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Sunday, November 16, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
reading notes: week 11
-Mischo: Digital Libraries: This article is about how some digital libraries went from being libraries that offered some digital resources to libraries that had full digital services, through the DLI, or digital library initiative. Some programs were federally supported when they began to digitize, including six major universities. Many of the new technologies created by these digital projects are still used and evolving today. Some of these also considered federating, or sharing their digital materials.
-Paepcke et al: Dewey meets the Turing: this article is also about the digital library initiative, and starts out by stating that it was a joining of librations and computer scientists. Computer scientists wanted to make research easier and make libraries closer to home. Librarians wanted to make sure they continued to be a part of scholarly work, and the initiative allowed the funds and the means to achieve this. It was important in the end that while many of the libraries technologies changed, the core values stayed the same. This was an important part of the article to me, it showed how a field could grow and improve with technology, but still hold on to what made the field important.
-Lynch: Institutional Repositories: This article is about digital repositories of information, and how these have changed the way scholars share information and communicate. Many of these are held in universities, and were created to hold information in digital form for scholars. This article talked about the institutional pressures and politics behind whether or not to have the repositories, and the futre of what these might bring to the scholarly world.
-Paepcke et al: Dewey meets the Turing: this article is also about the digital library initiative, and starts out by stating that it was a joining of librations and computer scientists. Computer scientists wanted to make research easier and make libraries closer to home. Librarians wanted to make sure they continued to be a part of scholarly work, and the initiative allowed the funds and the means to achieve this. It was important in the end that while many of the libraries technologies changed, the core values stayed the same. This was an important part of the article to me, it showed how a field could grow and improve with technology, but still hold on to what made the field important.
-Lynch: Institutional Repositories: This article is about digital repositories of information, and how these have changed the way scholars share information and communicate. Many of these are held in universities, and were created to hold information in digital form for scholars. This article talked about the institutional pressures and politics behind whether or not to have the repositories, and the futre of what these might bring to the scholarly world.
Muddiest Point- week 10
What is the difference between controlled vocabulary and thesaurus vocabulary when you are making an index? Are these the same thing, and how do they relate?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Reading Notes- week 10
-Search Engines, Part 1, David Hawking: This site was easy to understand and it gave a basic overview of what web-searching is, and how it is done. It starts by explaining how data centers are clusters of computers; the computers have to be clustered together because there is too much information to search through for only one computer alone. These computers are called crawlers; they crawl to gather the information. They can check for blocked pages, duplicated pages, or spam pages (pages that use one or more false keywords to gain more popularity).
-Part 2: Part two goes on where part one leaves off. It explains that there is such a large scale of documents and words to search; they scale these down to search more than one at once. There are more searchable terms than in existence than words in the English language, because web-searchers search for words in many languages, both real and made up words or acronyms. Phrases can be searched for, but they are often subdivided to allow for the results to come up faster. Web searching tools can rate pages by the number of links that lead to a certain page. Pages with a lot of links going to them are more popular.
-Shreeves, S. L., Habing, T. O., Hagedorn, K., & Young, J. A., Current Developments:
This article is about a protocol by the OAI, open archives initiative, to harvest metadata. The initiate was started two years before this article was written, and this article is a response to how the metadata collection has improved and progressed. It also comments on some future work the initiative would like to complete to advance the collecting they are now doing
-Bergman: This page by Bergman was about the deep web. I found this interesting to read about, because it explained that web searching tools are often only searching the surface of the web. The deep web consists of about 500 times the amount of information that is usually brought up through normal web searching. The deep web has information that might be usable and important, but it is not often seen. This article also made an effort to break down what types of information (such as news) is being lost in the deep-web. This article was interesting, because it introduced me to some information I did not know about before, I did not know that most search engines do not search the deep web.
