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PBS: Crash Course: Computer Science

Last updated: June 25, 2022

PBS created a really great crash course for Computer Science. It’s in a fun ‘show’ type format and it’s hosted by the wonderful Carrie Anne Philbin.

True to anything ‘Computer Science’ – the webpage is really hard to use. Everything is in backward order.

Not sure if they were rushing her… but she talks really fast! It’s an onslaught of amazing information – but we thought we should organize the series a bit for you so that you could ingest it properly.

Experiment with .75 speed in the video player. It feels a tiny bit unnatural – but the pace might work out better for you. (It did for us). Ok. Here’s the list in order:
  1. Early computing
    1. Overview of what the show is about
    2. How computing has changed our lives
    3. Compares computing to the industrial revolution
    4. Carrie LOVES Computer Science!
    5. Computing’s origins
      1. Abacus
      2. …
  2. Electronic computing
    1. The first half of the 20th century sees the world’s population almost double
    2. Global trade networks grow – and we eve think about visiting other planets.
    3. Describes “relays”
    4. Complex operations took over a minute at the time
    5. The relays would break
    6. 1942 found a moth in the computer (origin of the term ‘bug’)
    7. Vacuum tubes (1904) solve this… continues to an option with no moving parts
    8. Marks shift from electro-mechanic computing to electronic computing
    9. 1947 brings the “transistor” / and leads to the “semi-conductor” 1000 times per second
  3. Boolean logic and logic gates
  4. Binary
    1. ..
  5. Arithmetic and logic unit
    1. …
  6. Registers and Ram
    1. .
  7. CPU and clock speed
    1. .
  8. Instructions and programs
  9. Advanced CPU designs
    1. .
  10. Early programming
    1. .
  11. Programming languages
    1. .
  12. Statements and functions
    1. ..
  13. missing ?
  14. Data structures
    1. .
  15. Alan Turing
    1. ..
  16. Software engineering
    1. ..
  17. Integrated circuits
    1. …
  18. Operating Systems
    1. .
  19. Memory and storage
    1. .
  20. File systems
    1. .
  21. Compression
    1. .
  22. Command-Line Interfaces
    1. .
  23. Screens and 2D graphics
    1. .
  24. Cold War and consumerism
    1. .
  25. Personal Computer revolution
    1. .
  26. Graphical User Interface
    1. .
  27. 3D graphics
    1. .
  28. Computer Networks
    1. .
  29. The Internet
    1. .
  30. World Wide Web
    1. .
  31. Cybersecurity
    1. .
  32. Hackers
    1. .
  33. Cryptography
    1. .
  34. Machine learning
    1. .
  35. Computer vision
    1. .
  36. Natural language processing
    1. .
  37. Robotics
    1. .
  38. Psychology
    1. .
  39. Ed Tech
    1. .
  40. Future
    1. .
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