-
Quicksort Algorithm
In 1960 C.A.R. Hoare invented a quick sort algorithm that was so novel that it earned him a knighthood. It sounds to be the precursor to programs like Excel that are so widely used in business today that being able to write basic formulas is just considered a mandatory quality for most roles. -
Timesharing communities
In 1961 timesharing communities began appearing at universities, military installations, and banks. While not the internet as we understand it today, these communities did allow for dozens of people to connect online. They are credited as having created email, chat, and file sharing. Functions everyone with a computer has used in some capacity today. While Al Gore didn't actually invent these communities, he felt like a fun and funny image to attach. -
First video game
In 1962, in an attempt to display the capabilities of a DEC PDP-1 computer, three students at MIT create a game called Spacewar! that was based on a series of popular science fiction novels. The attached image is a screenshot from that game. -
LOGO Programming Language
By 1967 computers appeared to have enough staying power that an MIT professor named Seymour Papert create a programming language specifically designed for children. The initial program allowed for commands to be given to a mechanical turtle. Of course this wasn't the first programming language and scads more have been created. But this appears to be the first instance where there was an attempt to open computing to everyone. -
Floppy Disk
In 1968 the very first means of physically transferring data was created in the form of the IBM Minnow. The disk could not be written to. But it could be shared amongst peers using several different computer models. It would be another five years before a floppy with both read and write capabilities would be created. This initial disk held only 80 kilobytes of data. Today, we can cheaply purchase portable drives that hold multiple terabytes of data.