-Part 2: Part two goes on where part one leaves off. It explains that there is such a large scale of documents and words to search; they scale these down to search more than one at once. There are more searchable terms than in existence than words in the English language, because web-searchers search for words in many languages, both real and made up words or acronyms. Phrases can be searched for, but they are often subdivided to allow for the results to come up faster. Web searching tools can rate pages by the number of links that lead to a certain page. Pages with a lot of links going to them are more popular.
-Shreeves, S. L., Habing, T. O., Hagedorn, K., & Young, J. A., Current Developments:
This article is about a protocol by the OAI, open archives initiative, to harvest metadata. The initiate was started two years before this article was written, and this article is a response to how the metadata collection has improved and progressed. It also comments on some future work the initiative would like to complete to advance the collecting they are now doing
-Bergman: This page by Bergman was about the deep web. I found this interesting to read about, because it explained that web searching tools are often only searching the surface of the web. The deep web consists of about 500 times the amount of information that is usually brought up through normal web searching. The deep web has information that might be usable and important, but it is not often seen. This article also made an effort to break down what types of information (such as news) is being lost in the deep-web. This article was interesting, because it introduced me to some information I did not know about before, I did not know that most search engines do not search the deep web.
muddiest point-week 9
What parts of SGML were changed to make it into XML, and why did this make it so much better? XML is easier to use, but in what ways?
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Reading notes- Week 9
-Intro to XML: Martin Bryan: I found this article to be kind of confusing. It is about XML, which stands for extensible markup language. XML has many elements which help improve it over other markup languages. The DTD it uses makes it so you cannot put the text in out of order. It contains documents composed of logical elements, and attributes which describe how the elements should be processed.
XML Standards: Uche Ogbuji: This article was even more confusing than the last one. It contains many tutorial links and definitions for different XML terms. The term definitions were not very clear, maybe because I do not yet have a complete base knowledge of XML or other markup languages.
XML Tutorial: Andre Bergholz: This article was the easiest to read through and understand. I understood more about XML from this article than from the other two. XML markup is easier for humans to read and for computers to process. It uses DTD, which works like syntax in a sentence, to make it more readable and not out of order. There is something used called namespaces which act like name tags. These make sure that no two elements have the same name, which would screw up the code. XML allows for more semantic management of information than other code languages do, which makes it more user-friendly.
XML schema tutorial: XML scheme works like DTD, it provides the “building blocks” of the language. It defines elements and attributes. But it is also seen to be easier to use and better than DTD. It allows for future additions, supports namespaces, and is written in XML. The author of this article believes that this will soon be used more than DTD and is more useful.
XML Standards: Uche Ogbuji: This article was even more confusing than the last one. It contains many tutorial links and definitions for different XML terms. The term definitions were not very clear, maybe because I do not yet have a complete base knowledge of XML or other markup languages.
XML Tutorial: Andre Bergholz: This article was the easiest to read through and understand. I understood more about XML from this article than from the other two. XML markup is easier for humans to read and for computers to process. It uses DTD, which works like syntax in a sentence, to make it more readable and not out of order. There is something used called namespaces which act like name tags. These make sure that no two elements have the same name, which would screw up the code. XML allows for more semantic management of information than other code languages do, which makes it more user-friendly.
XML schema tutorial: XML scheme works like DTD, it provides the “building blocks” of the language. It defines elements and attributes. But it is also seen to be easier to use and better than DTD. It allows for future additions, supports namespaces, and is written in XML. The author of this article believes that this will soon be used more than DTD and is more useful.
Muddiest Point- Week 8
In last week's muddiest point I asked about fast-track weekend, and I am asking again today. I am a fast-track student, and I have another class scheduled to meet at the same time on Saturday the 1st. I don't know exactly what I should do. The other class is LIS 2332. I know that LIS2600 is taping the same class on wednesday, and 2332 is not taping the class. If you had any advise that would be great.
A class related muddiest point i have is about metadata. I know that metadata can be written in HTML, but when it is in a webpage it does not show the mark-up. How can metadata and the mark-up about it be shared if the mark-up is not seen on the web?
