Wikipedia on Computer Hardware
Having installed hard drives, disc drives, cd burners, and video cards in the family's computers, it was nice to see names put to all of the devices I've been playing with over the years. The definitions of Hardware as "rarely changing" and Software "working within the hardware" was helpful in sorting out all of the definitions floating around my head.
This is an article that I will keep tagged for reference purposes.
Moore's Law article and video
Gordon Moore was obviously a visionary. His law declared that the number of transistors produced at optimal minimum cost doubles every two years, or at an exponential rate. As a result we've gone from 60 transistors to a billion transistors on a chip. Almost every measure of the capabilities of digital electronics is linked to Moore's Law.
Moore's Law has come to describe the driving force of of technological and social changes of the 20Th & 21st centuries. As more transistors fit onto a chip, the cost per transistor has gone down to the consumers. As cost of the product to the consumer has fallen, the cost to producers to fulfill Moore's law rises. This has been referred to as Moore's second law.
Moore's Law is predicted to continue for several chip generations. (about 10 years) eventually the size of the transistor will reach it's limits at the atom size. Some feel that with the event of new materials, Moore's law could continue on even longer.
An interesting point was made: The exponential improvement of hardware has not bee equalled by the exponential improvement of software.
Computer History Museum
This is a very interesting web site that I spent quite a long time in. I thought the display of transistors to visually explain Moore's Law was very good. I also like seeing all of the historical pictures of early computers and reading about the developments that each offered.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Muddiest Point Week 1
Much was said this week about the information that Libraries have and the form in which the information is shared. It was mentioned that Libraries are spending less money on actual books. Is this true in the children's and teens' departments? As an observation at our area public Libraries, money seems to have remained constant in our children's department, and been added to in the area designed for teens. Is there research that divides the Public Libraries funding by targeted age group?
Friday, August 29, 2008
Week 1 Notes
OCLC report...Content not containers:
Context is very relevant to content. It would be nice if when you searched something on Google the information was presented by context as it was in the interactive example. It would save the researcher time. However, the economic effect would be negative for the search engine that makes $ when a user accidentally clicks on an add.
Most Libraries have begun to offer digital information gathering techniques. This ability is essential to their survival. Ebooks are available in many places as are online newspapers and other visual technologies (DVDs).
Although some literary and informational materials will lend themselves nicely to digital presentation or print-on-demand, walking into a library to choose a good book and actually flip though the pages. Online research can also get confusing when one is clicking back and forth between articles.
Local, State , and Federal governments have allocated funds for various digital projects. These projects are particularly useful in the area of management and preservation. Hopefully the governments agencies to not totally turn their backs on traditional information formats, because they're not going away soon.
Clifford Lynch, "Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy..."
I. (ITL) Information technology Literacy
A. Skills
1. word processing
2. spread sheets
3. basic operations
4. most importantly a level of confidence in learning and operating software.
a. troubleshooting
b. problem solving
c. debugging
Using software to communicate information - important to both tech. and info. literacy...use of simulations.
B. Understanding how things work
1. technologies
2. systems
3. infrastructures
4. history
5. economics
6. social issues
7. public policy issues
The question is how much of this knowledge will prove useful to most people and how little will limit future understanding.
II. (IL) Information Literacy
A. People need an understanding of
1.computer's ability to edit of fabricate what was once viewed as fact
2. how searching systems work and limitations due to material not available digitally
3. How information is mapped into tech. and economic structures
B. Issues related are essential in the areas of
1. legal
2. social
3. economic
4. ethical
a. ownership of intellectual property
b. privacy authenticity, etc.
Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still
This was a very interesting article. The University of Nevada Las Vegas and it's community is blessed to have such a progressive Library. Through this article you got the feeling that a whole department of the Lied Library is dedicated just to "Keeping up" with technology.
There were several questions that I thought this article brought up. First, with all of the printing that goes on (many printers having handled over 1 mill prints) what footprint is being left on the environment? Have studies been done on this print on demand vs. borrowing books from the library vs. buying pre-printed books? I imagine that print-on-demand would be more healthy than buying, but seems less healthy than hundreds of people using the same print. Do they have a recycling program set up at the library?
