Friday, August 29, 2008
The Muddiest Point - Week 1
I'd like to stray just a little to gripe about the fact that I'm still not on CourseWeb. I registered the week before the semester began (seemingly late, but still cool with LIS I guess) and have yet to receive the letter - through the olde thyme mail - that has my user name and password. This is the procedure right? I phoned and was instructed to wait for the letter ... My question to anyone that knows anything about security is this: why? Am I just being cranky for being a week behind?
Week 2 Readings - Computer Hardware
Three websites make up our readings for week two - all of which revolve around the basics of computer technology from the perspectives of hardware, capacity, and history.
Our primary readings:
1) Computer Hardware
The wikipedia entry on this topic answers very simply what is inside a computer. Shorthand lingo and abbreviations (such as SCSI or "scuzzy") and links for the specific parts are handy for learning or brushing up. For anyone curious or feeling adventurous, I also find videos that illustrate how to put together your own computer to be interesting.
(This is an olllllllld machine, but still gives you a good idea of how easy computers are assembled)
2) Moore's Law (see video here)
NERD ALERT: I think this is a really cool concept and obviously one that became indispensable in our lifetime. Imagine computer pioneers envisioning super-computers as big as houses or city blocks ... those poor suckers didn't consider the paradigm shift to micro technology. My question to the LIS group: what's the next paradigm shift? My guess involves humans manipulating space and time with a currently unused portion of our brains - then librarians will really need to find other jobs. A more serious question: do you see the need for power dwindling in computers? When I think about "bare minimum" computers, I think about internet usage as one of the(if not the) primary reasons to own a computer. Do you think internet "readers" are becoming internet "producers" in an exponentially increasing way - and thus requiring the increased power/mobility of new technology?
3) Computer History Museum
I didn't know this even existed. Now I kinda want to visit it. The resources look cool and the lover-of-old-things in me wants to start gathering up old computers and decorating my apartment with them. Obviously I expect a museum dedicated to technology to be high tech - which is why I'm curious about the lack of streaming oral histories, and other web-based or interactive web exhibits. This is wandering into archival/museum management territory (money), but that's what I thought of most while visiting this site.
Our primary readings:
1) Computer Hardware
The wikipedia entry on this topic answers very simply what is inside a computer. Shorthand lingo and abbreviations (such as SCSI or "scuzzy") and links for the specific parts are handy for learning or brushing up. For anyone curious or feeling adventurous, I also find videos that illustrate how to put together your own computer to be interesting.
(This is an olllllllld machine, but still gives you a good idea of how easy computers are assembled)
2) Moore's Law (see video here)
NERD ALERT: I think this is a really cool concept and obviously one that became indispensable in our lifetime. Imagine computer pioneers envisioning super-computers as big as houses or city blocks ... those poor suckers didn't consider the paradigm shift to micro technology. My question to the LIS group: what's the next paradigm shift? My guess involves humans manipulating space and time with a currently unused portion of our brains - then librarians will really need to find other jobs. A more serious question: do you see the need for power dwindling in computers? When I think about "bare minimum" computers, I think about internet usage as one of the(if not the) primary reasons to own a computer. Do you think internet "readers" are becoming internet "producers" in an exponentially increasing way - and thus requiring the increased power/mobility of new technology?
3) Computer History Museum
I didn't know this even existed. Now I kinda want to visit it. The resources look cool and the lover-of-old-things in me wants to start gathering up old computers and decorating my apartment with them. Obviously I expect a museum dedicated to technology to be high tech - which is why I'm curious about the lack of streaming oral histories, and other web-based or interactive web exhibits. This is wandering into archival/museum management territory (money), but that's what I thought of most while visiting this site.
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