A class related muddiest point i have is about metadata. I know that metadata can be written in HTML, but when it is in a webpage it does not show the mark-up. How can metadata and the mark-up about it be shared if the mark-up is not seen on the web?
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Reading notes- week 8
Reading notes week 8:
-HTML Tutorial:
In this tutorial, it starts by simply explaining what HTML means (Hyper Text Markup language) From here it has you do a simple exercise in Notepad, in which you write in HTML language, save the document, then open this same document in your internet browser. By doing this I learned the very very basics of how a webpage is made. I found this activity to be simple, yet it gave me an understanding of something I never knew how to do before, it also made me wonder how much more complex WebPages are made.
-HTML Cheat Sheet:
This article was a collection of HTML “Cheats”, or commonly used html markups that allow you to do many things with your webpage, including change colors, make links, change the size or style of the text, and make menus. This site answered a few questions I had from the previous article, by giving me the shortcuts to make slightly more complicated web-pages.
-CSS Tutorial:
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Styles are how an HTML page is displayed, and multiple styles can cascade into one. I was honestly not totally sure what all this meant at the end of the page, except that using this can save time and allow you to make multiple pages at once in the same style. I am still a little confused as to how to really use this and what it really means.
-Beyond HTML: Goans, Leach and Vogel
This article starts by explaining that the Georgia State University library had used a Front-Page web site to make library subject guides. There were very few guidelines, and there were 15 people working on this project. Because of the diversity of the people involved, and the lack of structure, the WebPages ended up looking very different, and being very hard to use from one to the next. There needed to be a way that course materials, including books, databases, journals and websites could be accessed. They thought that they should use a CMS, or content management system, instead of allowing those making the pages to simply use their own html. Some libraries use CMS to make updating the pages easier, while others use it to control a situation like Georgia State had: with too many differences from contributors. CMS systems have to be created, whether through open source or purchased software, or by having someone in the library create it. In the end, the transfer to CMS was smooth, and helped to organize the library.
-HTML Tutorial:
In this tutorial, it starts by simply explaining what HTML means (Hyper Text Markup language) From here it has you do a simple exercise in Notepad, in which you write in HTML language, save the document, then open this same document in your internet browser. By doing this I learned the very very basics of how a webpage is made. I found this activity to be simple, yet it gave me an understanding of something I never knew how to do before, it also made me wonder how much more complex WebPages are made.
-HTML Cheat Sheet:
This article was a collection of HTML “Cheats”, or commonly used html markups that allow you to do many things with your webpage, including change colors, make links, change the size or style of the text, and make menus. This site answered a few questions I had from the previous article, by giving me the shortcuts to make slightly more complicated web-pages.
-CSS Tutorial:
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Styles are how an HTML page is displayed, and multiple styles can cascade into one. I was honestly not totally sure what all this meant at the end of the page, except that using this can save time and allow you to make multiple pages at once in the same style. I am still a little confused as to how to really use this and what it really means.
-Beyond HTML: Goans, Leach and Vogel
This article starts by explaining that the Georgia State University library had used a Front-Page web site to make library subject guides. There were very few guidelines, and there were 15 people working on this project. Because of the diversity of the people involved, and the lack of structure, the WebPages ended up looking very different, and being very hard to use from one to the next. There needed to be a way that course materials, including books, databases, journals and websites could be accessed. They thought that they should use a CMS, or content management system, instead of allowing those making the pages to simply use their own html. Some libraries use CMS to make updating the pages easier, while others use it to control a situation like Georgia State had: with too many differences from contributors. CMS systems have to be created, whether through open source or purchased software, or by having someone in the library create it. In the end, the transfer to CMS was smooth, and helped to organize the library.
Muddiest Point week 7
I am wondering if the lecture taking place duing fast-track weekend will be taped?
Do Bluetooth devices have IP addresses, or any similar type of identifyer?
