brain is like a super-secret code-breaking club. When you read a book or listen to your teacher, your brain is decoding all the words and sentences and turning them into ideas. Have you ever wondered why the word “book” means a thing you read and “tree” is a thing that grows and has green leaves. Why is “green” even called green? It’s just a label we put on these objects and have to agree on – and every language has a different label in their language. The Spanish word for green is “verde.” 

Natural Langauge Processing is like teaching computers to understand the way our brain decodes these symbols, and is different for each language. It helps them understand words, sentences, and even the feelings behind what people say. It’s like giving them a special dictionary to learn our language. NLP is like training your dog to understand commands, but instead of woofs and barks, it’s words and sentences. 

With NLP, computers can chat, translate languages, and help us find information on the internet. They can even write stories, just like the ones you love to read! It’s as if computers have become amazing storytellers and detectives all in one.

In the world of AI, there chunks of computer code called “Large Language Models.” They are like the mega-brains of the AI world. Imagine you have a library with millions of books, and these models have read them all! Over time they’ve learned from all the stories, information, and conversations in those books. They use maps to connect different symbols to different ideas. For example, the words “nature” and “tree” and “leaf” are all connected. It understands the meanings of these words and how they are related. 

One of the most popular Large Language Models is Chat GPT. GPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer.” It’s like a robot who is always ready to chat with you. Chat GPT can talk like a real person because it’s learned so much from all those books in the library. It can even tell you jokes, stories, or help with homework!

But ChatGPT is only one of many AI chatbots. Other popular ones includes Bing, Google Bard, and Jasper AI. 

Chat GPT and the other chat bots weren’t always as amazing as they are now. It’s a bit like how a baby learns to walk and talk. They needed lots of practice and training. Scientists and engineers had to feed them tons of information, teach them how to understand language, and make them better over time. It’s estimated over 300 BILLION words from Wikipedia, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and books from all over the Internet were used to build ChatGPTs knowledge. Imagine if you knew a toddler who could read that much and that fast! 

Each new version of these models, like Chat GPT-3, is like a new and improved robot friend. It can chat, answer questions, and even create stories that sound just like they were written by humans. And they are always improving.

Beyond writing, AI is also being used to create artwork, videos, and voices. I spent a few months tinkering around with an AI art generator called Midjourney and used it to create a few album covers for my latest series that you can find on Apple Music and elsewhere. I’ve also shared some of my voice data with it to see how well it can mimic my voice. No, this isn’t an AI talking to you today, this is the actual Breck and for now I’m much happier with how my human-generated voice sounds!

These AI models have become helpful in many ways. They can assist doctors in diagnosing illnesses, help writers come up with new ideas, and even help you find the perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies. They are like assistants that can make our lives easier and more fun.

The journey of AI is like a thrilling adventure where we keep discovering new lands. Scientists and engineers are always working to make AI even smarter and more helpful. They want to teach AI to have better conversations, understand emotions, and assist us in ways we can’t even imagine yet.

But remember, AI is like a tool, a bit like a magic wand. It can do incredible things, but it’s humans who guide it and use it for good. There is also a lot of talk in the news and by scientists and politicians about the importance of making AI safe. It’s a tool and can be used for good or ill, so how do we create fences for it to make sure its helpful not harmful. 

Some are also concerned that it takes away from human creativity. If AI is writing all of the new stories and creating all of the new artwork, does this lessen humans? I definitely see this as a concern and believe humans will always bring something unique to the world of art and creativity. For now, AI is like a useful assistant where artists and writers can ask it for help, but ultimately are there for creative inspiration and direction. 

So there you have it, the magical world of Artificial Intelligence! AI, NLP, and Large Language Models like ChatGPT are like friendly robots that can chat, help us learn, and even tell us amazing stories. They’ve been on an exciting journey from their creation to the incredible things they can do today.

Just like you, AI is learning and growing every day. It’s an adventure that’s still unfolding, and who knows what other incredible discoveries await us in this fast-paced land of technology! So keep your eyes open and your imagination running wild, because the world of AI is full of wonders waiting to be explored.

The post History of AI ChatBots for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Dressed in your suit, crisp white shirt, and neatly knotted tie, you look very important. And indeed, you are a significant player in the world of business. These men are no ordinary executives; they’re from IBM, which, during this time, is the largest computer maker in the world.

As you wait, a young fellow appears before you. He seems hardly older than a teenager, but there’s an air of confidence about him. You ask him for directions to Bill Gates’s office, and without hesitation, he leads you there. Much to your surprise, he takes a seat behind the desk. It’s then that you realize he is Bill Gates himself, the head of Microsoft!

Bill Gates is just twenty-four years old at this time, although he appears even younger with his tangled hair, much too-large glasses, a sprinkling of freckles, and his cozy pullover sweater. However, as soon as he begins to speak, it becomes evident that he possesses a deep knowledge of computers which would lead him to become the richest man in the world.

________________

William Henry Gates III was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Due to being the third Gates with the name William Henry, his family called him “Trey,” which is another way to say the word three. However, to everyone else, he was simply Bill.

As a child, Bill was very active, spending hours rocking back and forth on his rocking horse. This habit of rocking back and forth would become something you’d often see during his important business meetings. He found it to help him think better.

On school nights, there was a strict no-TV rule in the Gates household. Instead, the family would have conversations, play games, and immerse themselves in books. Young Bill loved to read, even deciding at age seven to read the entire encyclopedia and World Book! That is a full shelf of books! 

His intelligence was obvious to all who knew him. There’s a memorable incident where the whole family was ready for a short trip in the car and suddenly realized Bill was missing. His mother found him inside the house, deep in thought. When asked what he was doing, he replied, “I’m thinking, Mother!”

Challenges always intrigued him, and he was known for looking for ways to test his abilities. He was naturally left-handed but would switch to his right hand if he found himself bored in school.

At the age of eleven, he participated in a contest at his church. The challenge was to memorize the Sermon on the Mount, a long list of Bible scriptures. He not only memorized the whole thing but also did it without making a single mistake, impressing the minister. When asked about his accomplishments, he replied, “I can do anything I set my mind to.”

Winning was also extremely important to Bill Gates, and he didn’t like losing. During summers, his family spent two weeks at a cabin named Cheerio near Puget Sound. There, young Bill’s competitive spirit shone as he excelled in many different sports, such as water skiing, ice-skating, swimming, and downhill skiing.

However, in the sixth grade his interest in school seemed to drop. This caused his parents, Bill Sr. and Mary, to make an important decision. They enrolled him in the private school Lakeside at the start of seventh grade, setting the course for a new chapter in his life.

___________

Bill was the smallest kid in his seventh-grade class at Lakeside School, but the teachers at Lakeside helped kids find what they loved. Bill Gates was good at math and science, but he hadn’t found his special interest yet.

Then, one spring day in 1968, a teacher took Bill and some of his friends to a place called “the computer room.” But guess what? There wasn’t a computer in there! You see, at that time, there were no small personal computers like we have today. Computers were huge devices as big as rooms that cost millions of dollars and were only used by the government, military, and universities. Even Lakeside, a fancy private school, couldn’t afford one. So, they got the next best thing – a Teletype machine. It looked like a large electric typewriter, and there was a telephone that connected it to a computer in downtown Seattle.

The teacher showed the boys how to type a special command, which made the teletype start making a lot of noise and punching holes in a long roll of paper tape. 

Then, that message went through the phone lines to the computer miles away, and it sent back an answer.

Bill Gates was amazed by what the computer could do! After that, he spent all his free time in the computer room. He read every computer manual he could find and learned computer languages. 

Some other kids at Lakeside got just as excited about computers, and they all learned from each other. It was funny because the teachers had planned to teach the kids about computers, but it turned out that Bill and his friends became the experts. They even taught the teachers!

At Lakeside, he discovered his true passion – computers! His genius brain now had a focus, and it was all about computers! 

A group of kids got together and created a computer club called the Lakeside Programmers. They loved writing their own computer programs. A Computer program is a set of instructions for the computer to follow. Think of a computer program as a set of commands that you give to a computer to make it do certain things. Like typing out words, playing a game, or doing math. When Bill was just thirteen, he wrote his very first program, and it was for playing tic-tac-toe!