Second, I think that information ownership issues would be big in this type of library. How about Copyright fees? How do authors make their living if Libraries just print as many copies as needed? is a royalty paid for each copy? Does it work like the music industry?
I also found the section about the challenge of "balancing computer use" very interesting. We have similar issues, on a much smaller level, at my house...2 adults and four children sharing 1 PC and 1 laptop. Time limits simply are not logical when someone is working on a school project...but if you're taking care of your Webkins, you may get kicked off, fair or not. Our Public Library has computers dedicated to teens only, and all computers, except the "card catalogue" computers, are accessed by the bar code on your library card. I have never used these computers myself. I did see a group of teens get "kicked off" for visiting an unacceptable site. The librarian who came and reprimanded them came out of a back room, so there must be a monitoring system in place.
My husband chuckled when I voiced this, but, if I ever get to Las Vegas, I'd really like to check out the Lied Library.
Context is very relevant to content. It would be nice if when you searched something on Google the information was presented by context as it was in the interactive example. It would save the researcher time. However, the economic effect would be negative for the search engine that makes $ when a user accidentally clicks on an add.
Most Libraries have begun to offer digital information gathering techniques. This ability is essential to their survival. Ebooks are available in many places as are online newspapers and other visual technologies (DVDs).
Although some literary and informational materials will lend themselves nicely to digital presentation or print-on-demand, walking into a library to choose a good book and actually flip though the pages. Online research can also get confusing when one is clicking back and forth between articles.
Local, State , and Federal governments have allocated funds for various digital projects. These projects are particularly useful in the area of management and preservation. Hopefully the governments agencies to not totally turn their backs on traditional information formats, because they're not going away soon.
Clifford Lynch, "Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy..."
I. (ITL) Information technology Literacy
A. Skills
1. word processing
2. spread sheets
3. basic operations
4. most importantly a level of confidence in learning and operating software.
a. troubleshooting
b. problem solving
c. debugging
Using software to communicate information - important to both tech. and info. literacy...use of simulations.
B. Understanding how things work
1. technologies
2. systems
3. infrastructures
4. history
5. economics
6. social issues
7. public policy issues
The question is how much of this knowledge will prove useful to most people and how little will limit future understanding.
II. (IL) Information Literacy
A. People need an understanding of
1.computer's ability to edit of fabricate what was once viewed as fact
2. how searching systems work and limitations due to material not available digitally
3. How information is mapped into tech. and economic structures
B. Issues related are essential in the areas of
1. legal
2. social
3. economic
4. ethical
a. ownership of intellectual property
b. privacy authenticity, etc.
Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still
This was a very interesting article. The University of Nevada Las Vegas and it's community is blessed to have such a progressive Library. Through this article you got the feeling that a whole department of the Lied Library is dedicated just to "Keeping up" with technology.
There were several questions that I thought this article brought up. First, with all of the printing that goes on (many printers having handled over 1 mill prints) what footprint is being left on the environment? Have studies been done on this print on demand vs. borrowing books from the library vs. buying pre-printed books? I imagine that print-on-demand would be more healthy than buying, but seems less healthy than hundreds of people using the same print. Do they have a recycling program set up at the library?
Second, I think that information ownership issues would be big in this type of library. How about Copyright fees? How do authors make their living if Libraries just print as many copies as needed? is a royalty paid for each copy? Does it work like the music industry?
I also found the section about the challenge of "balancing computer use" very interesting. We have similar issues, on a much smaller level, at my house...2 adults and four children sharing 1 PC and 1 laptop. Time limits simply are not logical when someone is working on a school project...but if you're taking care of your Webkins, you may get kicked off, fair or not. Our Public Library has computers dedicated to teens only, and all computers, except the "card catalogue" computers, are accessed by the bar code on your library card. I have never used these computers myself. I did see a group of teens get "kicked off" for visiting an unacceptable site. The librarian who came and reprimanded them came out of a back room, so there must be a monitoring system in place.
My husband chuckled when I voiced this, but, if I ever get to Las Vegas, I'd really like to check out the Lied Library.
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