Do Bluetooth devices have IP addresses, or any similar type of identifyer?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Assignment 4- Jing
Jing Video on screencast:
http://www.screencast.com/users/KMGrubeLacroix/folders/Jing/media/9725c085-b948-4562-a5e7-5cf0ed10dd8f
Jing images in flickr:
Image 1:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2919728147/
Image 2:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2919735637/
Image 3:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2920594782/
Image 4:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2920615648/
Image 5:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2920638638/
http://www.screencast.com/users/KMGrubeLacroix/folders/Jing/media/9725c085-b948-4562-a5e7-5cf0ed10dd8f
Jing images in flickr:
Image 1:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2919728147/
Image 2:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2919735637/
Image 3:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2920594782/
Image 4:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2920615648/
Image 5:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30457213@N07/2920638638/
Monday, October 6, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Reading Notes- week 7
-Jeff Tyson, from How Stuff Works: This page is about how the internet works, and it explains some important parts of it. The internet is not owned by anyone, it is a network of global connections all joined together. While the internet itself is not owned, to get to it most people must sign up to use an ISP, or internet service provider, and pay a fee to use this service. Routers help to increase how fast your computer can go from one page to another. I never through about the fact that routers are computers, I knew they existed, but I never questioned directly what they were and what they did. I had heard of IP addresses before, and knew that each computer has its own unique IP address while connected to the internet. Two terms I had heard before but never knew what they meant are URL, and HTTP. These were both explained well in this article. A URL is a uniform resource locator, and it is the common name used for a website. HTTP is a hypertext transfer protocol; this was a little less clear to me exactly what it is and what it does.
-Andrew Pace- ILS: This article is about how libraries everywhere have to change and update their existing Integrated Library Systems. The reason for this is that they need newer technology to better serve their patrons both in the library and across the web. There has been some competition between the soft wear companies for this, competing to be the new popular ILS. The better systems cost more money, and open-source is not the best answer. There is still a search in libraries to fin the best new ILS.
-Google Video, Brin and Page: This video was very informative and also very funny. They explained how Google is constantly expanding, and how it is a global service in many different languages. Google funds their searched through advertisements, not by charging people to search. They also explained how many of the new programs from Google are created in their soft wear engineer’s spare time are small projects, or googlettes (blogger.com was one of these!). I found this video to be very interesting, since I use Google often, I liked seeing the people behind this site and hearing what they had to say about it.
-Andrew Pace- ILS: This article is about how libraries everywhere have to change and update their existing Integrated Library Systems. The reason for this is that they need newer technology to better serve their patrons both in the library and across the web. There has been some competition between the soft wear companies for this, competing to be the new popular ILS. The better systems cost more money, and open-source is not the best answer. There is still a search in libraries to fin the best new ILS.
-Google Video, Brin and Page: This video was very informative and also very funny. They explained how Google is constantly expanding, and how it is a global service in many different languages. Google funds their searched through advertisements, not by charging people to search. They also explained how many of the new programs from Google are created in their soft wear engineer’s spare time are small projects, or googlettes (blogger.com was one of these!). I found this video to be very interesting, since I use Google often, I liked seeing the people behind this site and hearing what they had to say about it.
muddiest point week 6
In networks, How many computers use dial-up, how many use cable, and how many use DSL? Is there a difference between how my computer (using roadrunner) communicates with a computer using DSL or dial-up? Can my computer "know" what other computers in a network use?
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Assignment 3- Personal Bibliography
http://www.citeulike.org/user/KGrubeLacroix
-My three topics were Digital Libraries, Academic Libraries, and Medical Libraries.
-My articles are labeled "Project3googlescholar" for the ones from Zotero and Google scholar; and "Project3citeulike" for the ones I found on CiteULike.
-My three topics were Digital Libraries, Academic Libraries, and Medical Libraries.