For someone like Bill who loved a challenge, the computer was the perfect playground. Every program was like a puzzle. If he made one tiny mistake in the instructions, the computer would get all confused and make mistakes too.

Now, Bill was younger than most of the other kids in the club, and they thought he was using up too much time on the computer. So, they actually kicked him out of the club for a little while. But the other kids soon realized that Bill was smart and knew things that they didn’t. So eventually they asked him to come back to the club. 

Using the computer wasn’t free; it cost a lot of money. His parents paid for his school, but they told him he had to pay for computer time himself. So, Bill did what any smart kid would do – he got a job! There was a company in Seattle called Computer Center Corporation, and they had a computer. The boys at Lakeside made a deal with them: they could use the computer for free if they found mistakes in its programs. It was a dream job for Bill and his friends because they had control over this massive, million-dollar computer.

They had to work at odd times, like at night and on weekends when the company’s staff didn’t need the computer. Sometimes he and his buddies stayed up until midnight. If he missed the bus home, he had to walk three miles!

When he was fifteen, he teamed up with another Lakeside Programmer named Paul Allen. They created a program called Traf-O-Data, which measured traffic flow in Seattle. And guess what? They made $20,000 from it!

He and Paul were pretty different. Paul was quiet and shy, while Bill was more outgoing and liked to argue to make a point. But they both loved computers and respected each other’s ideas.

They believed that computers had the power to change people’s lives, and they talked for hours about all the amazing things computers could do.

In his junior year, Lakeside School asked him to create a computer program for their schedules because they had just merged with an all-girls school, and it was too complicated to do by hand. Bill did it, and in return, he got about $5,000 worth of free computer time. 

Finally, in 1973, Bill graduated from Lakeside School, and he was all set to go to Harvard University. Lakeside had been an incredible journey for him. He discovered his love for computers, started his first business, met Paul Allen, and they were about to do something no one had ever done before.

College life at Harvard University was already keeping Bill Gates on his toes with classes and campus adventures. But little did he know he was about to change the world forever.

Fast forward to the middle of his sophomore year, a time when Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen stumbled upon a magazine called Popular Electronics with the headline: “WORLD’S FIRST MINICOMPUTER KIT.” 

This was the birth of the Altair 8800. The Altair was unique because it was a small computer able to perform tasks that previously required large expensive mainframe computers. Do you remember the huge computers we mentioned in a previous episode that required large rooms of equipment? With an Altair 8800 at an affordable price, someone could own a computer small enough to have in their own home.

The Altair 8800 didn’t look like today’s sleek computers. It looked more like a black microwave with switches and lights. It didn’t even have a keyboard or screens. 

Bill and Paul quickly realized that the Altair 8800 had the hardware but lacked something very important: software. It was like having a car with no fuel – a machine ready to go but unable to move! 

The physical part of the computer like the hard drive and the motherboard is called hardware – but everything you use the computer for, what you see on the screen like games and pictures is called software. Many people call these apps today. The Altair 8800 was a computer with nothing to do with it. This is where Bill Gates and Paul Allen saw an opportunity! 

Bill Gates was not your typical college student. He and Paul Allen were brilliant programmers bursting with energy and vision. They knew what they had to do – create the missing software that would bring the Altair 8800 minicomputer to life. 

Bill called the company that made the computer. The company was called MITS and was located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He told the head of MITS, Ed Roberts, that he and his partner were writing language software for the Altair 8800. He asked if MITS was interested in seeing it.

Roberts said SURE! He agreed to meet with the boys in a little over a month. They had boldly declared that their program was almost completed … yet they actually hadn’t even begun!

For the next eight weeks, they started on a whirlwind of late-night coding sessions and intense problem-solving. With time running out and their dreams on the line, Bill and Paul had to pull off something extraordinary. A friend from Harvard joined their mission, and just in the nick of time, their program was ready.

Paul Allen journeyed to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to present their creation to Ed Roberts, the head of the company behind the minicomputer. Their software had never been tested on a real Altair 8800 before!

In a room filled with anticipation, Paul entered the command: “PRINT 2 + 2.” Then, the magic happened – the computer responded with a triumphant “4”! Success!

That moment changed everything. Ed Roberts, head of MITS decided to purchase their program, marking the birth of the very first programming language for a microcomputer. And Bill Gates was just a 19-year-old college student at the time!

After Bill and Paul made their deal with MITS, they needed an interesting name for their business. They picked “Micro-Soft” because they were making software for tiny computers (“micro” means tiny). In less than a year, they decided to drop the hyphen. Bill became the president of Microsoft, and Paul was the vice president.

They worked day and night and hired more people as Microsoft grew. As Bill Gates hired new people he expected everyone at Microsoft to work as hard as he did, even late at night and on weekends. Luckily most of the people there didn’t mind because they were young, smart, and excited about computers.

In 1980, Bill was about to sign a major deal with a giant company called IBM. IBM was the biggest computer maker in the world, known for those massive computers that took up entire rooms. But now, they wanted to make smaller computers, and they turned to Microsoft for help. It was a big deal!

At that time, Bill was just twenty-four years old, and Microsoft had about thirty-two employees. In contrast, IBM had well over three hundred thousand people working for them. At first, people at IBM might’ve thought Bill was too young, but they soon realized how much he knew about computers. So, they hired little Microsoft to create the software for their new small computers.

The software they needed was called an operating system, which is like the commander of the computer. It tells everything how to work – the keyboard, the screen, and all the other software. Without an operating system the computer wouldn’t be able to do much, especially not use software!

For nearly a year, Microsoft worked hard to create the software operating system, and in 1981, IBM released its first personal computer, called a PC for short and these PC’s used Microsoft’s operating system called MS-DOS. 

Soon, other companies started making copies of IBM’s small computers, called clones. Microsoft could sell versions of MS-DOS to these companies as well. MS-DOS quickly became the standard operating system for computers all around the world. 

With this success, Microsoft grew like crazy. By the end of 1981, they had 130 employees, and by 1983, nearly 500! Bill was no longer able to know everyone by name, but he was still very involved in everything.

At meetings, Bill expected everyone to work hard and he respected those who stood up for their ideas and defended them. What mattered most to him was finding the best solutions to problems.

Microsoft unveiled its latest software update in 1985 called Windows. What set it apart was a small, tool on the computer screen known as a “mouse.” This tiny device had been around for a while, but for most computer users, it was their first time seeing it. The mouse brought a big change in how people used their computers. 

Before Windows, PC users had to memorize complex commands and type them on a keyboard. But with Windows, things became much easier. They could simply point at pictures on the computer screen. By clicking the mouse on an icon, an entire program would pop up. 

The reason they named their software “Windows” was because it allowed you to have more than one “screen” open at the same time, just like having multiple windows in your room.

In 1986, Bill Gates made an important move by taking Microsoft public. Going public meant that anyone could buy small portions of the company, called “shares” of stock. These shares were bought and sold on what’s called the stock market.

Shares in Microsoft sold very quickly and suddenly overnight Bill Gates became a millionaire. By the following year, the value of Microsoft’s stock had skyrocketed so much that he became a billionaire! 

Eight years after becoming a billionaire, he earned the title of the world’s richest person! He held onto that title for many years, from 1995 to 2007, and once again in 2009. His fortune was worth well over $50 billion. 

When he was thirty-eight, he married Melinda French in Hawaii, and it became famous all around the world. In order to keep it private and avoid people coming to take pictures and watch, they rented out all the hotel rooms on the entire island and even hired all the helicopters so that photographers couldn’t fly over and take pictures.

Later on, they became parents to three kids: Jennifer Katharine, Rory John, and Phoebe Adele.

In 1997, he built a fifty-five thousand square foot home near Seattle Washington that sat on top of a hill with an amazing view of Lake Washington.

To be eco-friendly and save trees, they built the house mainly using old, reclaimed lumber. 

When guests entered the house they could wear a badge with a tiny microchip that contained information about their favorite things.” When a guest entered a room, their favorite music played. The lighting and room temperature are automatically adjusted to suit the person’s tastes. Even their favorite art was displayed on the walls! 

