Computer once meant a person who did computations, but now the term almost universally refers to automated electronic machinery. So, today the term computer refers to machine for manipulating data according to a list of instructions. The ability to store and execute programs makes computers extremely versatile and distinguishes them from calculators. The Church-Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: Any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, computers with capability and complexity ranging from that of a personal digital assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks as long as time and storage capacity are not considerations.

Computers take many physical forms. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers. Today, computers can be made small enough to fit into a wrist watch and be powered from a watch battery. Society has come to recognize personal computers and their portable equivalent, the laptop computer, as icons of the information age; they are what most people think of as "a computer". However, the most common form of computer in use today is by far the embedded computer. Embedded computers are small, simple devices that are often used to control other devices-for example, they may be found in machines ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital cameras, and even children's toys.

An internet is a group of networks connected together. The Internet (note the capital "I") is a network of computer networks which operates world-wide using a common set of communications protocols (TCP/IP protocols). It started with four interconnected computers in 1969 and was known as ARPAnet.

Today, the Internet is a collection of packet-switching networks and routers that uses the TCP/IP protocol suit and functions as a single, cooperative virtual network - a global web, connecting more than one million computers. It is made up of thousands of smaller commercial, academic, domestic and government networks. It carries various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat and the interlinked web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.

In our Best Web Resources Directory, we have the following categories of Computers & Internet: Hardware, Internet, Marketing, Other, Search Engine Optimization, Services, Software, Web Design, Web Directories, Web Hosting.