-My articles are labeled "Project3googlescholar" for the ones from Zotero and Google scholar; and "Project3citeulike" for the ones I found on CiteULike.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Reading notes- week 6
-Computer Networks: The first two readings this week, (and the video), were all about computer networks. Computer networks can vary in size from a personal computer and printer for one person, all they way to the internet, with every size in between. Smaller networks can be connected through Ethernet cables or wireless. The meaning of the word network in a group of interconnected computers. It thought it was very interesting to see that the biggest form of network is called an internet, which is where the Internet got its name. I also was surprised to learn that the Internet is the "back-bone" of the World Wide Web, but it is not the same thing (I always through these were the same thing, and that the words could be used interchangeably). The article about LAN gave a more detailed description about what a local area network is. This is a computer network confined to one building. These were originally created in the 1980's so computers at the same business could share disk space and laser printers, both of which were very expensive at the time, and it made a lot of sense to share these. The video from You-Tube reminded me of last week's class when using You-Tube as an education tool in a library was discussed. This was a very easy to understand video about networks, and it explained very well what different types of networks exist, and how they are classified by size.
-Karen Coyle, RFID: The last reading we had this week was about the RFID. This is a device that is similar to barcode, because it is used to identify things. It is very different from barcodes, because it is read by an electromagnetic field, not by a laser. RFID chips are used in many things, from highway toll systems to lost pet IDs. These are different from barcodes, because they don’t have to be visibly scanned to be read, they can be scanned in multiples, can they could be used as a security device for libraries. This system is not used readily in Libraries yet, but Coyle anticipates that there may come a day when they are the only book id device used in libraries. I am not sure if this would be a good or bad technology for libraries to adopt. Much of what the RFID can do seemed like it would be helpful, but there were also many negative things listed, such as privacy issues. Over all, I am not sure which system would be best for libraries, the old barcode system, or the new RFID system.
muddiest point- week 5
Is the process of transmission of photos the same for transmission of videos? They are different storaged formats, so are they transmitted differently, or is it basically the same way?
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Readings- week 5
-Data compression: The wikipedia reading was about the basic information behind what data compression is and why it is used. Data compression is compressing information or objects so they use less space (bits), and take less time to send. The person who is compressing and sending the information and the person receiving and decompressing the information must have the same encoding scheme. Once data is compressed, it must be decompressed to be accessed, and this can take time based on the type of file, especially a video. The second reading was very in-depth about what data compression is, what types of compression are available, and how it all works. This reading took some time to get through, and I am still not sure I fully understand. Lossless data compressing is a form of data compression in which the data is fully reconstructed when it is decompressed. Lossy data compression is when some aspects of the data is combined, and may not be able to be exactly the same when decompressed. The past about video compression said that videos are just sequential pictures, they can be compressed in a similar way as pictures, it just is more complicated.
-Galloway: This article was about a digital image collection where all the pictures center around Pittsburgh. The University of Pittsburgh received a grant to digitize many historical photos of Pittsburgh. I think this is a great idea, because it allows more people to access this material. This was one of the main reasons for this project, to bring these images to the public. One part of the article stated that, “metadata is the glue that holds this collection together.” They used the Microsoft Access database management system. I thought this article was interesting, because it had a lot to do with some of the things talked about in last week’s class. It also showed how digitization can be used in libraries and archives.
-Webb: This article is about how YouTube, the popular online video website, could be used to enhance libraries. YouTube is a free site that is easy to sign up for, and that anyone can use. Webb suggests that libraries could make short videos about their available sources, and post them on YouTube, with links to these videos on the library web page. This would allow Library patrons to see these videos from anywhere. This is one way that a website that is very popular could be used for educational purposes in a library.
-Galloway: This article was about a digital image collection where all the pictures center around Pittsburgh. The University of Pittsburgh received a grant to digitize many historical photos of Pittsburgh. I think this is a great idea, because it allows more people to access this material. This was one of the main reasons for this project, to bring these images to the public. One part of the article stated that, “metadata is the glue that holds this collection together.” They used the Microsoft Access database management system. I thought this article was interesting, because it had a lot to do with some of the things talked about in last week’s class. It also showed how digitization can be used in libraries and archives.