The house had everything you could ever dream of: a game room, a movie theater, and a fully equipped gym. The indoor pool, stretching sixty feet long, had music underwater, and you could dive beneath a glass wall to go outside. There was also a boathouse, a dock, and a guesthouse!

But his absolute favorite part of the house was the giant library. Inside that library, hidden behind a secret wall, was a notebook written by the genius Leonardo da Vinci over five hundred years ago. He paid $30 million to own it!

In the English language, there’s a special word for someone who donates a lot of money to help others: philanthropist. After making a ton of money for many years, Bill started giving away huge amounts of it.

He and his wife started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where they donated billions of dollars from their fortune. Their main question was, “How can we use our resources to help the most people in the best way?”

Back in the early days, every office desk had a typewriter on it. But now, thanks to the computer revolution that Bill Gates led, almost every office desk in the United States has a computer on it … and there’s a computer in almost every home. 

So what do you think about the story of Bill Gates? Pretty fascinating, right? Now when you see a computer and the software (or apps) that run on it you’ll remember one of the geniuses who helped bring it into the world. The world is waiting for new ideas to be born. What are some of your big ideas? Or even little ideas? Big ideas have to start somewhere!

The post History of Bill Gates for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Chances are you’ve heard of an iPhone before and probably an iPad. What about an iMac, an iPod, and a Macbook? These are all devices created by a company called Apple. Did you know last year they sold more than 40 million iPhones; and over 2 billion since they started creating them! That is a lot of phones! Did you know the very first Apple computer was created in a garage by two guys named Steve? And at one point it looked like Apple might fail. Pretty crazy, right? Well, tonight we’re going to learn about one of those Steves named Steve Jobs and how he came to create Apple and all of the billions of devices that came with it over the years.

Birth

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California to a woman named Joanne Carole Schieble. Steve’s father’s name was John Al Jandali and he was an immigrant from Syria, which is a country in the Middle East. He left Syria because it was dangerous at the time. But even before Steve was born, his mother decided it was best to give him up for adoption, because she and his father weren’t ready to have a family together.

Baby Steve’s new adoptive parents were named Paul and Clara Jobs. They weren’t able to have their own children, so they were very excited for Steve to join their family. Later in life, Steve said he was fortunate to have them as parents and they showed him lots of love. A couple of years after adopting Steve, Paul and Clara Jobs adopted a girl, giving Steve a sister. Not long after this, they moved to Mountain View, California, where Steve’s dad worked as a machinist. A machinist is someone who works in a shop building different types of machines. At home, his father had a shop in their garage and often he and Steven worked on their car and built things. Steve was impressed that his father could build so many things and it made him interested in doing the same. But mostly he just enjoyed spending time with his father.

School Years

Growing up Steve struggled in school. He liked to play pranks and often didn’t listen to his teachers. But he was a pretty smart kid, so his parents often thought it was because he was too bored with what was being taught and he needed more challenging problems to solve. In 4th Grade, Steve’s teacher was named “Teddy” Hill and she told him that if he’d complete his math workbook she’d give him 5 dollars. Steve jumped at the chance and quickly worked through all of the problems in the workbook. For the first time, he was excited about doing school work and realized if he put effort into learning it could actually be fun! Have you ever had a problem to solve and completed it and it felt good inside?

Steve’s next few years in school were tough. In Middle School, he was often bullied and didn’t have any close friends. It feels horrible to be bullied. Be sure to never treat others this way. Or if you’re being treated this way be sure to let someone like a caring parent or teacher know! Because of the bullying, Steve was transferred to a new school. It was expensive for his parents to move to a better neighborhood, but they loved Steve and wanted the best for him so they did it anyway. 

In his new school, Steve found more kids like himself and especially those who were interested in subjects like engineering — which is the science of building things. His other favorite subject in high school was literature, which means reading and studying good books. He especially loved books by the English writer William Shakespeare. 

Steve Wozniak

In high school, Steve became friends with another student named Steve Wozniak. Wozniak loved electronics, too, and after they graduated high school they worked together to build their first device called a “blue box,” which allowed someone to make long-distance calls for free. They thought it was pretty cool that they were able to create a device that did something so useful. They sold the blue boxes and it was at this time that Steve realized building devices could be fun — and make money! This was also a time when Steve wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life and just took college classes for fun. One of his favorite classes was about calligraphy, which means writing beautiful lettering with ink. 

Apple Computers

One of Steve’s first jobs was at a company called Atari, one of the very first video game companies. During this time he also traveled to India and learned about Buddhism and meditation, which he often used throughout his life. After returning home, Steve started tinkering with Steve Wozniak again, who was building a computer. At this time computers weren’t as common as they are now, most people did not have a computer in their home. Most people never imagined they’d own a computer. Steve Jobs thought they could sell their computers, so they spent time working on them in the Jobs family garage. To buy parts Jobs sold his car and Wozniak sold his favorite calculator. One day after spending the morning at an apple orchard, Steve Jobs told Wozniak he thought they should call the computer “Apple.” It was also his favorite fruit. “Apple” later became the name of their computer company.

The two Steves and the people they hired built more computers and sold them and later Steve found others to invest in Apple computers. Investment is when someone with extra money gives you their money to help your business grow. But you have to agree that when your business starts to make money you’ll give them that money (and hopefully more) back. This is how most companies grow today. 

At this time Steve started shaving his head like the Buddhist priests he admired and wearing a black turtleneck, which later became his signature outfit. 

Apple computers began to sell even more computers as they focused on selling computers for personal use. They wanted everyone to have a computer in their home and to be easy to use. Soon Apple was a very profitable company and by 1980 worth over 1 billion dollars! At this time Apple competed with IBM, which was the other very big computer company selling computers for home use. 

In 1984 Apple released the Macintosh computer, which did well but still couldn’t sell more than IBM. The new President of Apple and even friends like Steve Wozniak didn’t like the way things were being done at Apple and Wozniak left. The new President of the company decided that although Steve Jobs started Apple, he was also causing problems for the company.  Steve eventually left to start a new company. 

Pixar

This was a frustrating time for him as he struggled to start a new company, which ended up failing. You can imagine that many would stop trying when they failed, but Steve wasn’t the type to give up. He kept exploring different ideas and eventually became interested in computer graphics. At the time there were a group of graphics designers who were doing some pretty cool things with computer graphics. They were tinkering with 3D models and working to make graphics on the computer more realistic. If you’ve seen graphics from old computers they don’t look very real like the video games and animated movies you see today. Steve used some of his money from Apple to buy The Graphics Group and together under the direction of John Lassetter they created their first computer-animated movie called Toy Story! I’ll bet you’ve heard of Toy Story. This Graphics Group was renamed Pixar and later became part of Disney making such movies as Cars, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Wall-E, Monsters Inc., Inside Out, Coco, and most recently Onward. Yes, Steve Jobs is one of the people to thank for the creation of Pixar and all of these amazing movies!

After starting Pixar, Apple computers asked Steve Jobs to return and run the company. There he oversaw the creation of the new iMac computers, which were powerful, efficient, and designed elegantly as Steve wanted. Steve loved designing beautiful devices and spent many, many hours thinking about how the devices looked and trying different designs until they were nearly perfect in his eyes. He believed that electronics needed to be powerful on the inside but also be enjoyable to look and feel a certain way that was pleasurable to the user. If you notice this is one way that Apple devices are different. 

iPods and iPhones

At Apple Steve also helped design the iPod, which played digital music. Later helped design one of the first smartphones, the iPhone, which wowed the world with its powerful computer on the inside, its beautiful design, its many features, and its app store. The iPhone was the device that really made Apple popular again. Before smartphones, computers and phones were separate devices. With inventions like the iPhone, they became one and the same. This was a revolutionary technology that even your parents didn’t grow up with. You’ve probably heard them say “I didn’t have a phone when I was your age.” Because it’s true, personal phones you could carry around weren’t invented yet! Early on most computers were so big they took up an entire room. Now they fit in the palm of your hand. We live in a pretty amazing time, right?  

In October 2003 Steve was diagnosed with cancer and tried to get rid of it in many different ways. Slowly others took over his positions at Apple until in 2011 he passed away.

