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A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like the print mechanism on a typewriter. However, unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and arbitrary graphics can be produced. Because the printing involves mechanical pressure, these printers can create carbon copies and carbonless copies.

In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text and/or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a USB cable to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces, typically wireless and/or Ethernet based, and can serve as a hard copy device for any user on the network. Individual printers are often designed to support both local and network connected users at the same time. In addition, a few modern printers can directly interface to electronic media such as memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners; some printers are combined with a scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit, and can function as photocopiers. Printers that include non-printing features are sometimes called multifunction printers (MFP), multi-function devices (MFD), or all-in-one (AIO) printers. Most MFPs include printing, scanning, and copying among their many features.

Before the era of electronic ping pong, hungry yellow dots, plumbers, mushrooms, and fire-flowers, people waited in line to play video games at roller-skating rinks, arcades, and other hangouts. More than fifty years ago, before either arcades or home video games, visitors waited in line at Brookhaven National Laboratory to play “Tennis for Two,” an electronic tennis game that is unquestionably a forerunner of the modern video game.

Background Printing is the process of making multiple copies of an image. The image may be a picture, letters or numbers, or any combination of pictures and text. Anything that can be drawn can be printed. The invention of printing really began with the invention of paper, in China, in the year 105 AD. Once the Chinese had paper, they began to duplicate images on paper by carving the reverse of the image into a block of wood, applying ink and then pressing the paper onto the block. By the 10th century the Chinese were printing paper money for use by Chinese citizens. In 1041, individual Chinese characters were being carved in clay and assembled on wood blocks as a way of printing whole scrolls of Chinese text. These movable characters did not make a big impression on Chinese communication though — the Chinese language uses an average of 5000 characters, a lot to keep track of and move around!

Do you remember the "good old days"? When you look back, you'll think all those things were stupid. Remember that, back then, it was all high-tech material. Remember installing a program using several floppy disks?

I will try and keep this relevant to the site...If you are going to listen to anything I have to say on these pages, then you need to know a bit about me. Specifically my techy knowledge. Too many sites out there tout VERY bad information and advice, but this is normally because they haven't got a clue what they are talking about...and any idiot can register a website and give out advice! IBM XT I got my first computer at the age of 10. Actually, my parents gave the computer to my brother, my sister and myself. However, I was the only one interested in it. This was 1990 and I was living in South Africa. It was an IBM XT, with a 4.77mhz 8086 processor. It had 2 floppy drives (360kb, 5¼ inch), no harddrive, and 512kb RAM. It came with a monochrome monitor. I pulled it apart within a day just to see how it worked...my dad then pulled out the belt to see how that worked...

Hardware 1642 Mechanical Adder Blaise Pascal, Used gears, could add and subtract 1670's - Mechanical Calculator Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Could add, subtract, multiply and divide

Applications and Systems - Languages, Development and Management Artificial Intelligence and Robotics CAD, Computer Design, Graphics, Modelling and Multimedia Computer Background - History, Dictionaries, etc. Data Capture and Barcode Document Management and Groupware Electronic Publishing Electronic Commerce (including Smartcards) Enterprise Systems Internet IT Management Microprocessors, Semiconductors and Embedded Systems Networks - Hardware and Software Operating Systems Personal/User Systems - Hardware Personal/User Systems - Software Public Sector, Government, Health, Education and Legal Servers and Supercomputers - Hardware and Software Storage - Products and Management Systems and Computer Security Telecommunications, Telephony, Mobile and Wireless Computing WebSite Development, Promotion and Management

To better understand how the software world works it's important to get a clear idea of what are the origins and the strategies of each operating system and how history unfolded to make things as they are today.

Computer software is a package of specific instructions (a program) written in a defined order that tells a computer what to do and how to do it. It is the "brain" that tells the "body," or hardware, of a computer what to do. "Hardware" refers to all the visible components in a computer system: electrical connections, silicon chips, disc drives, monitor, keyboard, printer, etc. Without software, a computer can do nothing; it is only a collection of circuits and metal in a box.