Information Systems and Technology Paper

Information Systems and Technologies Paper

Leslie Mayorca

University of Phoenix

CIS 319

Levita Goodwin

June 27, 2008

Information Systems and Technologies Paper

From as far back as I can remember I never thought that we, people/individuals, would own a computer and have it sitting on a desk at home. Only the government, airlines, banks, manufacturing companies and Disney, for example, could have a computer, well that’s what my childish mind believed then.

I remember how bulky computer based information systems used to be back in the day. One needed a very big, air-conditioned room(s) to store and run the computers. They were bigger than a person, slow, and the backup was done on these huge reels. As the years passed the computers started getting smaller, faster and could perform many tasks while processing information inputted by several people at the same time. Backups are now done on very small tapes that hold 1000 times more information than they did 20 years ago. The CPU is much smaller in size that could be on top of ones desk and under the screen or under the desk taking up minimal space.

I am not afraid or intimidated by computers and the first time I used one I felt special, why, because I felt I was trusted enough to input information and use it. This was at the oil company where my father worked. The company offered summer jobs for their employee’s children. At 17 years old I was the Administrative Assistant to the purchasing department. I used a telefax machine, some people might know this machine by other names like teleprinter or teletypewriter, this is where you sat down at a huge machine that looks like a commercial copier but uglier, and typed up messages, purchase orders and replies onto a strip of paper and sent it on to different cities. When the other offices would reply, I would take the tape and feed it somewhere in the machine so the message would come out onto a piece of paper. Today everyone uses a fax machine, which...