Conclusion

Later Apple also created the iPad and many new iMac computers, iPhones, Macbooks, and many other original devices up until today. Apple soon grew to be one of the most profitable companies in the world and today Apple devices can be found everywhere. Over 47,000 people work for Apple in locations across the world. It’s incredible to think what has come from someone like Steve who worked very hard to build his company and create these devices. And remember, he didn’t do it alone! His friend Steve Wozniak helped him create the first computer, and over the years many people who work for Apple helped come up with the designs and parts that have made these devices so incredible. Do you think you’d like to work for a company like Apple someday? For fun, you’ll have to look into the type of jobs there. It might be design or coding. If you are interested, think about what you might do to start learning some of these basic skills. 

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Have you ever heard of Super Mario Brothers or the Legend of Zelda? Have you ever played these games on Nintendo? Nintendo is a household name across the world, but it didn’t start out that way. And most people don’t realize the Nintendo company has been around for over 100 years — long before video games were invented.

Early Beginnings of Nintendo

Our story begins in 1889 in the large city of Kyoto, Japan. In Kyoto lived a man named Fusajiro Yamauchi. Fusajiro had a wife and a daughter and was an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is someone who has big ideas and starts new businesses. And Fusajiro had an idea to start his own shop to sell playing cards which were used to play a Japanese card game called “Hanafuda.” His playing cards were hand-painted and he decided to name his business “Nintendo Koppai.”

Fusajiro’s playing cards were very popular in Kyoto and soon he didn’t have enough time to paint all of the cards by hand. When an entrepreneur has this problem, which is a very good problem, he hires more people to help him — and this is exactly what Fusajiro did! He hired assistant and taught them how to paint playing cards like he did. With more playing cards to sell, the Nintendo company grew and grew until Fusajiro opened a new shop in Osaka.

For 40 years Fusajiro’s company grew and grew, they designed games other than Hanafuda and eventually became the largest playing card company in Japan. 

At the age of 70, Fusajiro retired and his adopted son-in-law became the new president. But little did Fusajiro realize what would become of his playing card company.

Hiroshi’s Contributions to Nintendo

In 1927 a boy named Hiroshi was born in the same city of Kyoto. When he was little parents were unable to take care of him, so he went to live with his grandparents. His grandfather was the President of Nintendo. Hiroshi started school when he was 12 and planned to go to college, but when World War II started he had to wait on college and instead worked in a factory making weapons for the war. When the war ended he started college to study law and was also married at that time.

In 1949 Hiroshi grandfather, the President of Nintendo died and Hiroshi was next in line, so he became the president of Nintendo. Hiroshi was only 22 and no one thought he’d be able to run the company. But he proved everyone wrong by being very firm and taking control of the company. And  he would go on to lead Nintendo and help it grow for the next 53 years! 

As the new President of the company, Hiroshi was interested in selling Nintendo playing cards in the United States. In the United States he made a deal with Disney to allow Nintendo to use Disney characters on their cards and eventually sold 600,000 packs in one year. With all of the new money coming in, Hiroshi began to look at new ways for Nintendo to make money. They tried many different ventures such as a taxi business, restaurants, and toy making. While many of the ideas failed, toy-making seemed to be their best bet. 

Gunpei and Nintendo’s Light Gun

One day while Hiroshi was in the factory, he noticed one of the engineers playing with a device he had built that could stretch out and grab things like a hand. The engineer’s name was Gunpei Yokoi and his normal job was to repair machines in the factory. But Hiroshi liked the device he built so much that he decided to turn it into a toy. They called it the “Ultra Arm” and sold over 1 million of them. With the Ultra Arm’s success, Hiroshi asked Gunpei to help design toys instead of work in the factory. Gunpei went on to design several other toys for Nintendo such as the first solar-powered light gun, later called the Nintendo Beam gun. 

In 1972 the American company Magnavox released one of the first home video game consoles and called it the Odyssey. Magnavox used Nintendo light guns with the Odyssey. Not long after the Odyssey’s release, Nintendo started creating its own arcade games using the light gun. Their most popular arcade was called The Laser Clay Shooting System. 

Shigeru Miyamoto and Donkey Kong

In 1977 Nintendo hired a young artist named Shigeru Miyamoto. Shigeru was born in Sonobe, Japan and from a young age loved exploring the natural world around his home, including forests, lakes and secret caves he found. He had a big imagination of loved to draw. He later went to college to become an artist. At Nintendo Shigeru did artwork for an arcade game called Sheriff and worked with Gunpei Yokoi, the designer of the “Ultra Arm” on other new games.

One of their big ideas involved a carpenter, his girlfriend, and a gorilla. The carpenter, also named Jumpman, ran up ramps and jumped over barrels the gorilla threw at him until he reached the girl at the top. When Sherigu finally decided on a name for Jumpman he named him “Mario” after the man who owned their building. They named their game Donkey Kong and it eventually it became one of the most famous video games of all time.

Nintendo and Gunpei Yokoi’s next big invention was a hand-held gaming device called the Game and Watch, which included a simple game and a clock. The Game and Watch was very popular and gave Nintendo more money to invent other new devices. Their next big device was called the Famicom (or Family Computer) and was their first gaming console. It sold over 500,000 units, but many of them had issues and had to be recalled from the stores.

This was very costly for Nintendo, but in 1985 they fixed the system and renamed it the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES. Nintendo was known for its quality games, which had to receive its stamp of approval before being released. The NES ended up becoming wildly popular in the United States. 

The Mario Brothers

Shigeru Miyamoto, the artist with the big imagination, also created Super Mario Brothers featuring his Mario character from Donkey Kong and added a brother named Luigi. They changed Mario from a carpenter to a plumber and gave him superhuman abilities. He could fall from any height and with his hat and thick mustache worked his way through a wild world full of fantastic monsters and underground sewage pipes. 

Legend of Zelda

Designing his next video game, Shigeru remember his childhood of adventure and wonder exploring the natural world around his home in Sonobe. He remembered finding a dark cave and exploring it along with the hillsides and lakes. He decided his next big game would try and capture that wonder he felt as a child. In his game The Legend of Zelda, an adventurous elf named Link would explore an open video game world in search of the Princess Zelda. The Legend of Zelda also became very popular and many sequels have been created under Shigeru’s direction. 

Enter the Gameboy

Nintendo’s next popular device was the Gameboy, designed by Gunpei Yokoi. It was a handheld device and was known for being sturdy with quality games like Tetris, Super Mario Land and Pokemon. The Game Boy eventually sold 118 million units!

SNES and the Wii

The next version of the Nintendo was called the Super Nintendo or SNES with new and improved graphics and a host of new games. At this time, Nintendo began to face competition from the Sega Genesis gaming system, which included wildly popular games like Sonic the Hedgehog. The Sony Playstation and later Microsoft’s Xbox gaming system also competed with Nintendo, which later released the Nintendo 64 with 3D graphics, the Game Boy Color, then the Game Cube and later the Nintendo DS, and Wii.

The Wii became the best selling game console of all time, selling 10 million units with hit games like Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Wii U was released next and finally its current console, the Nintendo Switch. Even with all of the new competition over the years,

Nintendo found ways to reinvent itself and make its game systems different. With the Wii, Nintendo invented the hand-held pointing devices or nunchucks. With the Switch it designed a console that could be played on the TV or on the go. Nintendo also continued to create wildly imaginative, colorful and family friendly game franchises such as Zelda, Mario Kart, Metroid, Star Fox, and Pokemon. 

In the end, Nintendo was successful due to the business sense of its President Hiroshi Yamauchi and the creativity of designers like Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi.

Entrepreneurs

Would you like to be an entrepreneur some day? Remember an entrepreneur is someone who is creative and comes up with ideas for new businesses. If you’ve ever held a bake sell or sold lemonade you’re practicing the skills to become an entrepreneur. Remember, Fusajiro was an entrepreneur when he started his first playing card shop called Nintendo.