-Webb: This article is about how YouTube, the popular online video website, could be used to enhance libraries. YouTube is a free site that is easy to sign up for, and that anyone can use. Webb suggests that libraries could make short videos about their available sources, and post them on YouTube, with links to these videos on the library web page. This would allow Library patrons to see these videos from anywhere. This is one way that a website that is very popular could be used for educational purposes in a library.
muddiest points- week 4
What is the difference between a table database and a computer file system?
Metadata seemed to be a big topic with a lot of information, I am still not sure who creates metadata.
Metadata seemed to be a big topic with a lot of information, I am still not sure who creates metadata.
Monday, September 15, 2008
comments- week 4
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=954478916342085840&postID=8926795329366757846&page=1
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1129785935180596689&postID=4086771496713033579&page=1
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4619180577856147392&postID=6564099702343520457&page=1
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7533952523781723717&postID=8784500798835554061&page=1
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1129785935180596689&postID=4086771496713033579&page=1
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4619180577856147392&postID=6564099702343520457&page=1
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7533952523781723717&postID=8784500798835554061&page=1
Friday, September 12, 2008
readings for week 4
The first article was about databases. I had no idea that databases have been around since the 1960’s. Databases are collections or records or data on a computer system. I never knew there was more than one type of database models. The hierarchical model makes sense to me as an organizing model, with every record relating to the one above it. The network model seemed like it might be the easiest to use, and it seemed to be the most flexible. In this model, records can relate to one-another, files can belong to multiple sets, and have multiple “parents. This made the most sense to me, because it allows larger, more diverse groups of files to exist separately from smaller groups, they don’t all have to be on levels. The relational model was very well organized, and seemed to me to be like a spreadsheet, because in this model there are columns and rows. I thought it was interesting also that databases are full of security, which is very important in our world today, these securities, such as encryption may prevent hackers from stealing personal information.
The article by Anne Gilliland was all about metadata, which is the data about data. This is a term used by information professionals, and can be referring to indexes, abstracts, bibliographies, and cataloging records. One important thing about metadata is content, which is the object it is about. The context of metadata is also important, it indicates the data’s importance regarding who, what where or how. These two are combined to make the structure of the metadata. I thought one thing that was important is that metadata does not have to be digital. One form of metadata that existed before the digital age is bibliographies.
The article on Dublin Core would not load on my computer, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, and found some information about it. The Dublin Core Model was founded in Dublin, Ohio, at an OCLC convention. Dublin core uses XML, which is a type of database model. The Dublin Core model makes it easier to find things on the web, because it describes them in an easier to use language. The “Core” is an element of a database.
The article by Anne Gilliland was all about metadata, which is the data about data. This is a term used by information professionals, and can be referring to indexes, abstracts, bibliographies, and cataloging records. One important thing about metadata is content, which is the object it is about. The context of metadata is also important, it indicates the data’s importance regarding who, what where or how. These two are combined to make the structure of the metadata. I thought one thing that was important is that metadata does not have to be digital. One form of metadata that existed before the digital age is bibliographies.
The article on Dublin Core would not load on my computer, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, and found some information about it. The Dublin Core Model was founded in Dublin, Ohio, at an OCLC convention. Dublin core uses XML, which is a type of database model. The Dublin Core model makes it easier to find things on the web, because it describes them in an easier to use language. The “Core” is an element of a database.
Muddiest point- week 3
I was unclear as to whether de-fragmenting the system was mainly to fix or improve software, or if it affected the hardware.
I am not fully sure what the difference between free-ware and open source software is. (Is it that one can be edited and one cannot?)
One other thing I would like to mention, I am not sure if it was just me, but the Panopto for this week seemed to be slightly off. The slides did not match up to the video, they were about 10 minutes ahead of the video of class. This made it hard to follow the slides and the video.
I am not fully sure what the difference between free-ware and open source software is. (Is it that one can be edited and one cannot?)