Do you like to draw or have a big imagination like Shigeru and Gunpei? If you created your own video game like Shigeru what would it be about? What would it look like? When you find the time, write out your ideas, draw a few pictures and plan out how it would work. Creativity, like other skills, requires practice. Take some time to think about how you can exercise your creativity muscles and invent imaginative worlds like Shigeru did with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

The post History of Nintendo: Fusajiro Yamauchi, Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gunpei Yokoi and Shigeru Miyamoto For Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Do you have a piggy bank? Or maybe you have a glass jar in your house full of coins? You’ve probably seen your parents pay for something at the store with dollar bills – or maybe have yourself? Have you seen your parents use a credit card or pay with something using their phone and wonder how it works? How can they use a card or their phone to pay for something without actual coins and bills?? If you have any of these questions, you’re just like me, because I was very curious about how money came to be.

So take your mind back to time of the earliest people on earth. They were probably like you imagine, wearing animal skins and living in tribes, sometimes in caves or in little stick and mud huts they’d built to keep off the cold and rain. When these people needed something they didn’t have, they’d try and figure out how to make it or grow it or hunt for it themselves, but sometimes it was just easier to trade. You’ve probably traded something with a sibling or a friend before, right? I’ll give you this if you give me that. I used to do it with baseball cards. Well, these early humans would do it for things they really needed like blankets made from animal furs. They’d meet with other tribes in the area and make deals. They’d trade. Another word for this is bartering. They’d say “hey, I’ll give you five arrowheads for 3 furs? How does that sound?” The other tribe would would discuss the trade and maybe come back with, “How about six arrowheads for 3 furs?” The first tribe might agree that’s fair and then the deal would be complete and they’d swap items and everyone was happy. 

Way back in 6,000 B.C. the people of Mesopotamia became known for their bartering skills and introduced trade to the Phoenicians. Over time it became more and more popular, but it’s more than likely bartering happened long before the Mesopotamians.

Bartering worked well down through history and people even do it today, but over time humans began to see the problems with bartering and began to think of other ways to “trade” goods. What if instead of trading things like arrowheads and furs directly, we can use a different object to make the deal happen. The problem with bartering is you had to move the thing you wanted to trade all over the place. So if I wanted to trade with a tribe all the way across the valley, I’d have to load all of my goods in a cart or a horse or a wagon and haul them there. Kind of a pain, right? Also, what if we couldn’t agree on arrowheads for furs and 3 ½ arrowheads made more sense than 4. You can’t break an arrowhead in half, then it wouldn’t be any good. 

So ancient people came up with the idea to use valuable objects IN PLACE of goods. One of the early examples of what became money were shells. This is also called currency, a way to use one object to exchange for other objects. In China around 1,000 B.C. Asians began using a special type of shell called a Cowrie shell in exchange for other goods. So for example, I’d go to the market with a beautiful new dress I’d woven. There, a store owner might offer me 10 cowrie shells for the dress. They’d give me the cowrie shells, I’d give them the dress, and now I have shells, which are the equal value of the dress in my pocket. A lot easier to carry around than the dress. And then I can keep the shells, maybe go to another market later that week, and use the cowrie shells to buy my family wheat and rice for the rest of the month. Cowrie shells became a very popular form of money in China and spread throughout the region, including Africa .

Shell money was common in other places, too, like Australia, the Middle East, and North America. In North American indigenous people of the Iroquois Confederacy and Algonquin tribes, took shells they found in the ocean and ground them into beads called wampum. These white and purple beads were then strung into necklaces that could be used as money to exchange for other items. Soon European settlers also used wampum as money and it was used in the exchange for beaver pelts which were a very popular item at the time. 

So you’re probably wondering why we’re still not using cowrie shells and wampum beads today? Well, that’s because once groups of people realized how money could be used some groups started creating their own money out of hard metals. Civilizations like those in China who worked in metals were able to create the first money out of gold, silver, bronze and other precious metals. This is called minting. What’s funny is some of this first metal money was shaped like cowry shells, their favorite money system of the past. They also stamped these early coins with a symbol to show that it was made by their people. This is important because a value is attached to money that sort of has to be agreed upon by everyone using it. And the value of money can change over time! We’ll talk about that in a few minutes. So with China minting money and creating coins, the really cool thing is that trade moved faster. People that have access to money, can exchange things easier, and the money moves throughout the empire and everyone is more prosperous because of it. Also, around this time metal coins were especially important because long trade roads were forming between Asia and Europe such as the famous Silk Road. Europeans and Asians traded goods along these roads and also by water.

Around this time, the Greeks also learned about minting money and started minting their own. The Athenians were minting their own silver coins by 500 B.C. and this practice later spread to the Roman Empire. Over time, minting became more and more common and as you know it’s in use by the United States and countries all over the world who have their own mints and their own coins. Growing up, I loved collecting coins with different dates and pictures on them and sometimes coins from other countries. I always thought it was interesting why they decided to put certain symbols and words on each of their own coins. 

Paper money also was first invented by the Chinese, since they were also the first inventors of paper. Over time, paper money became easier to carry around than heavy metal coins. Imagine if you had to carry $100 worth of coins with you every time you went grocery shopping. Imagine $1,000 if you had to buy a bigger item. Paper money was also used by Charlemagne during his reign in Europe and of course is in use today with the dollar bill in the United States and each country with their unique bills. Do you know the names of money in different countries? Maybe you know a few. I’ll list some of the ones I know. The British Pound, the European Euro, the Japanese Yen, the Indian Rupee, Mexico’s peso, the Russian ruble. So If you get a chance be sure to look up these different currencies and what they look like. Sometimes you can even find them at hobby shops nearby.

You’ll notice with currency in different countries, they also differ in value. So 1 U.S. dollar is equal to about 113 Japanese yen. This value changes over time. The dollar today can buy less than it could 50 years ago. For example, in 1970 the cost of a candy bar was 10 cents! Just ten pennies! Today the cost of a candy bar is more like 1 or 2 dollars. 

In modern times, countries are very careful with how they mint money. This is because counterfeiting is a widespread crime. Counterfeiting is when people try and make fake money and use it. This problem has existed for a very long time going back even 1500 years ago. People would mix other metals with gold or silver to make it appear that a coin was made of that metal. Today, counterfeiters use complex designs and machines to make paper bills that look like the real ones. If you hold bills up to the light and look closely at them, especially the big ones like a $20 or $100 dollar bill, you’ll notice complex watermarks inside the bills and strips of paper that are hard to duplicate. Whenever new money is printed the United States Treasury is trying to develop new ways to outsmart counterfeiters. And counterfeiters do the same, so it’s a never ending game of cat and mouse to keep money safe.   

To get an idea of how much new money is printed every year in 2020, the United States Treasury printed over 1 million $100 dollar bills and around 2 and a half billion $1 dollar bills. 

In the modern day, new modes of money have become popular. You’ve probably seen your parents swipe a credit card at the store or type in the numbers when buying something online. The first credit cards became available in the 1950s and grew in popularity over the years. What can be hard to understand, is that you can spend money on credit cards that you don’t even have yet. It’s what is called a loan. You spend a certain amount of money that the credit card company lets you borrow, and then you pay it off. Credit cards are a nice convenience but people also have to be careful not to spend too much on a credit card, because if you can’t pay it off by the next month it can cost you even more money.

Digital payments have also become very popular. This means that rather than having dollar bills or coins in your pocket, you can use your computer or phone to pay for things. All of the money spent using computers is tracked on a bank’s computer. It’s kind of hard to imagine that things are bought and sold and just tracked on computers now, but it is very convenient not to have to worry about having actual money in your wallet. For example, when I get paid by my job, the money just shows up in my bank account. And then I pay bills using my bank account and it just sends the transactions to pay for my house and my car and my electricity bill. And when people donate to Bedtime History, I get an email and then can use that to pay for expenses for the podcast. Pretty crazy, right? Using services like PayPal, Venmo, and Apple Payments, now you just bring up an app on your phone and send people and businesses money that way. It’s definitely revolutionized the way money can be used.

The last really interesting new form of money in the modern age I want to talk about is called cryptocurrency. If you’ve ever heard of Bitcoin, it’s the first cryptocurrency. The cool thing about cryptocurrencies is they aren’t managed by a government or bank like all of the other money. They live on the Internet and can be used by people all over the world, regardless of where they live. Cryptocurrency, also called “crypto” for short, started in 2008, when someone on the Internet using the fake name Satoshi Nakamoto wrote a paper about how crypto could work. Crypt uses a technology called a blockchain that keeps track of every payment (also called a transaction) made using Bitcoin. The blockchain is highly secure and anonymous, which means no one can hack into it and see who is using the money and what they are doing with it. It’s become an entirely new kind of money. When the first Bitcoin was released it was worth a few cents, but now it’s worth over $35,000 dollars. Of course, its value rises and falls and there are other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and there is debate over how important crypto will be in the future.

It’s pretty crazy to think back about how money started out, at basic trading or bartering for goods and where it is now, with complex digital payments systems and cryptocurrencies. The world has changed so much in the last few thousand years and one of the reasons I love history. To try and better understand where we are and how we got here. The world is a vibrant and rapidly changing place and knowing it’s history can help us better know how the world and people work and also what we can do to make it a better place. I hope you enjoyed learning about the history of money like I did! 

The post History of Money, Bartering, and Cryptocurrency for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Has your curiosity ever gotten you in trouble? Maybe you took something apart or made a mess while you were trying to find out how it worked, or maybe you’ve asked a grown-up a question they didn’t know how to answer. If so, don’t feel bad about yourself! You have something in common with some of the smartest and most innovative people in history, including the subject of today’s episode, Grace Murray Hopper. 

Grace was born and raised in New York City, and she was a very curious child. Her family had a large summer home, which they shared with her many cousins. Each of the seven bedrooms in the house had an alarm clock, and every evening, Grace’s mother would set each alarm clock. This was the early twentieth century, so these weren’t the kind of alarm your parents might have on their phone, or even a digital alarm clock. These were old-fashioned clocks with gears in them and two bells on top. When the alarm rang, a small hammer would go back and forth, quickly hitting the bells and making a loud, high-pitched ring. This kind of ringing was impossible to sleep through! If you imagine what an old-fashioned fire alarm might sound like, it would be similar to that. 

Grace was fascinated by the alarm clocks, and wanted to know how they worked. So she took one apart! But looking at the pile of gears, springs, and hands, in front of her, she still wasn’t sure. 

So she took apart another. 

Then another. 

Eventually, Grace took apart all seven alarm clocks, trying to figure out how all the tiny, complicated pieces worked together. Her mother wasn’t exactly happy about all the alarm clocks in the house being broken, but she was understanding, and she let Grace keep one clock to study.

Grace’s father also supported Grace’s curiosity. He encouraged her and her sister to get as much education as they could so they could support themselves. This was not common for girls in the early 1900s. Grace especially loved math and geometry. She used geometry to draw pictures. This is a fun way to use math – try to see what you can draw some time just using the basic shapes like circles, squares, and triangles. If you look around, you’ll notice these shapes, along with angles, lines, curves, and other things that can be described with numbers, in many things you see every day.

Grace worked hard in school, and was almost able to start college when she was sixteen! Why almost? Her test scores in math were very high, but her scores in Latin were too low. But, just as she had done with the alarm clocks, Grace didn’t quit trying after one failure. She tried again, and was able to start college the next year at seventeen. She graduated with degrees in math and physics in 1928. She went on to get a PhD in math at Yale in 1934. Eventually, she became a math professor at Vassar College.

When World War II started, Grace tried to join the Navy, which had just started accepting women. Her grandfather had been in the Navy, and she wanted to follow in his footsteps. But the Navy wouldn’t take Grace! Their reasons for rejecting her were not what you might think: they said she was valuable to the war effort as a math professor; she was too thin for her height; and she was too old at 34. This shows us another important lesson: people often don’t say no to you because they don’t like you. They might say no because of rules they have to follow, or because you’re too important! Not a bad reason to be rejected, right?

But knowing Grace, you can probably guess that this rejection didn’t hold her back. She tried again. Grace took a leave of absence from her job as a professor and volunteered for the Naval Reserves. She had to get special permission due to her weight being too low, but she got to serve in the Navy and support the war effort, just like she wanted. Not only that, she was at the top of her class in the training program! The Navy sent her to Harvard University to work on the first computer made in the United States, the Mark I.

Grace worked on programming the Mark I to help the navy solve problems on their ships. Programming a computer means giving it instructions so it will do what you want it to do. You might be wondering why Grace was given a job programming computers. But, have you ever thought about why a computer is called a computer? Well, it’s because their original purpose was to compute things, to do complex math that humans can’t do quickly. The navy used the Mark I to help them track the location of enemy ships and submarines. It could perform math quickly, and never made mistakes like human mathematicians sometimes do. But, the Mark I did need humans to tell it exactly what math to do, and that was Grace’s job. 

Early computers were programmed using numbers and symbols. You had to understand a lot of mathematics to program a computer, which is why many early programmers like Grace, had degrees in math. Programming was complicated and it was easy to make mistakes, even for an expert. So Grace would save pieces of programs that did specific things so she could use them again in new programs. She also developed a system that allowed the computer to find these pieces of code without her having to input all of it again.

After the war, in 1949, Grace went to work at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. Here, she worked on Univac, the first computer in the United States to be sold to businesses for general purposes. This got her thinking about what people were trying to do with computers, and she realized not everyone could get their job done using only the language of math, numbers and symbols. Grace thought there should be computer programming languages that were based on the English language. This would make it easier for more people to learn to program and use computers to help them do their jobs. But, in order to create this kind of programming language, she also needed to invent the technology to translate English-based commands into the mathematical language that computers understood.

And that’s exactly what Grace did! She called her translator a compiler. If you want to imagine what a compiler does, think of all the word problems you’ve seen in your math books. You might have a problem like:

“Dan has seven apples. He gives three of them to Isaac. How many apples does Dan have left?”

The English words in this sentence give us clues about what kind of math problem we need to do. We know that the special words seven and three are numbers. We know if someone gives something away, they will have fewer of that thing. This gives us a clue that we need to subtract to find the answer. Once we think it through a bit, we can figure out that we need to write a math problem, “seven minus three equals” and then compute the answer. A compiler does something similar: it has a set of rules it uses to take the commands and translate them into numbers. The rules are more complicated than the subtraction word problem we just talked about, but the idea is similar.   

At first, the men Grace worked with thought this idea was crazy. But she kept working on her ideas for years, and eventually, others who worked with computers accepted them. Grace also reached her goal of inventing the first programming language based on English words, rather than numbers and symbols. This new language became known as COBOL. It was used for decades, and is even still used today. More importantly, COBOL inspired many other computer scientists to invent new programming languages based on human language to solve different types of problems. Today there are dozens of languages, and millions of people who learn and use them everyday. 

Later Grace returned to working for the Navy. After a long career, she reached the rank of rear admiral. At the time, she was one of the highest ranking women in the Navy. She retired in 1986 at the age of 80, but even after retiring, she continued to work. She was always eager to help young people learn about computers and programming, and aside from inventing the compiler, she said this was one of her greatest accomplishments.

Grace used to have a clock on her office wall. It was the kind of clock with hands that tick off the hours, seconds and minutes, just like the alarm clocks she took apart as a child. But this clock was unique: its hands went around in the opposite direction from other clocks. Instead of going clockwise, her clock went counter-clockwise! Even though the clock went backwards, it still ticked off the hours and minutes reliably, and gave the right time. 

Grace said this clock was a reminder that you don’t have to do things the same way everyone else is doing them. If you think you have a different or better way to do something, you should try it, even if others don’t understand at first. And as she showed so many times in her life, don’t just try once. Try over and over again until you get it! If you have a good idea and work hard to make it a reality, other people will eventually notice. 

Grace never gave up when she had a goal or a  great idea, even when others around her didn’t support her. She kept working on her ideas, and showing her work to others, until they had to listen, and, often, had to admit she’d been right all along! She knew that good ideas didn’t always fit the way people had done things in the past. They might even seem a little crazy at first. But without crazy new ideas we wouldn’t make any progress.

Sources

https://stories.vassar.edu/2017/assets/images/170706-legacy-of-grace-hopper-hopperpdf.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

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What do you think about when you think of a computer?  Do you have a computer in your house or at your school?  What types of things do you do with it?  Have you ever wondered how it works?