One other thing I would like to mention, I am not sure if it was just me, but the Panopto for this week seemed to be slightly off. The slides did not match up to the video, they were about 10 minutes ahead of the video of class. This made it hard to follow the slides and the video.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Readings for week 3
These readings were all about computer operating systems. I personally have a Windows operating system, using XP. I have not switched over to Vista, and I have heard that there are problems with Vista. The website from this week's reading about Windows confirmed that Vista does have some problems. Windows has been the most popular operating system for years, but, as the website said, the release of Vista was very ambitious. The operating system changed many things, some of which were changed so much that older programs can no longer be used with Vista.
The websites about Mac OS X were very interesting. The first one was very hard to follow for me, since I know very little about computer programming. The wikipedia site helped me understand a bit better what the first site was about. I have always liked Macs, but never have owned one. When I bought my last computer, I debated about whether to get a Mac or PC, and I chose a PC. My sister got a Mac, and I think she made a good choice. Mac's operating system is easy to use, has very good graphics, and does not have problems with spyware. I think the next computer I get, whenever that ends up being, will be a Mac.
I thought the website about the Linux operating system was very informative. I didn't know very much about Linux before reading this information. I thought it was great that Linux is free! Linux is based on a UNIX system, and is written in C-programming language. Linux was, and still is, created by many people, it can be constantly updated, and runs without needing to reboot. All of this sounded good to me, except the website went on to say that Linux is not very user-friendly for new users, and that there are so many distributors it can be hard to know which to choose. I do not think that I will choose to switch to Linux, but I am glad I was able to learn that there is another option out there, which I knew very little about before.
The websites about Mac OS X were very interesting. The first one was very hard to follow for me, since I know very little about computer programming. The wikipedia site helped me understand a bit better what the first site was about. I have always liked Macs, but never have owned one. When I bought my last computer, I debated about whether to get a Mac or PC, and I chose a PC. My sister got a Mac, and I think she made a good choice. Mac's operating system is easy to use, has very good graphics, and does not have problems with spyware. I think the next computer I get, whenever that ends up being, will be a Mac.
I thought the website about the Linux operating system was very informative. I didn't know very much about Linux before reading this information. I thought it was great that Linux is free! Linux is based on a UNIX system, and is written in C-programming language. Linux was, and still is, created by many people, it can be constantly updated, and runs without needing to reboot. All of this sounded good to me, except the website went on to say that Linux is not very user-friendly for new users, and that there are so many distributors it can be hard to know which to choose. I do not think that I will choose to switch to Linux, but I am glad I was able to learn that there is another option out there, which I knew very little about before.
muddiest point week 2
I was a little confused about storage hierarchy. I was not too sure what was meant by small (fast) places and large(slow places).
Monday, September 1, 2008
Comments- assignment 1
week 1 readings
OCLC: This article is about the shift from consumers purchasing content with containers, to purchasing content alone. Containers are anything that holds information, such as a book, CD or DVD. Content is the information held in these. Consumers are more and more often purchasing the content alone, such as in e-books, or by paying 99cents for a song from Itunes. Miriam Williams, of the ALA, stated that it may get to the point that information becomes a commodity where nothing is free; she stated that one day we may pay 25 cents for a sentence. Blogs and wikis, which are user edited information forums, are also becoming more popular. These are created and edited by consumers and are usually free to access. Information is becoming a commodity in which almost nothing is free. I found this article to be very interesting; it had a lot to do with how libraries are evolving, and how they will probably be in the future.
Clifford Lynch: This article was written in 1998, but it had a lot to do with how technology is changing, and a lot of what it covered and predicted seems to be true still today. Lynch theorizes that information literacy will be essential, “for people to succeed in all walks of life.” This is certainly true, and will become even more so as time goes by.
Lied Library: This article, in my opinion, was very detailed; it had its interesting points, but a lot of it was very drawn out. I found it interesting that this library had to replace all of its computers within the four years since opening, to stay current in today’s technological world, and since this article was written, the computers may have been replaced again. In the Lied Library, there is a lot of money spent on everything, from staff, computers, security, and even a new air conditioner. This library is at the fore-front of technology, and because of this money must be spent to maintain this technology. I found it interesting that very little mention was made of books or journals available in paper-form. This article was solely about the technological aspects of the library, though being such a large library there must be an equally large book and journal collection.