There are many, many things you can do with a computer.  It can help you with homework, you can play games on it and you can easily find out information that you need, like where to order pizza. 

Computers are now so common in western countries that we sometimes take them for granted.  But computers weren’t always in homes and schools.  In fact not too long ago, people hadn’t even heard of computers. 

The first “computers” were ancient tools that were used to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Some early examples of this would be the ancient Chinese math device known as the abacus.  These older tools were in some way computers because they did what computers do: take information and turn it into logical operations.  Logical operations are instructions that someone gives a computer and it tells the computer what to do. Older tools still required humans to do things to make them work.  But modern computers use power and are able to be programmed to do things automatically. 

The first computer as we would think of one today was created in 1823 by a man named Charles Babbage in England.  Charles Babbage invented all the parts that are now used for a modern computer. He called the machine he was working on the “Difference Engine” but unfortunately he never finished it. 

Ten years later, another man named George Scheutz read about the “Difference Engine” and was excited about what Babbage had been working on. Together with his son Edvard, Scheutz began to work on a smaller version. Twenty years later, by 1853, the father and son had constructed a machine that could process 15-digit numbers and calculate fourth-order differences. This was very advanced programming for a machine at that time. 

Their machine won a gold medal at the Exhibition of Paris in 1855, and later they sold it to the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York.  The Dudley Observatory later used it to calculate the path of the planet Mars.

One of the first business uses of a computer was by the Census Bureau in the United States.  It used punch-card equipment to count information for the 1890 census. A census is an official count of a group of people to get information about them.  It’s something governments do to learn more about people living in their country.

In 1911 the company who made that computer joined another company to start a brand new company.  In 1924, it became known as the International Business Machines or IBM.  It is still one of the largest and most famous computer companies in the world. 

The first computers were around the size of a large room. Isn’t it crazy to think a computer as small as the one in your phone that fits in your pocket used to be the size of a large room? 

The next changes came in the 1940s during World War II.  Alan Turing, a man who worked for the British military invented an electronic computer called Colossus. This machine was used to break codes used by the German army in World War II.  The Colossus computer was kept secret until long after the war ended, so Turing and others did not become famous for inventing this machine until later.

Computers in the 1950s, after the second world war had ended, were used for research on the design of wind tunnels and would do other different things, like generate random numbers or predict the weather.

By the 1950s, programmers were using languages to tell the computer what they wanted it to do.  At first this was written by hand and punched into cards and fed into the machines.  Later, computers were designed that could be typed on using keyboards.

As old fashioned as they were, these first electronic machines were quite useful in science and engineering. They were able to do math problems way faster than a human ever could. They were also used to guess who would win an election for president.  A machine called the UNIVAC predicted president Eisenhower would defeat his opponent in an election after only 7% of the votes were in.  The UNIVAC’s prediction was very close: it said Eisenhower would win 438 electoral votes, and he ended up with 442.

Computers continued to improve through the 1970s and 1980s.

Do you enjoy playing video games? The first two computers games made were called Asteroids and Lunar Lander. Have you heard of them? They were the start of a very popular hobby in America: playing video games.

Computers today can do all kinds of things.  They are literally a machine that takes what you put into it, and then gives you some information back. So you give it a command, just like you would give to your dog.  But instead of telling your computer what to do, you type into it or use a mouse or even talk to it.  And your computer follows the command to give you the result you want. These are pretty amazing machines when you think about it!

Computers today have something called a microprocessor that can do math very quickly. They also have a memory called RAM. This stores all the information you need when you’re not using it. They also have fans to keep them cool, otherwise they’ll get too hot.

People use computers every day at work, at school, and at home. Computers are used in factories to control how things are made and in offices to keep records. People also use computers for sending pictures and emails, researching information and all sorts of activities.

Computers and the things you can do with them continue to develop.  Just think about all of the changes that humans have seen to computers in the last 150 years.  We have gone from having no electric computers at all to having devices that we can carry around in our hands, called smart phones.  It is incredible when you think about the pace at which computers have changed and how they have impacted our lives.

None of the things you like to do on the internet or movies you watch and video games you play would be possible without computers. Without computers you wouldn’t be listening to this story! Computers are so amazing they seem like magic and we forget that someone had to design them. 

What’s really exciting is you can do this too. Kids of all ages have learned to design their own games and apps. This is called programming or coding. A free website to start learning to design your own games is called Scratch. It makes it very easy for kids to get started. Go to scratch.mit.edu to try it out. Some school and libraries have “code clubs” where kids learn how to program computers. If you’re interested in how your library can have a code club, too, a good friend of mine designed a way to make that happen. Visit prenda.co (spell out) to learn more about how your school or library can have its own code club. 

What would you do if you could design a computer to do whatever you wanted? Would you design a game or a cool app? The possibilities are truly endless.

The post The History of Computer Science for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

How are you listening to this podcast today? On a computer, a cell phone, or a smart home device like Alexa? Whatever device you’re using, it connects to the internet. The internet is central to so many things we do today, but have you ever wondered what exactly it is, or how it got to be what it is today? In this episode, you’re going to find out!

Our story begins in 1955 in London England with the birth of Tim Berners-Lee. Both of Tim’s parents were scientists who helped build one of the first computers in the 1950s, the Ferranti Mark 1. Tim enjoyed playing with model railroads as a child, and he learned a lot about electronics from this hobby. He went on to study physics at the University of Oxford in England, where he continued to tinker with electronics in his spare time, building a computer inside an old TV. He graduated with a degree in physics. 

Tim worked as a programmer for many years after graduating, and learned about many technologies along the way. Eventually, he got a job working at CERN, a European nuclear research agency. At CERN, Tim’s first job was to help people communicate over computer networks and use data stored on them in order to do their jobs. But Tim was frustrated to find that all these computers worked in different ways, so it was difficult to get them to talk to one another. Tim wanted to make it easier for people to communicate and work together using these computer networks. 

In the early 1990s, Tim Berners-Lee helped to invent not one, not two, but three key, related technologies that helped the internet become more widely available. He developed the “www” or World Wide Web system (you may have noticed this in website addresses); HTML, or HyperText Markup Language; and the first web browser. 

We’ll talk about each of these in more detail later, but before that, I should go over a few basic things about how the internet works. The internet actually existed before Tim Berners-Lee’s contributions. It’s just a name for a system of computers that are connected to each other — a network. Computers on a network can send and receive messages to and from other computers on the network, or to other networks There are two main types of computers that you need to know about to understand the internet: servers and clients. Servers store information like email or documents, and send or “serve” that information to clients when they request it. Clients are the computers that you and I use to go online. 

The details of this can get a little confusing, but Tim Berners Lee himself actually has a good way of describing the process. He compares it to a mail system. Say you drop a letter in the mailbox. Your letter is like the information you’re sending over the internet. The workers in the post office, similar to a server, look at the address on the letter, and decide where to send it next. That letter might go through a half dozen or more post offices on its way to your house, getting a little closer to you with each one. Eventually, the mail carrier drops it in your mailbox, which is like the client computer.  Unlike with paper mail, all this happens in the blink of an eye on the internet, although in the early days, it could take a bit longer.

Actually, in the early days of the internet, there were no webpages at all. The internet was mostly a tool for scientists to communicate with each other, and it was entirely text-based – no photographs, videos, or music. There were various computer networks in the early days. One of the first was called Arpanet, and it was created by the United States government. It had just four computers on it at first, all of them at universities or government research facilities.  These researchers used very basic tools like File Transfer Protocol to share documents, or simple email systems. 

Internet access expanded to the general public in the 1980s, but it was still far from the internet we know today. There were no viral tik tok dances, cat memes or Wikipedia. It was still used as a communication tool for people with technical knowledge. The systems they used were mostly text-based, meaning they had no graphics.

But Tim Berners-Lee and his three inventions would change everything. The early 1990s were a turning point in the development of the internet, the time when the web really began to look something like what we know today. 

Tim developed the first invention with his colleague at CERN, Robert Cailliau. The World Wide Web, or WWW, is the system used by servers — those computers where your websites are stored — to find documents on the internet. What I’m calling a “document” in this case might be a webpage, a photo, or a music or video file. In the WWW system, every document on the web has a Universal Resource Locator, or URL. That may sound like fancy techno-babble, but I’m sure you’ve seen one. It’s a web address, like www.bedtimehistorystories.com. These addresses can be used by anyone to link to any page on the internet, and they’re usually pretty easy to remember. The very first world wide web server was actually Tim’s work computer at CERN!

HTML is short for HyperText Markup Language, and it’s a computer language used to encode or “mark-up” documents so that a web browser can read and display them in a way that is easy for people to read and understand. HTML tags mark where specific elements of a document are. There are HTML tags for paragraphs, images, links, and most of the other things you would see on a webpage.  

Of course, in order to be useful for displaying web pages, HTML needed a program designed to read and display it. Tim also invented the first program to read and display HTML documents, which he called a browser. Today, there are dozens of browsers, like Chrome, Edge, and Safari, but the first one was called World Wide Web. Since CERN was not interested in paying people to develop web browsers beyond this, Tim encouraged the growing online community of web developers to volunteer their time to create a better browser. In 1993, the Mosaic browser was released by a team at the University of Illinois. Since then, this model of using volunteers from across the world has helped create many important web technologies and products. 

Finally, the managers at CERN made a decision that turned out to be very important for the future of the web: They decided to make Tim’s inventions open standards, meaning anyone could use them. This meant that people around the world could set up their own web servers and create pages using HTML, and they could link to any other webpage on the internet. Likewise, anyone in the world who had a computer and an internet connection could use a browser to view those pages. You didn’t have to be a computer scientist, or an academic, or even know what a server is. As a result, today there are:

• Almost 2 billion websites on the internet
• Almost 5 billion internet users
• Around 7 billion Google searches per day
• Around 7 billion YouTube videos viewed per day and…
• Thousands of podcasts you can listen to at any time!

Tim Berners Lee saw a system–the early internet–that had a lot of potential, and came up with ways to improve it and make it vastly more useful for people all over the world. He has won many awards for his achievements: he was knighted by the queen of England in 2013, and won a prestigious computing prize called the Turing Award. He was the key force behind the modern internet, but he also made sure that anyone with the right skills could improve the systems he developed, which is what allowed the world wide web to explode in popularity and accessibility. He has continued to work throughout his life to keep the internet a free and open system that anyone can access.

Tim is a great example of someone who was curious and used his skills to design things that would be useful to other people. He liked to tinker, which means try out new things and play around with them, until they become a useful invention. And when he did design something that was useful he didn’t keep it to himself. He found a way that people all over the world could benefit from it. Considering others is important to do in all of our actions.

We hope you enjoyed this episode about the Invention of the Internet and Tim Berners Lee and be sure to tune in next Monday for a new episode.

The post Tim Berners-Lee and the Invention of the Internet for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Have you heard of Minecraft? If so, have you ever wondered how it came to be? How is a video game made and how does it grow from its first player to millions of players all over the world? Listen closely, because today you’re going to find out.

The story of Minecraft goes back to the year 1979 in Stockholm, Sweden when a boy named Markus Persson was born. Growing up, Markus’s father had one of the early personal computers called a Commodore 128. Markus first learned how to program the computer when he was just seven years old! Programming is when you type instructions into a computer to make it do something. Markus created his first basic video game when he was eight years old. When he got older, he worked for a company programming video games for the Internet. This company was called King. In the evenings, Markus enjoyed creating his own games. Over time he shared them with friends and other people online. After playing games like Infiminer, Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper he had the idea to create a game with a blocky visual style and RPG elements. RPG means role playing game and usually means you can find loot in the game and build up your character over time. He programmed this new game in a language called Java and decided to call it Minecraft. 

In May 2009 Markus released the first version of Minecraft and shared a video of it on YouTube. He made it available online and people played it and gave him ideas about how to make it better. This is called collaboration and a great way to improve anything you create. In Minecraft players explored a 3D blocky world, mined ore and other elements and used the materials they mined to craft tools and build buildings or earthworks. One reason Minecraft was different from other games, is it allowed players to use their imagination and be creative. Similar to a toy like Lego, using Minecraft players could use the blocks to bring their imaginations to life.

A year later Markus released the next version of Minecraft. This version had new items, new blocks, new mobs (or non-player characters, or NPCs for short) and a new survival mode. At the time he was still working for someone else’s company, but eventually he left that job so he could focus all of his time and effort on making Minecraft better. He started his own video game company, hired other programmers and business-people to help their company grow, and named it Mojang. By this time millions of people had bought Minecraft and were playing it on their own and with friends. Players loved the freedom Minecraft gave them to explore the interesting and diverse worlds and use the elements within it to express themselves and be creative. In Survival Mode players crafted items and built shelters during the day, so they could protect themselves from zombie attacks at night.  

Over the next few years Markus and Mojang continued to make Minecraft better. They fixed bugs in the software (a bug is a problem in the software) and added new items and new elements that made Minecraft more fun and interesting. 

By the year 2014 Mojang had sold over 17 million copies of Minecraft and it had become one of the best selling computer games of all time. The same year Microsoft bought Minecraft and Mojang for 2.5 billion dollars! This gave Microsoft not only the game, but ownership over the intellectual property — which means they could sell or make anything using the Minecraft name. 

Microsoft continued to improve on Minecraft and also made versions for the Xbox and Playstation and a Pocket Edition for mobile devices like Android and iPhones and tablets such as the iPad.

Another reason Minecraft has become popular, is that it allows its players to modify or “mod” the game. This means if you have the idea for a new weapon or skin for your character, or a new type of block or element in the game — if you take the time to learn the coding skills, you can create whatever you want in the game. This has led to thousands and thousands of unique “mods” that players create and make available to other players. Minecraft is the way many people first learned how to write code. They were interested in “modding” Minecraft, so they read books or online articles and figured out how to do it by writing computer code. For any kids who are interested, there are many great websites out there that teach kids how to code or “mod” Minecraft.

Over the years, the Minecraft community has spread across the world. To date there are around 126 million users. Some players have become famous sharing their gameplay on YouTube and to date, Minecraft is the most watched video game on YouTube. A few of the most popular YouTubers are Stampy, PrestonPlayz, TheAtlanticCraft and Popular MMOs. But don’t be deceived that this job is an easy one. YouTubers who have gone far have spent countless hours perfecting their craft and presentation. Preparing videos to share with their fans takes many hours of focus and dedication. 

With such a huge community, Minecrafters now meet once a year for a Minecraft Convention called MineCon. At Minecon they meet at a huge convention center in different cities around the world and come together to play Minecraft, meet YouTubers, make costumes, and learn more about their favorite creative video game. The first Minecon was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. More recently, Minecon Live is streamed online so players all over the world can tune in to join in the fune, too. 

Often Minecrafters join together and work on huge worlds and creations. Looking on the Internet we found cities with hundreds of buildings, a gigantic Space Shuttle, castles from Lord of the Rings, and a Spanish Galleon. The planning and dedication to create these structures is pretty amazing if you think about it.

With its popularity, Minecraft has become more than just a video game. Now it has movies, several book series, toys, t-shirts, action figures and all types of collectibles to give its fans plenty of other mediums to experience and enjoy their favorite game world. 

Minecraft is considered one of the most important games of the last 20 years and in 2010 it was inducted into the video game hall of fame.

It’s pretty interesting to learn how things come to be, right? Often we see them or play them in the case of Minecraft and just take them for granted. But the original creator and thousands of programmers and designers and fans have put countless hours into making games like Minecraft into what they are now. Have you ever had the idea for a video game or other creation you’ve dreamed up in your imagination? If so, take the next step and use a pencil and paper to write down your ideas. Create a story and draw a few pictures of what it might look like. If you’re interested in coding there are plenty of great tools out there for kids like Scratch, CodeAcademy, Code.org and CodaKid is one of our favorites. Also, ask if your library uses Prenda Code Club. You can learn more about it at PrendaCodeClub.com. It’s actually a website I helped create, so I recommend checking it out. 

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