Clifford Lynch: This article was written in 1998, but it had a lot to do with how technology is changing, and a lot of what it covered and predicted seems to be true still today. Lynch theorizes that information literacy will be essential, “for people to succeed in all walks of life.” This is certainly true, and will become even more so as time goes by.
Lied Library: This article, in my opinion, was very detailed; it had its interesting points, but a lot of it was very drawn out. I found it interesting that this library had to replace all of its computers within the four years since opening, to stay current in today’s technological world, and since this article was written, the computers may have been replaced again. In the Lied Library, there is a lot of money spent on everything, from staff, computers, security, and even a new air conditioner. This library is at the fore-front of technology, and because of this money must be spent to maintain this technology. I found it interesting that very little mention was made of books or journals available in paper-form. This article was solely about the technological aspects of the library, though being such a large library there must be an equally large book and journal collection.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Readings for week 2
-Computer hardware (Article from Wikipedia): This Wikipedia page gives an overview of what computer hardware is, and what it contains. It also gives a brief definition for acronyms such as RAM (Random access memory) and CPU (central processing unit). This page was useful to me, because before this I didn’t know much about what went into a computer to make it work. Before reading this I thought I knew what hardware was, but I really didn’t know everything that can be considered part of hardware. For instance, I would not have thought that the fans and case (tower) were hardware; I thought hardware was mainly the RAM and CPU (though I wasn’t sure what those were either).
-Moore’s Law (Article from Wikipedia and video): This law states that in computers, the transistors that make up the circuits can be made smaller in a way that they can be doubled approximately every 2 years. In other words, computers become more and more powerful, yet smaller for about the same cost, and the rate that they do this doubles every two years. It is said that this is exponentially increasing. The video stated that this will stop increasing in about 10 years, because the transistors would have become so small that they no longer work, yet the Wikipedia article stated that Moore’s law would remain true until processors are so small they are on a molecular scale. (Are these the same two end points or different?) While hardware gets faster and smaller every two years, software is not increasing at the same levels, so computers do not seem to be as fast as they are.
-Computer History Museum (website): One thing I found interesting about the computer history museum site was the pictured of processing chips they had under the section called “The Silicone Engine.” These were interesting because they were a picture of Moore’s Law. They showed how many more transistors microchips have each decade, from 1 transistor in the 1950’s up to 592,000,000 in the 2000’s.
-Moore’s Law (Article from Wikipedia and video): This law states that in computers, the transistors that make up the circuits can be made smaller in a way that they can be doubled approximately every 2 years. In other words, computers become more and more powerful, yet smaller for about the same cost, and the rate that they do this doubles every two years. It is said that this is exponentially increasing. The video stated that this will stop increasing in about 10 years, because the transistors would have become so small that they no longer work, yet the Wikipedia article stated that Moore’s law would remain true until processors are so small they are on a molecular scale. (Are these the same two end points or different?) While hardware gets faster and smaller every two years, software is not increasing at the same levels, so computers do not seem to be as fast as they are.
-Computer History Museum (website): One thing I found interesting about the computer history museum site was the pictured of processing chips they had under the section called “The Silicone Engine.” These were interesting because they were a picture of Moore’s Law. They showed how many more transistors microchips have each decade, from 1 transistor in the 1950’s up to 592,000,000 in the 2000’s.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Muddiest point- Week 1
The definition of "Information technology" was a little bit confusing for me. I think I understand what it is, but it seems to be many things all at once. The definition given is like information technology itself, very complex. Though there might not be, is there a simpler (or shorter) definition for this topic?
I also was a little confused about the TA chat times, do i need to email them to get into a chat time, or are we assigned to one?
I also was a little confused about the TA chat times, do i need to email them to get into a chat time, or are we assigned to one?
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